Review of Savages (2012) by Thomas W — 31 Dec 2012

I FINALLY got around to seeing Oliver Stone's latest film, Savages, as I had avoided seeing it for the longest time as it was star Taylor Kitsch's third savaged film of the year (see [or don't] Battleship and John Carter) and I decided to steer clear of it.

My life is no more complete now than it was before I had watched it; but I found it to be a decent movie (albeit one with flaws) and better than I had anticipated. It is the story of California "businessmen" and best friends Ben and John (Aaron Johnson [Anna Karenina, Nowhere Boy] and Kitsch) and the girl they both love O (Blake Lively - "Gossip Girl", The Town) as they all become entangled with a brutal and extremely dangerous Mexican drug cartel who want their product (they grow and sell weed).

A corrupt DEA agent (John Travolta - Pulp Fiction, Face/Off), a sadistic hitman (Benicio Del Toro - The Usual Suspects, Che), a hacker (Emile Hirsch - Alpha Dog, Into the Wild), the cartel's "legit" frontman (Demian Bechir - A Better Life, Che) and it's sociopathic leader/concerned, loving mother (Salma Hayek - Frida, Desperado) all figure into the story one way or another -- some meeting grisly, violent ends and others not-so-much.

The film IS violent and has plenty of onscreen torture to merit its name (so avoid this if that is not your thing). I believe the film's finale is a bit of a letdown and feels hokey (some of it was unnecessary) .

.. I have even read the word "botched" to describe it. You'll have to make it there to decide for yourself ...