Title: Savages
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 6, 2012
Rated: R
Buy the Movie: Savages
Synopsis: Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend. (Via IMDB)
Brian: I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the films of Oliver Stone over the years. Like Rob Reiner, he made his best films in the 80′s, some good films in the 90′s, then mostly drivel in the following decade. Platoon, Salvador, Wall Street, and JFK are masterpieces, and I also enjoyed Nixon and Natural Born Killers. The last movie of his I really loved was the mostly hated and totally underrated U-Turn, from 1997. Lately he’s been churning out decent but forgettable fare like W, World Trade Center, and Wall Street 2 (and don’t even get me started with the horrors of Alexander). Therefore I was hoping Savages, which looked closer in tone to Natural Born Killers and U-Turn, would be a return to form for the filmmaker. But while I found myself engaged for the first hour or so, the movie in the end is a bit of a mess, and one that, while entertaining, after a while feels like it’s never going to reach a resolution.
Shaunta: I agree that Savages, after a while, felt like we’d fallen into the movie and were just going to have to experience the whole thing in real time. For ever. Never ending. I think it was the constant tension, with no breathing room. It was all Action, Gore, Porn, Action, Gore, Porn, all the time. I spent the last two thirds of the movie with my fists clenched, barely breathing, ready to jump out of my skin. I love an action movie, don’t get me wrong. But I needed a resting place every now and then, and it wasn’t there. At all. I really liked the decadence of the film though. The hedonistic lifestyle of the main characters was so well drawn. The ending was weird though. Seriously weird. Apparently, Stone filmed the book’s ending, then backtracked and filmed the ending that he really wanted? Weird.
Brian: I wasn’t a huge fan of either of the movie’s two endings, but at least the first one made more sense and certainly felt like old-school Oliver Stone (U-Turn ends with everyone dying, why couldn’t this one?). The double-ending felt manipulative and not in tune with the rest of the movie. However, while I had problems with the second half and certainly the last half-hour, there’s a lot to like in the movie. While it can ramble, it’s never dull, and the acting is quite strong from all involved, especially Benicio Del Toro (who could probably play his role in his sleep) and Taylor Kitsch, who’s had a rough 2012 starring in two major bombs (John Carter and Battleship). But the most impressive surprise has to be Salma Hayek, who hasn’t played a role this juicy (or so deliciously icy) in some time.
Shaunta: I have a soft-sport for Taylor Kitsch, just because he’s Tim Riggins. I thought he did a great job as Chon. I loved, loved the relationship between Chon and Ben. Chon was perfectly broken, and Ben was perfectly idealistic, and they were both perfectly beautiful. Blake Lively worked well as O, in the middle of them. There was something about her thinking she was the glue that held them together, and being wrong about that, that was subtle and awesome. Benicio Del Toro was slimy and disgusting and, in a weird way, almost sexy. He was a great bad guy. I kind of felt like John Travolta was just sort of tossed into the mix, without having a real purpose in the story.
Brian: John Travolta’s part was very odd. He hasn’t been in a movie in nearly three years, and so I was hoping he’d have a little more to do in this. I did like the scene between Travolta and Del Toro–it was strange and darkly funny. Overall I found a lot to like in Savages, but not enough to offer a solid recommendation. Pacing is so important in movies, and this one needed some trimming. At 130 minutes, it’s just too damn long and sprawling (and that’s saying something for an Oliver Stone movie, considering the man has made half a dozen movies verging on three hours in length). I think a 95 minute version of this movie would have been perfect. But as it stands the second half just drones on and on, and the ending didn’t work for me at all. A mixed review from me. Too bad. What surprises me the most is that U-Turn, which also featured bad people doing very bad things, was so critically reviled, while Savages, a lesser film in my opinion, has received a much better critical response. If I ask anything of you all, give U-Turn a chance. It’s a dirty, icky action thriller that really works!
WHAT WE LOVED:
Brian: I loved the look of the film, especially all the glossy cinematography in outdoor Laguna Beach. The actors were all at the top of their game, and the movie is a return to the kind of fun 90′s trash Stone has a real knack for. The film starts strong and never ceases to be entertaining, even when the material starts to wear thin in the last forty-five minutes or so.
Shaunta: I love a movie, or a book, with a strong sense of setting that makes me feel like I’ve been somewhere. This movie takes you to Laguna Beach, and to Tijuana. It puts you square in an intense, hedonistic, over-the-top world and immerses you there. I loved that. The movie was well cast, and the actors did a great job. I left this movie wanting to check out the book, which is always good in my opinion.
WHAT WE DIDN”T LOVE:
Brian: I was really with this movie for a while, but then I hit a point where I was stopping to care about the characters and the turn of events. After an hour and a half I was ready for the movie to wrap up, yet there never seemed to be an end in sight. And I was not at all a fan of the unexpected double ending. Neither ending really works, but at least the first one rings true to the characters and doesn’t wrap things up so ambiguously. Another round of editing could have worked wonders with this movie.
Shaunta: I was tense for hours after we left the theater. This is an action-packed movie, for sure, and that’s not necessary bad. But the pacing was wrong. It was too tense, for way too long. I felt cheated by the first, false ending–and then the second ending was even worse.
OVERALL:
Brian: It’s worth watching once, but wait until DVD.
Shaunta: I recommended this movie to my husband, who loves that tense all-action, all-the-time thing. I bet he would give it a B+ at least. For me, it was too much, for too long.
