Savages

When I think of Oliver Stone, I think of that director in the credit card commercial who, after a clipper ship is blown to smithereens, holds his hands in the air and yells, "No! Bigger!" Stone is a director who likes to play with all the function buttons. Seeing one of his films is like reviewing an entire semester's worth of film school, as he employs all sorts of gimmicks.

These occasionally serve him well. The stories of JFK and Nixon were sweeping enough to call for grand and flamboyant gestures. But occasionally he's filigreeing the inside of thimble. Natural Born Killers and U-Turn for example, pulp stories about nefarious low-lifes, were examples of directorial overkill.

Savages is kind of in that territory, but due to a well-written script and some good, furniture-chewing acting, it's fun. The script is by Stone, along with the author of the source novel, Don Winslow, and Shane Salerno. Though there is way too much voice-over narration, it's full of clever lines and plot twists.

The story is narrated by O (short for Ophelia), played by Blake Lively. She tells us right away that just because she's narrating doesn't mean she lives until the end. She's a party girl who ends up living with two pot dealers. One is a former soldier (Taylor Kitsch), who is hard and cold, the other is a sensitive hippie botanist (Aaron Johnson), who has taken seeds that Kitsch retrieved from Afghanistan and built a cannabis empire, which he then uses to help disadvantaged youth around the world.

All is going groovy for this trio, including the men sharing Lively sexually. As someone tells her later on, the boys really love each other more than her, because otherwise they would never share her. But, and I guess this is just par for the course in the marijuana game, a Mexican cartel wants in on the action. Things take a downward turn after that.

The cartel is run by Salma Hayek, camping it up deliciously in a Cleopatra wig and sharp, painted nails. Her number one enforcer is a ruthless killer played slyly by Benecio Del Toro, who hides in plain sight by posing as a gardener, rolling around town in a beat-up pickup. I imagine that's a very familiar sight on the streets of Southern California.

Also in the mix is a DEA agent (John Travolta), who is paid to leave Kitsch and Johnson alone. But when the cartel moves in, he's forced to play both sides, and his dialogue is deliciously cynical, and represents everything that's wrong with the war on drugs.

Stone uses his entire palate, complete with stock film changes and trippy edits. The technology of the story requires a lot of web-cam footage, so I'm sure Stone relished the opportunity. In fact, the first scene is a web-cam transmission of men being beheaded. There is also optimum use of music, including a very amusing ring-tone for the cartel's communications, and some excellent cover versions of songs like "Psycho Killer" and "Here Comes the Sun."

As the "good guys," Kitsch, Johnson, and Lively can't match the oomph provided by Travolta and the villains, and sometimes you kind of root for the bad guys. Lively has a somewhat thankless role--she's basically the "hot chick," and then spends much of the movie kidnapped.

While not up to Stone's greatest work, Savages is macabre fun, and will definitely make you think twice about growing pot in your home. If it's too good, the Mexicans will come calling, and that's a bad thing.

My grade for Savages: B.