Savages (18.)
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Starring Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek and John Travolta. 130 mins.
For the last decade it had seemed that Oliver Stone was preparing to go out quietly with nighty night sleepytime films like World Trade Centre and Wall Sleep 2. Now though, he has gathered up his energies for one last furious, blood splattered splurge and has effectively mowed down what was left of his reputation.
This isn’t just an Oliver Stone film on drugs, it is a war on drugs, a war waged by ferociously bad acting and backed by a limitless supply of bad lines and bad plotting. Stuck in the crossfire are Kitsch and Johnson as two Californian marijuana dealers who find themselves in conflict with the ruthless Mexican drug cartels.
They live a preposterous Jules et Jim existence - one an ex-Navy Seal, the other a Buddhist botanist - running a multimillion dollar business and sharing the affections of O (Lively.) Eventually she is kidnapped by the cartel, possibly in an attempt to stop her from speaking any more of the atrocious narration Stone has given her to stumble over.
Kitsch and Johnson put in an honest shift but everybody else is on clown time. I know at some level this is all intended as black comedy – Stone is reanimating the tatty nihilism of Natural Born Killers - but just because you intend it to be funny doesn’t mean you don’t end up looking an utter fool. Didn’t Del Toro, Hayek or Travolta ever once catch themselves in a mirror and suspect that maybe this wasn’t going to be the Dr Strangelove of the drug war after all?
Savages is a thoroughly bad film, but it is at least thorough. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it will find a way. *Spoiler* Not content with its perfectly ludicrous ending Stone goes back and gives you another, even worse one.
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Starring Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek and John Travolta. 130 mins.
For the last decade it had seemed that Oliver Stone was preparing to go out quietly with nighty night sleepytime films like World Trade Centre and Wall Sleep 2. Now though, he has gathered up his energies for one last furious, blood splattered splurge and has effectively mowed down what was left of his reputation.
This isn’t just an Oliver Stone film on drugs, it is a war on drugs, a war waged by ferociously bad acting and backed by a limitless supply of bad lines and bad plotting. Stuck in the crossfire are Kitsch and Johnson as two Californian marijuana dealers who find themselves in conflict with the ruthless Mexican drug cartels.
They live a preposterous Jules et Jim existence - one an ex-Navy Seal, the other a Buddhist botanist - running a multimillion dollar business and sharing the affections of O (Lively.) Eventually she is kidnapped by the cartel, possibly in an attempt to stop her from speaking any more of the atrocious narration Stone has given her to stumble over.
Kitsch and Johnson put in an honest shift but everybody else is on clown time. I know at some level this is all intended as black comedy – Stone is reanimating the tatty nihilism of Natural Born Killers - but just because you intend it to be funny doesn’t mean you don’t end up looking an utter fool. Didn’t Del Toro, Hayek or Travolta ever once catch themselves in a mirror and suspect that maybe this wasn’t going to be the Dr Strangelove of the drug war after all?
Savages is a thoroughly bad film, but it is at least thorough. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it will find a way. *Spoiler* Not content with its perfectly ludicrous ending Stone goes back and gives you another, even worse one.
