It's been way too long since we've seen Oliver Stone venture away from the world of political conspiracies and wall street big wigs, and with Savages he gets a chance to return to the gritty, kinetic style he brought with Natural Born Killers so many years ago. Based on the Don Winslow novel, Savages features arguably the strongest cast we'll see all summer in a sexy, drug fueled action flick about a pair of marijuana dealers who get up to their necks with a Mexican cartel.
Aaron Johnson(Kick-Ass) and Taylor Kitsch are Ben and Chon, two best buds who take to their weed growing industry in very different ways. Ben is the peaceful one, while Chon is an ex-military guy and a violent force of nature. They do have one thing in common, and that's the rather unique relationship they share with Ophelia(Blake Lively) in their little corner of So-Cal. Think Ménage à trois. Didn't these guys ever watch Threesome? These things never work out. Salma Hayek makes for the intimidating drug cartel leader who wants to work with the boys, but decides to get rough when they turn her down. Benicio Del Toro is her crazy right hand man, who kidnaps Ophelia in order to teach the boys a lesson. Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Joel David Moore, and Emile Hirsch make up the rest of the stellar cast.
Take Oliver Stone out of the equation and maybe Savages doesn't seem all that great, but you know he's not going to take the conventional route we expect a film like this to go. We could be looking at a surprise hit here, especially if people don't take to The Amazing Spider-Man in the way Sony hopes. Savages opens on July 6th, check out the trailer below....
