(US - 2012)
Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by Shane Salerno, Don Winslow, and Oliver Stone. Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Shea Whigham, Sandra Echeverria, Joel David Moore, Amber Dixon. (R, 130 mins)
There's some inspired flashes of the Oliver Stone of old throughout SAVAGES, and while it's not on the level of his finest work, it's his most entertaining film in years. Doing away with the maudlin, Hallmark sentimentality of WORLD TRADE CENTER, the SNL-level caricatures of W, and the perfunctory clock-punching of the awful WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone may not be hitting the heights of PLATOON or JFK with SAVAGES, but he at least brings his A-game. Pre-release buzz seemed to indicate that he was back in NATURAL BORN KILLERS territory, but SAVAGES is perhaps most reminiscent of his neglected 1997 film U-TURN, at least in terms of tone and style. U-TURN is usually dismissed as minor Stone, but it's one of his most entertaining films, and SAVAGES has that same loose, freewheeling, occasionally dark-humored, anything-goes feel to it and between the nonstop profanity, sadistic villains, splattered brains, decapitations, torture scenes with dangling eyeballs, and a few fairly graphic sex scenes, it's a hard-R of the highest order.
Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) are two Laguna Beach pot entrepreneurs who have built a reputable independent business selling product with the highest THC levels in SoCal. They've been friends since high school and share everything, including Ophelia, or O (Blake Lively), an airheaded beach bunny who lives with and loves both of them (as O puts it in her likely intentionally spacy narration, "Chon fucks...Ben makes love" and the two of them "make one complete man"). Their paradise is invaded by a Mexican drug cartel that wants to take them on as partners. Already looking to get out of the business, Chon and Ben turn them down, which leads to cartel head Elena (a ferocious Salma Hayek) sending her goons, led by the ruthless, repugnant Lado (Benicio Del Toro), to kidnap O. Battle-hardened (and scarred) Iraq War vet Chon convinces the laid-back, pacifist do-gooder Ben (who builds water systems in third world countries and donates laptops to impoverished African children) to put his Buddhist ideals aside (Chon: "Who cares what some fat Jap thinks?" Ben: "Actually, he's a fat Indian") and head in to battle with the cartel to rescue O, leading to some over-the-top, Peckinpah levels of bloodbathing. Complicating matters are shifting loyalties in Elena's organization as well as the involvement of the duplicitous Dennis (John Travolta), a corrupt DEA agent with a cancer-stricken wife and a stake in both sides of the conflict.
Chon (Taylor Kitsch), O (Blake Lively), and Ben (Aaron Johnson) before all hell breaks loose. |
Salma Hayek as the ruthless cartel boss Elena |
Benicio Del Toro as the depraved henchman Lado |
John Travolta as corrupt DEA agent Dennis, with Kitsch. |
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