Savages

Synopsis
Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone adapts author Don Winslow's best-selling novel into this all-star ensemble crime drama about a pair of peaceful, Laguna Beach marijuana dealers who are targeted for extortion by the ruthless Mexican Baja cartel. Ben (Aaron Johnson) is a devout Buddhist and dedicated philanthropist, and his best friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch) is a former mercenary who trained as a Navy SEAL. They may not seem like major drug dealers, but together they make a comfortable living selling top-quality marijuana. And they share more than just a profitable business; their mutual girlfriend O (Blake Lively) is more than enough woman for the two ambitious young entrepreneurs to handle. But just as Ben and Chun are feeling like they're on top of the world, their blissful life of lawless hedonism threatens to yield dire repercussions. The Mexican Baja cartel wants a piece of the action, and their cruel leader Elena (Salma Hayek) has dispatched her top hatchet man Lado (Benicio Del Toro) to ensure that she gets it. When the cartel kidnaps Ophelia and threatens to kill her unless Ben and Chun comply, the desperate pot dealers enlist the aid of a shady DEA agent (John Travolta) to try and avert a tragedy. Emile Hirsch and Uma Thurman also star.

Reviews
4 stars out of 5 -- "Oliver Stone returns to his comfort zone in this blood-soaked, sex and drug-fueled ride....In fact, SAVAGES is one of Stone's best movies..." (Box Office)

"This intense and unavoidably gory adaptation of Don Winslow's wild best-seller about the incursion of Mexican drug cartel mayhem into the United States has been made in a jagged, darkly trippy style that well expresses the story's tense uncertainties..." (Hollywood Reporter)

"SAVAGES is grandiose underworld pulp staged with screw-tightening skill and a taste for nasty kicks..." -- Grade: B+ (Entertainment Weekly)

"[T]his long, dense adventure takes surprising side trips into thoughtfulness, ruefulness, whimsy and romance. It's high-grade entertainment sustained by a buoyant spirit." (Wall Street Journal)

3.5 stars out of 4 -- "A return to form for Stone's dark side, SAVAGES generates ruthless energy..." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"[With] lush compositions and suave camera movements....The sumptuousness of the movie is among its chief delights..." (New York Times)

"Lively continues her run as a young actress with an undeniable spark....She keys into O’s vulnerability and her rich-girl guilelessness..." (Movieline)

"[T]he aesthetic attributes of its cast, along with some scene-stealing performances from the south-of-the-border side of its drug feud, give the film enough appeal..." -- Grade: B- (A.V. Club)

3 stars out of 5 -- "Hayek, as the beyond-ruthless drug queenpin Elena, is the standout; a smirking death-goddess with a mile-long mean streak." (Total Film)

"[A] movie with real pulpy pulse....SAVAGES is of a piece with the nothing-succeeds-like-excess rule of Stone's career, a recklessly alive movie with retina-burning, sunstroke cinematography..." (Sight and Sound)