Savages

Oliver Stone is still a master. His bold directorial style, tons of visual flourishes, a perfectly integrated soundtrack and songs; it never gets boring. Its form reminded me a bit of his earlier U-Turn, except that this one has a much better script, with a light Tarantino touch, without annoying clichés, and with a conclusion that is a Stone-esque middle finger to the viewer. With the exception of a somewhat hapless Blake Lively, all the actors were excellent and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the teenage looser from Kick-Ass, went a long way towards charisma. (01/27/2013)

Oliver Stone returned with a film that tries to make us forget about movies like "Alexander the Great" or "World Trade Center" and instead reminds us of his earlier works. Comparisons to "Natural Born Killers" can mostly be found in the movie "Savages". "Savages" is an adrenaline-filled action that literally grabs the viewer. Handheld cameras are used, as well as normal cameras and even Skype. Oliver Stone decided to make a modern film and used modern technology to do so. Thanks to them, the film is quite animalistic, but this is mainly reflected in the relationship between the three main characters. Blake Lively ("The Town"), Taylor Kitsch ("John Carter: Between Two Worlds") and Aaron Taylor-Johnson ("Kick-Ass" and "Anna Karenina") form a love triangle, where both men love the woman and she loves them both. Surprisingly, it works for them. They love her so much that they are willing to risk their lives for her. This brings me to a storyline that simply did not sit well with me. The relationship is portrayed as animalistic, it is not, at least at first glance, a deep feeling, yet both men are crazy enough to kill and endure wounds for the girl. Like two teenagers who think that love for one woman is everything. Maybe it is for them, maybe not, but the characters are not portrayed in a way that I actually believe it. Script-wise, it seems a bit unmanageable to me. The film wants to be Tarantino-esque, but it lacks interesting dialogues. There are interesting characters here (Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro, John Travolta), but they all seem exactly what Stone needed them to be. An uncompromising mobster who is still a mother, an assassin for whom nothing is sacred, and an agent who is similar, just not as much of a killer. It's as if everything here has been seen before. An adrenaline-fueled spectacle that is diluted by expected characters. And there is not that much adrenaline either. In addition, the script allows for a twist at the end, but it is just for the sake of an effect. I don't want to forgive those "jokes". I didn't like it in Haneke's presentation either, but he went really far with it, it already ruined the quite terrible "Twilight" series, and for me, it also ruins "Savages". More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/01/divosi-10-years-divoka-stvoreni-lets.html (03/05/2013)

I don’t know, on the surface, Savages wants to be an action thriller with sexy visuals that you’d rather not think too much about, but under the surface, what I see is a stubborn attempt at something postmodern. And its most effective gimmick is disguising narrative incompetence as a subversive game with expectations and thus justifying itself. I wasn’t interested in who does what to whom, who betrays whom and who is screwing whom, as the motivations of most of the characters get lost with each twist and in the end it doesn’t matter at all whether everyone will shoot or forgive each other. Savages are unpredictable… that’s all the justification you need. Uninteresting. (11/15/2012)

A visually incredibly sophisticated and attractive, color-filtered, tuned, purely "image-based" film. Not that the solid plot would be on the second place, but fans of the director's work know exactly what to expect. For an uninitiated viewer, it will be a consistent film in all aspects and a solid experience whether in the cinema or a high-quality home projection, for example on DVD. Well-acted and musically stylish, the film has a solid pace and an appealing feeling, as always, skillfully reflecting the present time. This time, instead of sports, we have drugs here, but it’s still watchable. (02/10/2013)

Oliver Stone, even at his advanced age, still stuns with his creativity (this time, once again, extremely dynamic direction is also supported by a properly punchy "pulp screenplay") and very emphatically sends a raised middle finger to those who might want to clap him into the irons of old. I haven't seen so much energy, so many ideas, so many great actors, so much spontaneity, and actually a very (un)viewer-friendly ending to this extent anywhere lately. This is the Stone I've always enjoyed the most, whether in Natural Born Killers or U-Turn. A little bit the Coen brothers, a little our old pal Quentin, but in a lot of ways the master is still very original. Plus it’s all highly addictive :)))) (12/23/2013)