Review of Savages (2012) by Manny C — 14 Feb 2013

Depending on what mood you're in, Oliver Stone's Savages may be just the kind of trashily luxurious movie you like. It's decadently cruddy and unapologetic in its depiction cruelty and seeing good looking people use one another, except for a pretty few.

Those folks include Ben (Aaron Johnson), a young botanist who grows choice pot, and his best pal and business partner Chon (Taylor Kitsch, in yet another turkey following John Carter and Battleship), a former Navy SEAL.

There's also O (Blake Lively,slumming worst than in Green Lantern), a rich, sweet blonde who hangs with and beds the two men in Laguna Beach. The trio runs afoul of Mexican drug thugs led by Elena (Salma Hayek), a diminutive, well-endowed drug lord who reigns over her empire form a beautiful hacienda and her number one henchman Lado (Benicio Del Toro).

Stone strains to make all the debauchery seem beautiful, I guess, but it's not happening. Even a bouyant performance from John Travolta as a crooked federal agent can't lift the film to something worth a second look.

Yawn.