Savages

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins with a video being shot of men with their hands tied behind their backs. An enforcer, who we learn later is Lado (Benicio Del Toro) wears a skull Lucha libre mask and runs a chainsaw.Next, there is a shot of an attractive young blonde woman named 'O' (short for Ophelia, played by Blake Lively) as she narrates in a voice-over. The love of her life is two men: Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch). To her, Ben is like warm wood, the idealistic Buddhist; Chon is steel, the baddhist. O is in a polyamorous relationship with both men, and the three live together in Laguna Beach, California in a luxurious cliff-side house for which Ben paid with cash. Ben and Chon are high school buddies. Ben went to Berkeley and majored in business and botany. Chon was a Navy Seal with tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. One day, lounging on the beach, Ben asks Chon where you can get the best weed. Chon replies Afghanistan, and during a tour there, smuggles out hashish/marijuana seeds from which Ben grows in a greenhouse, using his scientific knowledge, cannabis with a THC yield of 33%, "the best in the world." They met O when they hired her to help with managing the greenhouse. Ben is the businessman who runs the production and distribution and handles 99% of the business, while Chon handles the 1% (enforcement). Ben's philosophy is to provide what people want, but Chon is the realist in seeing the money made from marijuana. Ben does a lot of humanitarian work, and sells to marijuana clubs and dispensaries, for medical usage, but most of the money is made from selling on the street, where it goes for about $6,000 a pound.After making love to O, Chon sees on his computer an e-mail. The e-mail has a video of Lado kicking around the decapitated heads and reads: "These guys were stupid. Be smarter We need to talk." O and Chon greet Ben returning from a volunteerism trip to Africa. Chon and Ben discuss the business. Ben wants to give up the business to the Mexican cartel as he wants to go into philanthropic ventures such as making $10 solar panels, and he admits he's afraid of the cartel. But Chon argues that selling would show weakness, and once they do this, the cartel would usurp their whole lives.We see Lado and his 'gardening crew' carry out a hit. Lado accosts a middleman (Shea Whigham) in his home. The middleman pleads forgiveness and promises an even better deal than paying up. He calls El Azul (Joaquin Cosio) (Spanish for The Blue), a cartel head honcho, to connect him with Lado, but Lado shoots the middleman and has a teenage cartel-member-in-training, Esteban, shoot the middleman's wife, while El Azul is on the phone, enraging him. The gardening crew smuggles the bodies out of the house in trash bins. We learn that El Azul is a former inside man with the Baja cartel, the cartel Lado works for. The head of the Baja cartel, Elena Sanchez (Salma Hayek), had a falling-out with El Azul, and now El Azul is encroaching on the Baja cartel's territory, threatening to take over her position.Meanwhile, Ben and Chon meet with Dennis (John Travolta), a corrupt DEA agent on Ben and Chon's payroll. Dennis tells them about the Baja cartel: they want Ben and Chon's market to fill a market they don't have. Dennis urges them to take the deal instead of decapitation; he reminds them that times are changing and they need to adapt. Dennis is sympathetic to them because his wife has cancer and Ben provides him with cannabis to ease the effects of her chemotherapy.Ben and Chon go to a hotel room and meet with Alex (Demian Bichir), the representative for Elena. The meeting is secretly video-recorded by Lado, with the video feed shown to Elena in her Tijuana compound.Alex lays out the deal: a contract of three years of working together, during which the cartel will learn Ben's horticulture methods while providing vast distribution networks and the operation in a safe haven on an Indian reservation that the cartel owns. (The Indian reservations are considered out of U.S. jurisdiction.) During the meeting, Chon badmouths the cartel's products by saying "I think, basically, you want us to eat your shit and call it caviar." Ben and Chon step out into balcony to discuss. We see that a formidable security apparatus, a team of Chon's ex-Navy Seal friends, who have sniper wares trained on the hotel room, backing them. Chon had planned to take out Alex and his men, but Ben talks him out of it. Ben and Chon reach a decision. They will turn over their business to the Cartel, but not join them. The cartel is not happy. (Apparently, no one says 'no' to the Baja cartel.)Fearing the consequences of their decision, Ben meets with his money guy, Spin (Emile Hirsch), an ex-Goldman Sachs banker who launders and invests the marijuana company's money. Ben wants to set up funds to disappear for three years in Indonesia. Ben, Chon, and O have dinner and discuss the plan for their new lives. