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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast John Travolta Uma Thurman Aaron Johnson Blake Lively Taylor Kitsch Salma Hayek Benicio Del Toro.

Directors Oliver Stone.

Screenwriters Shane Salerno Don Winslow Oliver Stone.

Running Time 131 minutes

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Savages
Gone to pot

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Plot
Ben (Johnson), Chon (Kitsch) and O (Lively) are happy living a relatively easy Laguna Beach life funded by the boys’ pot business. But then the Baja Cartel, run by the fearsome Elena (Hayek) comes calling with a proposition, and the price of turning it down will be very high indeed...

Review
Given his past ability to explore complicated issues in a compelling way (Vietnam, JFK etc.) you might expect Oliver Stone to use the perspective of Savages’ characters to offer up an intriguing, persuasive look at the various tentacles of the drug trade. And working from a book by Don Winslow — who spent six years researching the DEA and cartels for an earlier tome, The Power Of The Dog — would, you’d think, give him a solid resource from which to draw. Sadly, the result is something less than hoped for.

It’s pulpy, soupy stuff, presented with Stone’s trademark format-shifting style and boasting mostly heightened performances that feel as though he was going for a cross between a thriller and a telenovela. But the combination never makes for a satisfying whole. The central threesome rarely convinces, and when it’s put under threat, everything ramps up to an even more ridiculous degree. Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively never truly gel, and her airy, dreamy narration does the story no favours. While the men at least manage to steer clear of stoner stereotypes, and make a fair stab at portraying their anger and drive once O is snatched from them, they still fail to come across as anything more than annoying pawns in a bigger story.

There are a few saving graces. Benicio Del Toro makes Lado into a real monster of a man, who proves time and again he’s willing to do whatever it takes to carry out his boss’ wishes and serve his own ends at the same time. One particular act pushes him beyond sympathy, but Del Toro keeps him compelling. Salma Hayek shows passion and fire — tempered with maternal concern when her own daughter (Sandra Echeverría) is dragged into the conflict — as Elena, and you buy that she might be the one person that the casually brutal Lado fears. John Travolta, meanwhile, is effectively smarmy as Dennis, the corrupt DEA agent who helps the boys out in exchange for a cut of their business. A showdown between him and Del Toro in the former’s home has the feel of prizefighters circling each other, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to that standard.

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Savages

Although this film was alright to watch, and was enjoyable to a certain extent, I felt very much that it thought too much of itself. It could of been a great movie about the complications of the job in tow, but I felt that the ending was very much over simplified, almost like it was thrown together with the realisation that everything that has come previously never really made much sense. O's narration was pretty much pointless as it didn't serve much for the narrative apart from being generally... More

Posted by billiecrockford at 18:52, 25 February 2013 | Report This Post

Crap

I watched this on a flight to Bangkok... I would have been more entertained staring at the duty free shopping list for 2 hours. ... More

Posted by Samurai7 at 09:22, 11 February 2013 | Report This Post

Too kind

I really don't get rewievers praise for the suporting stars. Travolta is just quirky once-in-a-Tarantino-movie -Travolta. Hayek is like Salma Hayek in a Mexican soap opera. Del Toro is just a latin-Del Toro stereotype. ... More

Posted by Pelle at 21:00, 10 October 2012 | Report This Post

RE: Stoney Ground.......

Savages Based on yet another novel this story revolves around a trio of young adults that grow and sell their own cannabis. Their stuff is so damn good it attracts attention from bigger fish that want in, of course this equals friction, kidnapping and eventual death related problems. In short its a drug film involving cartels and much violence....oh yeah. So what does Stone give us here? what can he offer that is refreshing and new? well not much as it happens. Its the same old story ... More

Posted by Phubbs at 07:38, 30 September 2012 | Report This Post

Stoney Ground.......

Not as bad as the Empire reviewer makes out, but certainly not a classic Oliver Stone film either, as it certainly drags its feet at times with some quite violent sequences too, and a lot of complicated plot twists thrown in, and a very interesting ending as well. Overall, I'm glad I saw it, sort of " Miami Vice meets Scarface, meets Reservior Dogs and Pulp Fiction " I suppose....... ... More

Posted by n13roy at 18:24, 25 September 2012 | Report This Post

Savages

Best friends Chon and Ben are successful marijuana growers living in Laguna Beach, California. Seeds smuggled out of Afghanistan yielded a particularly potent strain of marijuana that soon developed a wide customer base and made Chon and Ben very wealthy. The two share one woman, who calls herself O, as a girlfriend. While Ben is doing charity work overseas, Chon and O receive a video from cartel enforcer Lado, a man they do not know. The video shows several severed heads and a chains... More

Posted by Dr Lenera at 12:44, 24 September 2012 | Report This Post

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