Skip to main content

Savages

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, and John Travolta
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Screenplay by: Shane Salerno, and Don Winslow

     Two friends, Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), are running a low-profile but very profitable marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, CA.  At the same time, they're both in love with the same girl, Ophelia (Blake Lively).  Just as the three of them have learned to live together peacefully and operate their business, a Mexican drug cartel that's moving north into California wants to buy into Ben and Chon's operation.  When they refuse to give up the business, it's war between them and the cartel.  And somebody's going to get hurt.
     This is an interesting movie on many levels.  The story isn't all that predictable, even though you can probably guess what happens at the end of the movie after about half an hour.  But you have to watch all the way to the end because the film ends a bit differently than you might expect.
      I like that Ophelia is the narrator throughout the story.  My only complaint about this is that the beginning ten minutes or so of the film are almost entirely introduction.  There's almost no action in the first minutes of the film.
     We meet Chon before we meet Ben, which made me think that the story was going to focus more on Chon than Ben.  However, for much of the film, the story revolves around Ben.  Chon even disappears from the picture for what seems like 20 straight minutes.  This makes a very important partnership in the film seem very one-sided.
      It seems like Taylor Kitsch has been in a lot of movies this year so far.  Of the three blockbusters I've seen starring him this year (John Carter, Battleship, and now Savages), this is his best role.  He is the tough guy in the film, and delivers a rather good performance.  He comes across as the guy you wouldn't want to mess with if you saw him in a dark alley at night.
      Blake Lively on the other hand isn't totally terrific in this film.  She is at the center of this three-way relationship and supposedly is in love with both Ben and Chon, but it looks like she has no feelings toward either of them in this story.  Throughout the film, she seems somewhat emotionless and detached in some scenes.
      I found the most surprising thing about the film to be the lack of drug use.  This is a film entirely about the marijuana business, and while there is some cannabis use in the film, there isn't as much as I thought there would be.  For a movie that seems to draw a lot from Scarface (1983), the drug use is one item that the director seems to have left out.
      I didn't expect much from this film, but I must say that it is very entertaining.  So, if you've seen just about everything out there now but haven't seen this, I'd say go see it.
     I give Savages a B.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters look absolutely ridiculous and are way too flashy, but the make-up is v
2 comments
Read more

First Man

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll Directed by: Damien Chazelle Screenplay by: Josh Singer Based on the book by James R. Hansen      Yes, this is the same director who did La La Land from a few years ago.  But this is a true story this time, and not necessarily a feel good one.      Many of us know about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  First Man is not simply the story of the moon landing, but the story about Armstrong and what led him to be the first man in history to walk on the moon.  It's a story about making huge sacrifices for himself, and his family, in order to accomplish such a goal, as well as overcoming a great deal of grief.       The film focuses almost entirely on Neil (Ryan Gosling).  The film opens up on him as one of the premiere pilots in the military, piloting the X-15; a plane that was capable of flying over 100,000 feet altitude.  He is portrayed as
Post a Comment
Read more

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Starring Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter, and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil: Afterlife is a somewhat scary action thriller about a zombie dominated planet during present times. It's the fourth movie in the franchise. Alice (Jovovich) is the former head of security at the Umbrella Corporation, the company that created the T-Virus that accidentally escaped and turned everybody into zombies. She travels to Alaska to what she thinks is a small town called Arcadia, where there is supposedly a colony of survivors that are infection free. She is drawn by transmissions saying that they offer safety and security, food and shelter. When she arrives, nothing is there, but she picks up Claire Redfield (Larter) and travels to what once was Los Angeles where there is another colony of four survivors living atop a prison rooftop and surrounded by zombies. They find that the Arcadia is actually a ship just offshore. Can they make it to the ship? Milla Jovovich plays a very act
2 comments
Read more