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched in the restaurant by Lado's crew. The three celebrate by getting high in their beach house and having a threesome. Lado sits in the car, spying on them. He calls Elena to update her on the situation. Elena says she needs Ben and Chon to join her for their expertise. Hearing about their living situation, she found their weakness: O.The next day, the three prepare to leave for Indonesia. O wants to do a last minute shopping trip and Chon assigns someone from the security team for her. O is driving to South Coast Plaza (an upscale mall in Orange County), but one of Lado's men intercepts the bodyguard and kills him. They tail O. In one scene, O is shopping next to a girl who is talking on a cellphone, answering her mom's questions about college life. Her mom turns out to be Elena.Returning home but not finding O, Ben and Chon hear a chime indicating a Skype call, and to their horror, see a live web feed of the kidnapped O. Elena, her voice masked, reprimands the boys for not complying with the deal. To redress the insult of the cartel's product during the meeting, Elena has Chon put a gun into his mouth, indicating she will tell Lado to cut off two of O's fingers otherwise. She almost gets Chon to pull the trigger but stops him at the last minute, telling him this will clean up his mouth.Elena tells Ben and Chon to deliver 300 pounds of their marijuana in five hours to show compliance. They get the product and race to Chula Vista. They arrive just in time despite being almost pulled over (and Chon almost having to kill the highway patrolman). Lado and his men take their car. Ben and Chon drive back in Lado's truck, which contains the suitcase of money (they paid in full, Ben and Chon note) and a cell phone. Elena calls, her voice unmasked, and tells them that she will hold O hostage for one year to make sure they comply with all of her demands. Chon argues with Ben that they have to fight to get O back -- the cartel members are savages who will kill them anyway. But Ben just wants peace and O back.Ben and Chon meet again with Dennis, who tells them about the conflict between Elena and El Azul. Chon strong-arms Dennis into getting data on Elena and the Baja cartel from the DEA. He is able to get 60 days of financial transactions, encoded onto two credit cards. Dennis also tells them that two of Elena's sons and her daughter (Magdalena), are dead. Back in their company HQ, Ben and Chon have Spin and his experts look into the financial data on the computer. From it, they trace Elena's financial routes. They figure out that one of her real-estate holdings, a trailer house, is a drop off point for the cartel's business. Ben decides on a plan to pay to get O back. He and Elena negotiate to a $13 million ransom. They decide to hijack the drop to get the cash for O's ransom, and make it look like El Azul hit the cartel.The hijacking gets underway. Wearing masks, Chon and his team of ex-Navy Seals blow up the front car in a convoy with IEDs. When the men from the trailer retaliate, an ex-Navy Seal member takes them out with RPG rockets. Chon forces the men out of the car carrying the cash by putting a grenade in the gas tank. He takes the briefcase from a man scrambling out of the car. Ben is horrified by the killings. One of the cartel members is about to shoot Ben, but Chon shoots the member in the back, spraying blood on Ben's mask. They take the money and get away. Alex and Lado arrive to assess the damage, which is 3 million dollars gone and seven men dead. Lado urges Alex not to inform Elena of the loss because he wants to recover the money and rectify the situation himself and because he fears Elena.Ben and Chon get a message to have Ben meet with Alex and Lado. Alex and Lado interrogate Ben to find out their whereabouts during the hijacking but Ben plays it cool. He insinuates that it could be Lado's men. After Ben leaves, Alex decides Ben and Chon don't have the balls for the attack. He suspects El Azul but Lado isn't so sure.We see O at the shack where they are holding her. She is being watched over by Esteban. Her living conditions are bad: one of her legs is chained to a chair, she has a bucket for bathroom and sleeps on a spring bed in a cage. She pleads into the surveillance camera and gets to talk to Elena, and begs her for some concessions. Elena asks O how long she has been using. Since 8th grade, O says, not that her mother cared. Later