Savages (2012)

Savages (R) - Review

"Pro Pot, Anti Plot"

Two Southern Californian Fried Marijuana botanists and their shared girlfriend run afoul a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel who wishes to take over their product.  Events spiral out of control when their woman is kidnapped, and the two boys take matters into their own hands by killing Peter to feed Paul.  Director Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers) digs back into his own film catalog to manufacture Savages while leaving his own political and storytelling biases intact.

Ophelia  (Blake Lively as Blonde BeachBimbo 3rd wheel "O") is in a love triangle between weed businessmen Chon (the braun) and Ben (the brains).  When the cartel starts to threaten them with videos of ghastly decapitation and bodies hanging from hooks in some Mexican warehouse the three do what any red blooded young threesome would do; get stoned and screw the night away.  Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) believe they can outwit and stonewall the Cartel led by Elena (Selma Hayek, completely unconvincing as a bloodthirsty boss) and enforced by Lado (Benicio Del Toro in a truly menacing and disturbingly violent role, he is the only one who lives up to the movie's title).  Rounding out the cast is John Travolta as corrupt DEA agent Dennis, feeding info to both sides and keep well lubricated in the process (one of his better performances in recent memory).

The film is well made, with beautiful visuals that have Stone's watermark switching between styles mid scene.  The acting is uneven but the script is mostly to blame as multiple alt lifestyle agendas are being pushed; politicizing the evils of the War in Afghanistan and the War on drugs, Capitalism's inherent pitfalls to a working man (even in the drug trade), social benefits of medical marijuana and the saving grace of it's impending legalization.  Overriding all of that is the overwhelmingly bad narration by O, her hippy analytics and stoned perspectives only serve to further alienate the audience from the action which is already way too sparse.

The two sides wage war on each other, kidnapping and robbing and using their vaunted skills from their side of the border, all with a visual flair that keeps it moderately entertaining.  Along the way you might notice neither side getting as desperate or emotional or violently "Savage" at the title would suggest, but culminates in a standoff that falls flat on its face, TWICE.  I can enjoy a good denouement, but a duo-denouement where neither fits the movie is just a slap to the face.  That and the obvious fact that Oliver is cribbing from his own earlier, better films (JFKs look, NBKs anti establishmentism, Scarface's amorality) leaves a very bitter residue over the whole picture, even though its individual parts show it to be in earnest a professional piece of entertainment.

Only Benicio's psychotic Mexican soap-opera villain maintains any real forward momentum or any lasting impression to the film. A scene where Travolta convinces Del Toro to spare his life is surprisingly the best bit of acting and scripting, the rest is just going prettily through the motions.  Lado shows up to murder wearing gardener's gloves while his men use leaf blowers to drown out the gunshots. Lado's calmly dispassionate working man's face/voice are a transformation, dressed in thrift store shirts with large hair and suncracked faces sporting heavy mustaches, the day-laborer as a perfect cover for lawlessness and antithetical to law abiding America is sensationalistic and the movie's only master-stroke.  With the getaway car being an old beater truck loaded with lawn care equipment with a handpainted sign on the side, a Lado would be virtually undetectable in the southern Californian sunshine kingdom, to strike when and where he pleased.

6 Wargasms out of 10 (GOOD)