I thought it was awesome. Very fast-paced and stylish, with great performances across the board (even Blake Lively, who I was worried about based on the trailer, does a really solid job here). Salma Hayek is fantastic and steals every scene she is in with a scenery-chewing turn, and Benicio del Toro also stands out and is appropriately menacing. It's certainly one of the more violent films I've seen as of late, but it doesn't feel exploitative. I also liked how it often played with viewer expectations (especially during the climax) and also wasn't afraid to make its villains seem somewhat sympathetic. A great summer action film. A-

Review: http://www.worldofkj.com/article.php?i=772

The best scene in this movie is the confrontation between Del Toro and Travolta at the latter's house. Electrifying acting and writing.

The Funny Games style ending reversal seems to be a big issue for a lot of people, but I didn't mind it.

P.S. Whose dog did Emile Hirsch run over between Into the Wild and now? Speed Racer bombed, all right, but Christ. What happened to this dude? This is far, far, far superior to The Darkest Hour, but still a small and fairly bland role.

Really liked it.

It's really fast-paced, exciting and cool. All the performances were ranged from really solid (the main three) to terrific (Salma Hayek and Del Toro). Really felt like old school Oliver Stone. I liked how they showed the "good" guys being capable of doing bad things to get what they want, while the "bad" guys having some compassion (best example being Salma Hayek's care for O, like a daughter).

The ending? Eh. I can appreciate playing with the audience's expectations on the ending and such, but when it's all over, I just wasn't satisfied with it. Even O's "dream" ending felt more complete than what actually happened.

The movie definitely has its moments but it's rather uneven. This covers pretty much every aspect of the movie, which goes from high-charged brutality in one moment to overly low-key "talky" sections. It also includes the acting: the three young leads (Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson) are fine if bland, while the older actors mostly chew on the scenery. Salma Hayek is terrific, though. It's not one of the worst films Oliver Stone has made, and in fact I could make a case for it being a solid DVD rental type of film, but for a film that was being hailed as a return to lurid form for him in many respects, Savages doesn't feel quite savage enough. C+

The mix of humor and earnestness in Savages was just right - - what a pleasant surprise!


18 out of 5.

"I have orgasms, he has wargasms".

I thought the movie was okay, I think it could have been a lot more interesting and grittier though. Enjoyed the scenes with Salma Hayek the most.

Yeah I dunno if that line was also in the book but that is certainly a contender for "worst piece of dialogue of 2012."

I don't know, it's about a polyamerous relationship and pot, how do I dislike that?
On the other hand, it's not a great movie. The veteran actors are pretty uninvested and dull, Lively sucks and the persistent voice-over was entirely unneeded save for the end twist which I liked but was silly. It's a pretty wild silly project, but we need more movies on this subject matter so I support it overall.

I thought it was really entertaining. Kind of wish they'd have stuck with the first ending though. I haven't read the book but apparently that's how the book ended. Not sure why they felt the need to change it. Oh well, still really enjoyed the movie. It's getting way too much flack from people.

I'm also annoyed by all of the males complaining that it has male nudity. Like there aren't enough action movies with tits galore.

8/10 (B+)

Not one person in this thread even commented on the male nudity before you mentioned it. So what're you talking about?

There have been a lot of mainstream movie goers and people on other forums discussing being annoyed about the male nudity in the film.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Just check the IMDB board. You'll find plenty of threads about it. And I know a few guys who saw it theatrically and mentioned it.

What do you expect from IMDB's board?

Not a bad film to watch if bored at home.


B

I wasn't a fan at all. This and The Amazing Spider-Man are definitely the two most disappointing films of the year for me (so far anyway). I missed this one in theaters and was so upset. Tuesday morning the first time I did was order this on my TV and I'm not going to lie, it started out really good. I was enjoying the characters and was even forgiving the terrible narration and some of the terrible dialogue because I was actually interested. Cut to Blake Lively being kidnapped and the whole fucking movie just stops. It gets so boring and I couldn't care less who lived and who died. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I'll be kind of nice though because I did like the first 45 minutes or so.

5/10

This was just awful. The dialogue and a lot of the scenes are purely laughable (O's crying to mommy scene probably being the most over the top). None of the acting is really that good with Hayek and Lively probably being the worst of the group. It just gets worse and worse as it goes on though the second ending is ok I guess.

Savages (Unrated)

Well, I thought it was a very good drug/crime thriller. Oliver Stone has never impressed me. Platoon, Born of the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, U Turn, Alexander, and World Trade Center are all bad movies, but Savages was impressive. Apart from the cop-out double ending, it was doing so well. All of the performances were great. I had no problems with Taylor Kitsch or Emile Hirsch, which is surprising as they were two of the worst actors on the planet before I saw this film. It was lovely to see John Travolta and Salma Hayek as I've not seen them in years, it seems. Blake Lively, meh, but whatever. Benicio Del Toro is awesome, but then he always is. For me, it shares things with Traffic and Goodfellas, in fact it's like a hybrid of the two. It took its time and concentrated on the development, which I appreciated.

B+