we see Lado feeding O a steak, and later, giving O a drug fix, and her getting high. O is also given access to a laptop to send a fabricated email to her mother so she won't file a missing persons report on O. Afterwards, Lado tells Esteban, don't look at me like that (because we see later in the movie Lado shows O a cellphone video of him raping her while she was high).Elena's daughter, Magdalena (Sandra Echevarria) is seen having sex when she is interrupted by a phone call. Her mother is on the line, informing her that she is coming to California to visit. Elena gets on a private plane to the Indian reservation in order to avoid U.S. customs. Lado will follow her later, bringing O with him. Before boarding the plane, Lado tells Esteban that he's proven too sensitive to handle the work and proceeds to shoot and kill him.Upon arrival inCalifornia, Lado brings O to Elena. Elena immediately informs Lado that she knows about the hijacking, and chastises him for not telling her. She threatens Lado, telling him to recover the money and he informs her that he didn't tell her because he was trying to get proof that Ben and Chon were behind the hijacking.Ben has Spin fabricate documents and hack into Alex's bank accounts to frame Alex as the mole to El Azul. Ben confronts Lado with Alex's dossier in an effort to take the heat off of him and Chon. To save himself, Lado visits El Azul and makes a deal to work with him.At a posh spa, Elena and O have dinner during which we learn that Elena inherited the business after her husband was killed. Her twin sons and brothers are also killed, leaving two children who resent her and do not want her in their lives (her daughter and a third son). Elena tells O she likes her, but won't hesitate to kill Ben and Chon. When O remarks that only she can 'get Ben and Chon together,' Elena scoffs, telling O that her love story has a serious problem: Ben and Chon must love each other more than O because otherwise, they wouldn't share her.Later, Lado brings Ben and Chon to see Alex being whipped. The torture is video-fed to Elena who forces O to watch once he 'confesses.' Under the threat of his family being harmed, Alex confesses to working with El Azul. He begs Elena for forgiveness, citing the names of her husband and children. Lado douses Alex with gasoline and anoints Ben to be the executioner. To go through with the falsehood, Ben ignites Alex on fire. O watches in horror.The next morning, Ben and Chon walk along the beach where they discuss the night's events. Chon tries to justify what Ben did by referring to the Dalai Lama, but Ben brushes it off. Instead, he tells Chon that during Alex's plea to Elena, Alex swore on Magda's life; meaning that Elena's daughter is alive, and that Dennis knew this and hid it from him and Chon. They make a plan that will work even faster than accumulating the money for ransom: kidnap Elena's daughter and trade her for O.Lado pays Dennis a visit at his home. It turns out Lado also has Dennis on the payroll. Lado questions Dennis on the culprits behind the hijacking and Dennis assures him it was Azul. Lado informs Dennis that it can't be Azul because he's working with him now instead of Elena. Under threat, Dennis reveals that the hijackers are Ben and Chon, but that they are going to give the $3 million to Elena and not Lado. To head off Elena, Dennis tells Lado to kidnap Magda and sell her to Ben and Chon. Dennis is incredulous to learn that Elena is on U.S. soil.Dennis meets with Ben and Chon, who chew him out for giving them away to Lado. The boys offer Dennis the $3 million they stole in exchange for Magdalena's address. They kill her bodyguard, who is sitting outside her dorm in his car, then move inside, tying up her boyfriend and kidnapping her. Wearing masks as a show, they Skype with Elena and show a shivering Magda, tied up and stuffed in an ice box. Elena meekly agrees to their demands. At the end of the talk, O informs Elena that she knew her boys would come for her. Elena slaps O, then screams at everyone to get out. She drops to the ground, rips off her wig, and breaks down.Lado and his boys take O into another room, where she is chained to a chair. Lado makes everyone else leave the room, then he shows her the video he took when he raped her while she was drugged. She spits in his face, but he enjoys it, wiping himself off on her hair.Elena's SUV and Ben and Chon's SUV meet in an open field with their hostages. On the mountain ridges, each group has their sniper team in position. Elena steps into the open with O and releases her. O runs to Ben. Ben and Chon release Magda to Elena, who is told by her daughter that she will never speak to her again. Before Elena returns to her car, she asks