SAVAGES

Attempting to ‘ride the snake’ once more, Oliver Stone’s latest film takes us into a technicolour underworld of sex, drugs and violence. Savages is an American crime thriller with an ensemble cast featuring some of Hollywood’s rising stars and the film has been heralded by some as Stone’s return to form. Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) who share a lucrative weed growing business and the love, and bed, of the same girlfriend, O (Blake Lively), are threatened by chainsaw loving cartel boss, Elena (Selma Hayek) and so follows a high stakes war. While oozing California cool, it appears the plot was lost somewhere within the writer’s own smoke haze and the film falls short of its promise. (PB) **