When it comes to Oliver Stone’s movies there is one thing you usually expect and that’s controversy. It happened during JFK when he showed his theory as truth and during Alexander with the sexual preferences of the character. Wil Savages be controversial? It does have some shocking scenes, but as this is an adaptation of a book I don’t expect there will be a lot of controversy about its story. The only thing which will cause a lot of conversation is the ending of the movie.
The movie is set in the world of drugs. Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) grow weed and since Ben studied botany he has been able to create the best weed there is. He’s the brains behind it all and Chon is ex-military and provides the muscle. Their business is running good and they both are able to do what they want without much trouble. There are both in a relationship with O (Blake Lively), who narrates the story. A mexican cartel sees the quality of the drugs Chon and Ben are producing and wants to make a deal with them and that is when the trouble starts for them as they are really not interested in doing business with them. As the cartel doesn’t like this they decide to do something to make them change their minds.
If there’s one reason to see this movie it is for Benicio Del Toro. His performance is one you will remember, playing the right hand man of cartel boss Helena (Salma Hayek). He stands out in every scene he’s in and he plays an extremely menacing and twisted character to perfection. I also enjoyed seeing John Travolta as an FBI agent and he had some entertaining scenes. Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were pretty good as well. The movie offers political games, lots of action and violence and it kept me entertained during its duration. Expect for the ending, which (if you’ve seen the movie) almost ruined it all for me. If you are looking for a crime movie there is a lot worse you could pick.
I might actually give this a rent one day, though I’ll probably have my eyes closed during all the violent scenes. I quite like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his American accent seems spot on.
I think it is worth a watch, so hope you’ll get some enjoyment out of it.
I thought this was very flawed but still fun. The main triangle (Johnson, Kitsch, Lively) was too bland for my taste but I LOVED Salma Hayek in this.
I agree it had its flaws, but like you say it is enjoyable. Salma Hayek did a great job indeed.
Even from the trailer, Hayek looks like she’s having the most fun 😀
Yeah, I dug her in her role as a drug queen who knows how to make sure the men are listening to her, while also showing that she still has feeling when it concerns certain people.
Bang on review! Despite the ending Del Toro is worth the price of admission. ~ Chris
Why am I Anonymous? It’s Chris @ filmhipster by the way. 🙂
Just updated your details (see your previous comment), you show up correctly now. Have moved the site to a self hosted server, so you will need to fill in your information for the right info to appear 🙂
I passed on this as the trailers showed torture and not a fan of that even in movies. Still with strong performances as you said it is worth a check out streaming.
Yeah, I didn’t like the torture either, but there aren’t a huge number of scenes of it in this movie (luckily). You can always fast forward through them though.
I like Oliver Stone’s older work than his newer films but I think I’ll have to check this one out. Nice review.
Yeah, I think his earlier work is better as well but this was entertaining enough. Thanks!
i didn’t mind seeing it but at the end of it i was left with a big ‘so what?’…
I can imagine that, but as long as it kept you entertained it wasn’t a waste of time.
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