Chon who the rat is. Chon smiles and nods toward Lado, who blows back a kiss. Elena turns around to shoot Lado, but Lado draws his gun and shoots her first. O, who was handed a gun by Ben, makes her way to Elena and wants to kill her, but relents when she sees Elena is already dying. Elena begs O to help Magda escape. O glares at Magda briefly before hustling her to safety.A massive shootout is underway. Each group's sniper team shoots at each other, taking out some members of each team. Chon kills Elena's bodyguards and Ben and Chon converge on Lado, hiding behind the SUV. Ben shoots Lado three times in the back, but Lado turns around to shoot Ben in the throat. Lado sprawls on the ground, severely wounded. O shoots Lado dead for revenge, and erases his phone. O rushes to Ben, seeing his wound is lethal. As O cradles Ben, Chon pulls out a syringe and injects Ben, O, and then himself with drug overdoses. They die in a triple suicide. "That's the perfect ending," O narrates while looking into the sky as she dies.But wait... Rewind, as O mentions that this was just how she imagined it.What really happened, as O narrates, "was more of a fuck-up than a shootout." After Elena steps out into the open and releases O, Lado retreats to the car and drives away. A helicopter and DEA agents led by Dennis swoop in to arrest Elena. The DEA agents disarm the sniper teams and arrest everyone (including Ben, Chon, and O).O narrates as we see a montage: Dennis is grandstanding on TV about Elena's arrest and the progress on the war on drugs (Indian grounds are still U.S. grounds he says); Elena goes to prison for 30 years, while Ben and Chon, who have enough information to put Dennis away, are released after a few weeks in a holding cell after Dennis said that they were confidential informants. Lado and El Azul form a new cartel to take over the vacuum left by Elena.After their release, O says that she, Ben, and Chon all vanished. Montages are shown of them living new lives in Indonesia, Africa, and other parts of the world. A few scenes show that they continue to remain in touch and get together, but most of the scenes strongly imply that for the most part, they've all gone their separate ways-- as O narrates, perhaps it's true that three people can't all be equally in love. She says that one day, perhaps they'll return to their pot business in Laguna, but for now, they live simple, even primitive lives, like 'beautiful savages.'

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
It's telling that the best scene in the entire film was between Del Toro and Travolta, with none of the three lead actors anywhere to be found, and hinted at the promise this movie squandered.
Going in I wasn't expecting it to be an Oscar winner, if you were expecting this movie to be about a Mexican cartel and not have violence in it then you know zero about Mexican cartels and that is an understatement.Funny thing was i was expecting this movie not to portray Mexican cartels in their real light, but after watching the movie, yup they are as ruthless as the movie portrays and glad Hollywood portrayed them like that instead of sugar coating the threat they pose to the world.If you are looking for a violent action movie based on an American drug ring vs a Mexican cartel well you probably have one of the better movies when it comes to that.
This actually stands for "We own you now and you know you like it." Ben and Chon don't really feel like being De-decapitated so they decide to make a go of living in a jungle somewhere until Elena (Hayeck) the ruthless lady leader of the cartel has O kidnapped.So are you over the fact that our two heroes share a girl yet?
I found Chon to be my favorite of the three because he seemed to be the only one who just wanted to actually get things done and blow up some stuff while everyone else talked and talked some more.Villains make films though and despite the awkwardness and UN-likability of some of the lead roles the bad guys were sinister, relentless and kind of funny at times.
They also share a one-of-a-kind love with Ophelia (Jennifer Lawrence was originally cast as O but she pulled out ,Blake Lively was subsequently selected , Director Stone instructed her to take firearm training for her role ; despite not being experienced at the gun range, she hit center mass in her first three shots) .
When the merciless head of the BC, Elena (Michelle Rodriguez and Zoë Saldaña were considered for the role as Elena, but Salma Hayek got the role instead) and her enforcer, Lado (Benicio Del Toro) , underestimate the unbreakable bond of the three friends, Ben and Chon - with the reluctant assistance of a dirty DEA agent - wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel.
