Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Harrison Tweed (Top Dawg) Oliver Stone's directing and a tight screenplay is what made this movie a hit for me. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively - the 3 musketeers ;) lol, take you on a wild ride in this well cast film with great cinematography and editing. The winner here is the writing - a fantastic story of 3 very close friends that embark on a high-stakes business enterprise. Very impactful and entertaining. It's a 9/10 from me!

CANpatbuck3664 This was an attempted comeback by Oliver Stone to a harder and edgier subject, the war on drugs. What I found is that several people in this movie were looking for a comeback hit; Taylor Kitsch was coming of a couple of box office disasters, Aaron Taylor-Johnson hasn't had a hit since Kick Ass, Blake Lively is returning to the screen after Green Lantern and Hick. They have a lot of solid actors in this cast and Stone seems like the right guy to direct this. I mean drugs, guns, the mob, where could this go wrong? But the bottom line is that a lot of people need this movie to hit it big and while it did get decent reviews, I have to tell you it's not going to get that kind of praise from me.*Minor Spoilers Ahead* The film is narrated by O (Blake Lively) and she introduces us to the situation. She is a young woman carrying on a devils three way of a romance with 2 marijuana dealers named Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch). They grow the best pot on the west coast of the United States. Each of them brings something to the operation. Ben has a degree from Cal-Berkeley in botany and is the brains behind the actual growing of the weed. He's essentially a hippie, he's very non-violent and believes in conducting business that way. Chon is the muscle. He is a former Navy SEAL who came back from Afghanistan with a love of cannabis and some PTSD. He is the aggression behind the operation. I would like to clarify though, he's not outwardly violent but if they have to intimidate to collect from a client, it's him running the call.The 3 of them are enjoying a thriving business. They have a great reputation with their suppliers and their customers. They also have an inside man in the DEA named Dennis (John Travolta) who watches their back. One day, they get a very violent video message from the Mexican drug cartel thug Lado (Benicio Del Toro) telling them they want to meet up and talk business. Ben is overseas and Chon and O are too stoned to properly comprehend it. After Ben gets back they talk amongst themselves about it and then they talk to Dennis who tells them that they don't really have a choice.I have to admit, reading the plot summary I could objectively see how this is a pretty cool set up. But where I thought this movie fell down was that it missed the ABCs of doing a story where the filmmakers want us to care about the fates of the characters they present to us. A) Make the characters at least relatively easy to like, or they should at least have redeeming characteristics. The biggest reason why this movie didn't connect with me is that I was so frustrated with how these people behave in stressful situations. O was the biggest problem, she's carrying on a stupid love triangle and she has no skills except being hot. When she's taken she whines to her captors about the food, her weed withdrawal and ultimately even about her not knowing who the group's leader is. You don't sympathize with Ben because he was an idiot not to know that this was going to happen. Chon is maybe the most honest character but he is so wooden (his character not Kitsch) that the movie makes it clear he's not fully human. Lado enjoys torturing and killing people. Dennis is a two-timing rat and Elena is a ruthless but ultimately soft leader with little dimension outside the fact she misses her family. I had no reason to care about any of these people and it was like watching a sporting event where you don't care who wins.B) Telling an interesting story is priority number one. I will at least give this movie credit for having a coherent plot line; most movies I hate lack that. But what parts of this story that are interesting are either wrecked by increasingly pointless bits of violence or are stretched out over the movie's ridiculous run time. This movie should have been 30 minutes shorter. The plot continues to jump around via O's uninteresting narration and repeatedly kills any momentum it is building. This movie could have been just a stupid revenge action movie with a lot of violence and guns and I would have liked it so much better. They had an interesting premise but the twists the story takes undercut it completely.Okay, I've ripped on this movie enough, let's get to some of the more admirable aspects. Stone puts a lot of effort into developing a visual style for the movie. Normally I would like this but it didn't mean a whole lot when I was so frustrated with the characters and the meandering plot. But I can respect the effort that was put in to it. I also thought some of the acting was o.k. I would give Selma Hayek and Taylor Kitsch the best marks. I don't like Aaron Taylor-Johnson here, he seems really unemotional, he's just not effective in Savages. Del Toro has zip dimension to his character and all he does is betray and torture people, he's better in Sicario. Travolta was fine and Blake Lively has been good in other things but I couldn't enjoy her performance because of her character.I started out wanting to like this movie. I could tell it was going to be edgy but I just got so tired of it by the end and I just gradually grew more and more angry with it. There's no excuse for the terrible characterization or the 2+ hours this movie takes to wrap up. There were okay points but that doesn't redeem Savages.

