Movie Review: Savages

Savages is the latest movie of Director Oliver Stone, whom you may remember for directing movies such as Platoon, Wall Street, JFK and Natural Born Killers. In this movie we are introduced to a pair of drug dealers called Ben and Chon. Ben is a former UC Berkley graduate with a degree in business and botany and Chon is a former US Navy SEAL. Ben prefers that all his deals involve no violence and definitely no deaths. Chon acts as his enforcer tracking down those who refuse to honor their side of the deal and convincing them with violence but not killing anyone to respect Ben's wishes. Due to Ben treating his deals as a legitimate business he manages to build a large network of trusted dealers for his Marijuana production. Ben and Chon also share a polyamourous relationship with a girl called Ophelia Sage, whom they call O. They are also aided by a corrupt DEA agent called Dennis who takes a cut from their business earnings, but protects them from being caught. Everything seems to be going fine until they are approached by a Mexican drug cartel ran by Elena Sanchez who is played by actress Salma Hayek. Because Ben deems the cartel too savage he refuses to join them and Elena decides to kidnap O to force them into business with them. Ben and Chon are forced to work for Elena but plot their revenge and O's rescue. This being the plot of the movie makes it sound really interesting, and the movie is actually interesting but it is not without it's flaws. The movie trailer makes this movie seem like a story of revenge where these two guys don ballistic masks painted in a skull pattern and go on a killing spree on a Mexican cartel. This is as far as this idea goes as you see very little of this activity so keep this in mind before watching the movie it is not a run and gun movie by any means. The movie takes a realistic approach when it comes to Ben and Chon's abilities and even the abilities of the team of former soldiers working under Chon, they are by no means invincible. Ben cannot shoot a gun to save his life and freezes when he actually has too almost getting Chon killed at some point. Chon being a former SEAL has a lot of experience shooting but resorts too much to his violent side if he is not kept under control by Ben. This actually made the movie that much better and believable. I am not a big fan of Salma Hayek, but as a cartel boss in this movie she does an impressive job, in my opinion her part was the best. Benicio del Toro also plays a great role as Lado one of Elena's henchmen. Blake Lively's part as Ophelia carries the movie in the sense that she is the main reason Ben and Chon are doing what they're doing but her part is rather boring and doesn't add much to the movie. Dennis played by actor John Travolta plays sort of a minor role in this movie but the amount of time he is on screen is actually good as he is not the bad ass he plays in every movie and is seen as a vulnerable target of the drug business he is in. The movie has an unexpected ending that will leave audiences bored as it is very anti-climatic and overall feeling like this movie had it's good parts but carried on for too long and didn't really excite as much as the trailer did.

Drake's Reviews Score 6.5 out of 10