And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.This thrilling film contains noisy action , lots of violence , sexual scenes , plot twists and unpleasant characters .
Acceptable protagonist trio , Taylor Kitsch as Chon , a violent and tough ex-Navy SEAl , a gorgeous Blake Lively and the best acting is given by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a sensitive young who turns into violent one to save his girl .
I'd rather not get into the lack of any kind of convincing emoting from Blake Lively here--- (She's supposed to be afraid for her life here--and somehow its like she's barely miffed---its as if instead of her life that's being threatened its her wi-fi connection.) having read the book this was based on--the character O in the story was a lot more resourceful and a lot more crazy then Blake Lively ever suggests in the two hours of running time---would that they had cast literally anybody else in her part,just off the top of my head would Lauren Ambrose from six feet under have been considered too old???
God again if this was made like 10-15 years ago--imagine what a younger Juliette Lewis or a younger Illeana Douglas could've done with this.That's really all i actually wanted to say cause everything else was fine enough--i was kind of expecting it to be more over the top if anything given that its Oliver St one's first crime film in a little while but its definitely over the top enough to satisfy anyone looking for an over the top crime movie.
On the other hand if you want to see a good thriller that will keep you entertained and are comfortable with the topic area, drug dealing and violence, then by all means see this movie and do not be put off by the any bad reviews.As for the ending, it was changed from the book and I think for the better.
Two marijuana growers from SoCal, Chon (Taylor Kitsch) a former Navy seal and Ben (Aaron Johnson) a SoCal Buddhist hippie, get a deal from a Mexican drug cartel run by Elena (Salma Hayek) that they agree to but decide to escape the country and disappear.
The guys decide that they will take things into their own hands and savage violence ensues.The Good: The story is interesting and solid, at least from a reading it stand point, although it's a tough sale for me, living in Southern California, that with our liberal medical marijuana laws, that anyone smart, growing to sell at collectives would actually get involved in this crap.
His character that is suppose to be an ex-Seal comes off as a adolescent teenage thug, who couldn't find his way out of a paper bag.In the end I think Oliver Stone has been to wrapped up in his lovefests with Cuban and South American Dictators, and maybe smoking too much marijuana to actually put out a decent, smart movie.
Watching this one kind of made me feel sad for Mr.Stone, and miss the days when he put out good movies like "Natural Born Killers." (1994) I truly was hoping for a great movie when I saw the previews for this one but I was definitely disappointed.
Nobody else does either.So for really bad writing, directing, not having any kind of coherent style, and not quite fulfilling its action and "savagery" that it promised, the best I can give this one is a 5 out of 10, and that may truly be kind and is out of respect to Salma Hayek who shouldered this movie pretty much on her own, although Del Toro had a few tiny moments.Like my review?
Even if Kitsch, Johnson, and Lively aren't sympathetic leads the film still has memorable performances from Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro and John Travolta.
Salma Hayek was good as the conflicted ruthless widow-cum-cartel-queen-and-loving-mother role, but the woman had a lot of hats to wear in that one character as if the director couldn't decide if she was a heroine or a villain in his very disconnected film.
Lastly, I'd like to say, I wish Taylor Kitsch would be given permission to act, because from what I've seen of him in his other films, he's more than eye-candy, and without good direction, it seems like he is being limited in range, not to mention being written into a character that has little credibility.
Now, I don't know what other people's idea of the Mexican Cartel is, but the civility demonstrated here is not nearly as brutal or frightening as I'd expect it to be, especially in a film called Savages.Of course, the worst criminal here is the story.
This film stars Aaron Johnson (Kick-ass, The Illusionist), Taylor Kitsch (Battleship, John Carter), Blake Lively (The Town, Green Lantern), Benicio Del Toro (Snatch, The Usual Suspects), John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Face/Off), and Salma Hayek (Frida, Desperado).Best friends Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) work together and sell the best pot there is.
Once they turn down the order, the cartel kidnaps O and forces Ben and Chon to work for them, but they have a plan to try and get her back.I honestly really liked this movie because it was not what I was expecting going in to it.