iamthealex Well after watching this title again I say whoa, a great film involving love, brutality, life and everything in between. The story goes three drug dealers go head to head with the Mexican cartel and all out mayhem ensues, frenetic filmmaking by the very talented Oliver Stone. Returning to form, known for such films as Scarface, Natural Born Killers and many more straight up intense pictures!!I chose the uncut version which at times was some what kinda hard to watch, but included more characterizations which was pretty sweet! A roller-coaster of Amazing performances brutal violence and a great emotional story giving it a 7.9 out if 10Plus a not so bad narration by Blake Lively :), which people would make u believe !!!!

ladymidath Being a fan of Benicio del Toro and John Travolta I thought I would enjoy this movie quite a bit. Both del Toro and Travolta were both at their best here, their scenes were excellent, both gave a wonderful performance and really brought their characters to life. Benicio del Toro plays Lado, a psychotic enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel run by a truly lovely Salma Hayek who also gives a great performance as a basically unhappy woman who had lost her husband and her twin sons. Her other son and only daughter are distanced from her, her son angry that he did not inherit the business and her daughter, the only truly decent person in the whole movie is ashamed of what her mother does for a living.These actors were the high note of the film, the low being Blake Lively as Ophelia Sage or as O as she liked to call herself.Taylor Kitsch as Chon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ben, O's two boyfriends all living in a ménage à trois are marijuana growers living in Laguna Beach. Chon, a Navy Seal and veteran of Afghanistan brought back Marijuana seeds for his best friend Ben, a business graduate and botanist to cultivate making them both quite wealthy.Things are fine until they receive a video showing several severed heads and a chainsaw along with a demand for a meeting.That is when their idyllic lives are completely disrupted. Elena Sánchez (Salma Hayek) wants not only their business, but the two men as well. Even though they offer the business to her, she wants them to stay simply because their product is so good and she needs their expertise. She also needs a foothold in America because she is losing all her political connections in Mexico.When they refuse, Elena has O kidnapped and that is when it all hits the fan.This should have been a great movie, and it could have been except for Blake Lively's annoying performance. Her character was a moron who seemed oblivious to everything around her. Instead of picking up that they were in serious danger, (hell you would think the video would have tipped her off) she chooses to go out to dinner and go shopping. Talk about being handed the idiot ball. Also her narration was a mistake. The whole stoner, 'omigod I am so wasted' thing wore pretty thin pretty fast. I mean 'wargasims' seriously? Pity as it was a good role that could have brought something to the film, but it was wasted. I can't help but think what a good actress like a young Jodi Foster or Maggie Gyllenhaal could have done with this role.The two male leads were not quite as bad but they were completely overshadowed and outclassed by del Toro and Travolta. Although they did have a couple of good moments just not enough to really hold interest.The movie is only saved by Hayek, del Toro and Travolta. Seriously, they are the only reasons to sit through this.Magda (Sandra Echeverria)who plays Elena's estranged daughter puts in a fine performance and it is a pity she did not have a bigger role. To be honest, she is the only likable character in the whole film. O is too much of a rich spoilt stoner dimwit to like, Chon is a downright nasty piece of work and just as bad in his own way as Lado. Ben is sweet, but whiny and ineffectual.Kudos to Diego Cataño as Estéban, another secondary character way more interesting and sympathetic than the three leads.Elena also brings some sympathy and her fate at the end of the film makes you feel bad for her. But she is a bad person who does evil things. The torture scene makes you realize this, although her one saving grace is her love for her daughter. It actually makes her more than a one dimensional character.Lado is a joy though, he is a nasty, crazy violent man who seems to take delight in torture. He rapes O as punishment for going over his head to Elena and when he shows her the video of it, she spits on his face. He calmly wipes the spit on his fingers, licks it off then uses her hair to wipe his face clean. Man that is cold. What he does to Alex (Demián Bichir), (who Chon and Ben framed, by the way, these are the guys we are supposed to be cheering for.) is ugly. He is also an abusive husband, His poor wife, Dolores in a great performance by Mía Maestro just wants out but he threatens to take their two sons and daughter to Mexico so she can never see them again.Dennis Cain (John Travolta) plays the corrupt DEA agent whose wife is dying leaving him to raise two little girls on his own. You feel a little more sympathy for him when you see him sitting talking to his terminally ill wife. The scene with him and Lado is probably the high point of the film. It's nice seeing these two talented actors together.Overall, the film could have been better with a stronger female lead and a couple of male leads that you could like and cheer for. Sadly I was left not caring what happened to any of them.Also the fake ending was stupid, pointless and took away from the film. Have the ending you wanted to have, don't give us a fake ending, then a real ending. It really ruined the film for me.All up, not one of Oliver Stone's better efforts. I can't help but wonder if I would have like the film if the leads had been more likable. I am not sure but it is a good film if you like violent action movies about drug cartels.