Savages

This poster is freakin sweet

From left to right: Chon, O (short for Ophelia), and Ben. They are
all in love as a small little family and the boys share O as their
girlfriend/love of their life

After talking about Savages with some people, I have come across two major facts that you should know before going into the movie. First off, it's long. It is 130 minutes long but feels a lot longer than that simply because so much happens in the movie. Secondly, much like Drive, don't expect a lot of action. There are some fantastic action scenes, but this is not a movie where there is scene after scene of blowing stuff up or shooting. If you want that, just go watch any movie made by Michael Bay. 


Once you accept these two facts, I think you will enjoy Savages as much as I did. It sure has its problems, but somewhere between the super-slow opening and the fantastically shot ending I fell in love with the movie. It hooked me to the point where I forgot to breath at some points (which is a rarity for me at movies since I have seen so many) and I was very intrigued with the story and the style with which Oliver Stone shot the movie. 

Im not sure the Hawaiian shirt matches the scare-level you are trying to achieve with those masks...

For those of you who haven't heard of this movie yet or don't know what it is about, I'll give you a brief rundown. Essentially, these two guys, Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) have a very successful marijuana business and the Mexican cartel wants to join them. When the boys politely refuse the cartel's offer, the cartel flips a b***h and kidnaps the boys' girlfriend, O (Blake "Angel Sent From Heaven" Lively). The boys love her and must get her back. As things with the Mexican cartel often go, s**t gets completely out of hand and everyone realizes they are in over their head. The story is simple, and at first I didn't buy the whole 3-way love thing that the boys and O have going on. But by the time the final credits rolled, I was sold. 

It's fitting that Elena has a ridiculous amount of ice around her
neck. She is COLD

Savages sports a fantastic cast and quite honestly, I found there to be no weak link. As always, I enjoyed Taylor Kitsch and I still see him becoming a huge star. Aaron Johnson, who was the lead in one of my all-time favorite movies, Kick-Ass, also does well, portraying the softer side of the weed business and the science that goes behind it. And then there are a lot of characters that you hate. And that is just as much of a testament to the actors portraying them as it is for the characters that you like. For starters, and it breaks my heart to say this, but I pretty much hated Blake Lively's character for a good portion of the movie. She is a spoiled brat and doesn't grasp the situation until something very serious happens. For example, she has just been taken by the Mexican cartel and throws a hissy fit because she wants a salad instead of pizza all the time. Really? Because that's what you should be worrying about in that situation. I also hated Benicio Del Toro's character. He is a terrible person who is absolutely ruthless and dumb as rocks. And lastly, John Travolta is a whiny DEA agent who I was quickly rooting against.


 But the scene-stealer here is Salma Hayek. She is the cartel kingpin, Elena, and every time she was on screen I was captivated. She becomes a woman that you know is a savage and has done savage things to get to her position. People are afraid of her and know that she wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone. 

My future wife looks fantastic in the movie. Great job honey!

I wont go into much more detail about Savages. Ultimately, I think this will be one of those movies that I enjoyed a lot more than most and I can see many of my readers disagreeing with my final score. But as I said before, I loved Savages. There was just something about it for me that kept me enthralled once it got going. Maybe it was the brutality and the sheer shock value of what was happening. Maybe it was Stone's hyper-active style of shooting with visual flairs and grittiness. Or maybe it was because I slowly came to realize that the movie was less about drugs and more about the fact that we can all be savages. We can all take drastic, neanderthal-like measures making us seem less evolved than ever. Or, we can all take the time to enjoy life because of the people and world around us, causing us to have an entirely new outlook on the word, Savages. Think about it.


Pros:

• Fantastic cast that clearly presents who we should root for and who we should root against. I particularly enjoyed Lively's voice overs at the beginning and end as well as Salma Hayek's brutal Elena
• Speaking of brutal, this movie doesnt hold back. It's bloody, gory, and intense. As I said earlier, there were times where I was forgetting to breath and movies cant get me to that very often
• Oliver Stone has a very specific movie making style, and it not only shows in this movie, it excels
• The soundtrack easily gives this movie a bonus point or two. Very good song choice and a emotional original score
• Blake Lively has a ton of screen time. I was drooling for the better part of two hours...
• For me personally, the movie had a special something. I can't always put my finger on these types of things, but I could tell that this movie had it
• The message behind the movie, past all of the violence and the drugs, makes you really consider why the movie is called Savages in the first place...

Cons:

• The beginning is VERY slow to get going. A lot could have been removed from this part of the movie
• I was somewhat disappointed with Del Toro's character. I thought he was going to be more insane, but he was more brutal and kind of annoying
• The characters are all pretty extreme and clear cut. Bad boy, good boy, sleazy DEA agent, crazy thugs, spoiled girl in love, powerful drug lord. Really no depth behind any of those
• The movie has been marketed as an action film and if you go in expecting an action movie, you will be disappointed

Rath's Review Score: 9/10

I am going to take next week off because there is really no movie that I want to see, not to mention I have now gone to 4 movies in the last two weeks so my wallet is hurting a little bit. Rath's Reviews will return on the weekend of July 20th with the review of The Dark Knight Rises. It's the review I have been waiting to write ever since I started doing these things so you can bet that it will be a good one. As much as I have hyped the movie, I will try to give an honest opinion on it and rate it realistically. Enjoy your week everyone and here is a Blake Lively picture for the road!

I am in love