The "heroes" aren't good; they are just less evil than the villains; and their destiny is only guided by the whims from the screenplay, as we can see during that double ending which looks like a bad joke.However, I think the weakest element from Savages is Blake Lively's poor performance.
And I surprisingly liked Taylor Kitsch's performance; I had previously never swallowed this actor, but his work in Savages is solid, and he also has a good chemistry with Aaron Johnson.Going back to negative elements from Savages, the screenplay presents some problems of logic and structure (this film is based on a novel, so the reason of those problems could be because of an excessively condensed and superficial adaptation).
The movie I'm talking about is Savages, which stars Taylor Kitsch as Chon, Aaron Johnson as Ben, and Blake Lively as O, who are three lovers involved in an odd romantic situation.
I don't want to go through the story line but I must warn you as an avid moviegoer, this film sucks and it is totally waste of time...If it had been in the hands of Tarantino or Guy Ritchie, things might have been a little bit different ,unfortunately it is nothing but a bag full of clichés, wooden characters,a silly and a predictable plot.
I'd not heard of this movie before I watched it and had no clue about director, actors, plot, etc.That said, as soon as I started to see the ensemble cast as they appeared on screen I knew not to expect too much and was pleasantly surprised!Everything made sense to me, I felt engaged and felt that the characters (ok, the baddies) were interesting to want to find out what was going to happen...Benicio Del Toro stole the show, no question but I didn't feel that anyone was especially bad although I wasn't a fan of the voice over either!If you want to be entertained and don't mind a bit of stupidity and woodenness then I say give it a go!
the movie grabs you with amazing actors including Taylor Kitsch (Who is the next best thing in acting), Aaron Johnson (who puts on a spectacular performance), John Travolta and Benicio Del Toro (These two men put on great supporting roles), then gives you a ride that you never want to end.
Chon and Ben refused the deal and the leader of the cartel Elena (Salma Hayek) sends her right-arm in America, Lado (Benicio Del Toro), to abduct Ophelia to press the American drug dealers.
Oliver Stone manages to accomplish again with Savages what he did for the 2008 financial crisis in Wall Street 2: trivialize an extremely real tragedy that had a profound effect on millions of innocent peoples' lives with an insulting bit of self indulgence.It's the Mexican drug war this time, but it's essentially the same story.
Salma Hayek does a great job as the villain even though at points her lines get very cheesy, "I wouldn't have a problem cutting both their throats." Though the plot seems alarming, it sticks well and turns the movie into a satisfying, gritty drug dealing film.
Taylor Kitsch rinses some of the stink of John Carter and Battleship from his soiled reputation and Aaron Johnson is far from the awkward teen we saw in Kick-Ass. John Travolta makes a limited but memorable appearance as a corrupt DEA agent and his scenes with Chon and Ben are the movie's bursts of comedic relief.
The "good guys" split screen time surprisingly equally with the other side of the conflict featuring the cartel head Elena (Salma Hayek) and her chief enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro).
Travolta is great fun to watch as he lies and schemes his way out of every corner his character is put in.Oliver Stone directs the film with a hyperactive style that seems both reminiscent of his work in the 90's, while simultaneously mocking it.
This movie is by far one of the best films i'we seen in a long time.Oliver Stone did a remarkable job directing this.The story is smart,tens and often intelligently funny.Benicio did an awesome job as the bad guy and i cannot think anyone more suited for the role of a Mexican cartel enforcer.Salma is beautiful in a way she knows best.As a women leading one of the most brutal drug cartels in the world.She is relentless.
The two good friends who share everything are well played by Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson who are both kind of uglied up for the roles.The violence is very graphic but it's contained to certain scenes and you know when it's coming and can choose to close your eyes.
A Mexican drug cartel run by Salma Hayek makes them an offer they shouldn't refuse and the chaos ensues as O is kidnapped and the boys will do whatever it takes to get her back.Brutal violent setpieces, inspired plotting and a surprisingly original love story that makes the love triangle feel believable in the sense that if you dig a little deeper the guys love each other and O's character is just the binding material that holds them together.
