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.
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.
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