Review of Savages (2012) by Joe D — 22 Jul 2014

Two rich dope dealers run afoul of a Mexican cartel that wants to take over their business, and things really get kicked up a notch when the cartel kidnapped the dealers' shared girlfriend. Savages offers an exciting premise and some excellent action, but it's too often listlessly and unconvincingly acted to really hold one's attention.

Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) have seen their little pot farm grown into a very lucrative business. Their not-a-third-wheel partner, O (Blake Lively) is a free spirit surfer girl who loves both of them, because that sort of thing happens in real life. And then one day the cartel from south of the border decided to horn in on their business, which exploits a particularly intense strain of the plant.

Representing the cartel, Lado (Benicio del Toro) and Esteban (Diego Catano) approach the, uh, mom-and-pop business with a proposal - join us, we get most of the profits, you get to live long and prosper, and so on. The boys are split about whether this is a good idea, as ex-soldier Chon wants to take the fight to the Mexicans and bookish Ben wants to maximize profits and minimize blood. While they dither on the offer, though, O is kidnapped by the cartel's head honco, Elena (Salma Hayek).

This isn't some A-Team-style action movies in which the good guys, a ragtag band of dudes with a lot of moxie and heart, take on an evil corporation of thugs. But it's close. What follows isn't really a precise plan or even a grunting, against-all-odds attack but rather a whimpering, half-assed rescue attempt that probably succeeds, if we're being honest - even though O herself says in the first scene (in voice over) that she may very well be dead.

Taylor-Johnson, who's grown up a tad since Kick-Ass, and Kitch are both pretty good, with neither playing a caricature more than a character. Lively's O, although pretty and vivacious and such, seems half asleep by comparison.