Savages - B-

Rated R, 126 minutes

"Savages" a flawed but highly entertaining hot mess

Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively and Aaron Johnson

2012 has been an eclectic summer movie going season, with everything from superheroes to rock singers to a foul-mouthed teddy bear, so it comes as no surprise to throw in a pot movie from acclaimed filmmaker Oliver Stone into the mix. Stone, due to a softening in his old age has been hit or miss the last few years, but the entertaining “Savages” is his most watchable hot mess of a movie in years that works extremely well in spite of itself. Laguna Beach, California entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson), a peaceful Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL, run a lucrative, homegrown business growing some of the best marijuana ever developed. They are also both in love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Blake Lively). Things are good until the Mexican Baja Cartel moves in and demands a stake in their business. When the merciless head of that cartel, Elena (Salma Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Benicio Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon-with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (John Travolta)-wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. “Savages” is a highly enjoyable, if not calculated, redundant tale of amateur drug dealers who are over their head. Coherency, which has always been a problem with Stone (his “JFK” is a prime example), is surprisingly less an issue here, and this could’ve gone wrong in so many ways but remains at its core a remarkably linear, conventional good guys-versus-bad guys tale.  Though not as over-the-top as you might expect, there's still a handful of egregiously violent, bloody scenes that Stone is known for; it’s also a movie in which the bad guys are much more interesting than the good guys. Kitsch and Johnson are serviceable as the amateurs, while Lively is suitably hot, but it’s Del Toro, Hayak (the standout here), and in a small role, Travolta, who are the most memorable.  "Savages" has uneven, messy portions of pot, sex, blood, Spanish-speaking bad guys and big guns along with some some predictably wild angles in the rambling last act, yet there's great appeal when Stone doesn’t take things too seriously. The laid-back but enjoyable “Savages" is flawed, particularly when Stone espouses the joys of pot smoking, but you still won’t turn away. Worth a look especially for Stone fans.