Savages (2012)

Director: Oliver Stone

Writers: Don Winslow, Shane Salerno, Oliver Stone

Composer: Adam Peters

Starring: Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, John Travolta, Shea Whigham, Diego Catano

More info: IMDb


Plot: Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I digs me some Oliver Stone and it feels like ages since I saw one of his pictures I hadn't seen before.  This one is hit and miss.  There are a couple of great suspense scenes that show off how good he can be.  He's also good at producing some trippy shit.  Technically it's very good but there are some issues that are unavoidable.  I didn't care for Blake Lively.  She's OK part of the time but her performance is pretty bland which includes all of her narration.  It's Dullsville.  On top of that, some of the narration dialogue is just awful, especially how she delivers it.  For example, [about fucking her 'hard to concentrate because of the war' ex-military boyfriend] "He gave me an orgasm and I gave him a wargasm".  Ugh.  For the most part the performances are fine.  I had the 'rental' Blu-ray so my only option was the theatrical version but it's got some great moments of hard violence.  I'm not convinced I liked the ending although I can easily see why Stone went that way by trying to have his cake and eat it, too.  You get to a point then everything takes a hard left and throws some fuckery at the audience.  I guess I'm OK with it but fucking hell does Lively under deliver.  Where she fails, Hayek delivers.  She's great as the tough as nails drug kingpin.  I'd like to see a movie all about her character.  It's nice seeing Travolta in a role I dig him in.  Del Toro plays a great no-nonsense badass except it was tough accepting that mullet he was sportin'.  And I always get a kick out of watching Shea Whigham.  It's one of those pictures that probably had the potential to be a great movie but not with this story as it was and the casting of Lively.  I think Stone was the right choice but it was undercooked and left me wanting something more satisfying.