MOVIE REVIEW
Stone brings out the Savages
Dopeheads and gangsters clash in Oliver Stone's most fun film to date
- Published: 21 Sep 2012 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: Life
Oliver Stone's Savages is cheerfully cynical, ingloriously basked in the Malibu sunshine and fired up by threesome sex, super-bred cannabis and bong-water bravado. It's lurid, sexy, funny, chaotic, cluttered, and if the grisly violence turns you off then Blake Lively _ playing a very dumb blonde _ and her two beaus (plus John Travolta, pudgy and hilariously nervous) will also chip in laugh-out-loud moments, all the while with the director winking off-scene.
Blake Lively plays a wasted beauty in Savages .
And because this is an Oliver Stone movie, the dark wounds of war, from Iraq to Afghanistan, and shadows of government cynicism lurk in the background _ though this time they're sources of riotous sarcasm rather than redemptive trauma. "Where can we find the world's best cannabis?" asks a character early on. "Afghanistan," quips his buddy. And when the sultry empress of a Mexican drug cartel (played by Salma Hayek) dares cross the border to the US, she ensures her safety by remaining in an opulent ranch on a Native American reservation (didn't the term "savages" once refer to the native Indians?). "Technically it's not the US," says a policeman. "Or maybe it is."
This article is older than 60 days, which we reserve for our premium members only.You can subscribe to our premium member subscription, here.
