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Movie Review: Salt

    Hey, everyone. It's snowing here in the mountains and since it wasn't a good day to get out and go to the movies, we decided to rent one. I knew that Salt, starring Angelina Jolie, had been released for downloading so I rented it on Apple TV. Let me talk about the movie and then I want to talk about the Apple TV.
      Salt is one of the better movies I've seen lately and I'd rate it as 3.5 stars out of 4. I love spy movies and this one delivers in a big way. Look out, James Bond, because Angelina is in your kitchen and the stove is hot! The lady can do the action roles. In this fast-paced thriller, loaded with stunts that would make a stunt-man drink, Angelina plays Evelyn Salt, CIA agent. When a Russian spy walks into CIA headquarters, just strolling in off the street, he accuses Salt of being a Russian agent who is planning to kill the Soviet Premiere as he visits New York to attend a funeral. Salt has to escape the building, then goes on the run as only a trained operative can do. (I'm watching this show and thinking, wow, I want this woman to play Karina in my story, KGB Retirement Program.)
    So as Salt is on the run we are left to wonder if she is a good guy or a bad guy. When the Soviet leader is assassinated the doubts don't loom so large. Without giving away too much of the story, I'll say this: There is a plot afoot (in the story) for a group of deep-cover agents to wreak havoc worldwide.
    When I say action movie, many ladies might sniff and turn away, but my wife said she'd rate this one as 3.5 stars out of 4. So, if you missed it at the theater, as I did, you might want to check it out. Now on to the subject of Apple TV.
    We are still learning the ropes of this system, since we just got it this week. So perhaps it may be better as things go along. But, tonight we rented this movie. It was a bit too expensive at $4.99. Then when we clicked buy, it says 4 hours and 20 minutes to download. Yeah, you read it correctly. We did some other things and started to watch it two hours later. We didn't catch up to the download as we watched it but I doubt if I ever have the desire to rent another one from Apple.
     There were no drags like sometimes when we watch a show on Netflix, but really, why would there be with a 4 hour download? I recently got irate with Netflix and dropped their service but that's another story.
     I think that the Apple TV box will be worth the $99 price just because I can play my I-Tunes library through my TV. I can also watch you-tube videos on TV and watch a slideshow of our photos. I am still learning the system, however, and I'll get back to you with a better review later.
     I'd like to take a moment to thank Ernest Winchester for his review of my short story, The Stalk, over on Smashwords.
      From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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