The boys' marijuana is well known as the best in the market, it's so well known for being that good that a Mexican drug cartel, ran by Elena Sanchez (Hayek) and her right hand man Lado (Del Toro), wants in on their business.
So the two turn to a corrupt DEA agent (Travolta) they've done business with in the past, for assistance in getting her back.The movie is extremely violent and Del Toro makes a great monstrous villain once again, stealing the show.
There are enjoyments to be had in Stone's film, mostly from Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta's different takes on the human foibles of adult corruption.
Youngsters Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson and Blake Lively (who provides the useless narration) are excellent as the leading trio and Salma Hayek and John Travolta add a bit of colour in their smaller but pivotal roles.
'Savages' Synopsis: Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend.'Savages' works big time because the Screenplay is so well-written, despite its paper-thin plot.
two pot-growers/dealers, Chon (taylor kitsch), a former SEAL, now volatile and aggressive, and Ben (aaron Johnson), a business-minded botanist without a violent bone in his body, share the same girlfriend, the lovely and flighty o (blake lively).
Aaron Johnson plays Ben, a soft and peace-loving entrepreneur who owns a pot-growing business, selling some of best marijuana in the world, with his best friend Chon (played by Taylor Kitsch), a former NAVY seal veteran with a less merciful and more ruthless character who is often involved in violent confrontations against drug lords, unlike Ben prefers to live a life without violence and brutality.
Ben and Chon must come with the money to save her from the vicious drug cartel, with the help of a corrupt DEA agent Denis (played by John Travolta).This movie doesn't quite hike up the peak of Oliver Stone's previous films, but its still entertaining as it needs to be; despite some of its flaws.
The story is basically about three friends (Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively and Aaron Johnson) who end up getting in way over their head when they are approached by the Mexican drug cartel.What I liked about the movie is that it's unrelenting in its violence, with brutal scenes of torture and intense, gruesome deaths.
Twenty years ago an Oliver Stone film would be an event but the director has become wayward of late.This marks a return to form but it revisits his screenplay of Scarface too much in places aided with his kinetic camera work and filming style used in Natural Born Killers but here it hinders the flow.Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is peace loving hippy Buddhist and his best buddy Chon (Taylor Kitsch) a former soldier have developed the best type of marijuana which have made them successful in southern California.Both also share the same woman Ophelia (Blake Lively) and life is going swimmingly until the Mexican Baja Cartel demands that they join forces with them and later kidnap Ophelia.The cartel is ruthlessly led by Elena (Salma Hayek) her brutal enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro) wants Elena but also realises he needs to make his own moves.Ben and Chon realise they need to take on the cartel and free Ophelia and they can only do this with the help of the slippery and crooked DEA agent (John Travolta) a man who has worked out all the angles.The film is hampered by the constant narration by Lively as well as her performance which is less than lively.
Hayek, Travolta (with his natural balding hairline) Bichir and Del Toro make the most of their thin characterisations, people who are rooted to their families despite being savages.Stone makes up for the rest with his filming style with an operatic approach to violence but why were we presented with an alternate version of the climax?.
Aside from the basic information about Ben and Chon's previous lives, the plot decides to spend time telling us who in Salma Hayek's family died; something that we don't care about.Although this movie was slatted as an action film, the action is few and far between.
Savages won't trouble the Academy in February but this is Stone fairly close to the top of his game.Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) contrast each other in almost every way emotionally and in their approach to life but they are best friends, business partners and share their lives, their home and their girl, O (Blake Lively).
Then the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by Elena (Salma Hayek) and her bulldog, Lado (Benicio Del Toro) decide they want a slice of the pie and kidnap O as gentle persuasion.Savages doesn't have anything new or profound to say about drug smuggling or the multitudinous crimes tied up in the drag trade and there's no great political slant or revelation, which is disappointing after such bold statements from Stone in the likes of JFK and Nixon.
The movie Savages centers around two best friends Ben ( Aaron Johnson : Albert Nobbs)and Chon (sounds like John (taylor Kitsch)) with different personalities.
The film is really violent and difficult to watch at times, but if you like these kinds of thrillers then you will enjoy this movie.