Oliver Stone's Savages

Sad Professor

Great cast, solid source material, and it's rated R for:

Strong brutal and grisly violence, some graphic sexuality, nudity, drug use and language throughout

Hell, yes! But will it be a return to form for Stone, who hasn't made a really good film since the '90s. We'll have to wait and see, but I have faith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmY_YAMpNd0

It's out here in September.

Hootanany

Looks Great cant wait.

JP Liz V1

Wow great cast looks good

WatchWolf

Doesn't look very interesting IMO.

clusk007

Looks Savage!! (pun intended :rolleyes:)

johnny_ultimate

This is on the front page of the AV Club at the moment. This is only notable because they cropped the poster image.

mike65

If Sam Peckinpah wasn't dead....

Kess73

Probably just me but whilst watching the trailer I could not stop thinking about The Way Of The Gun and Traffic (mostly the latter). Just felt the trailer had a similar vibe in parts to each of those films.

Bullseye1

It doesn't looks like an OS type movie.

Mickeroo

Kess73 wrote: »

Probably just me but whilst watching the trailer I could not stop thinking about The Way Of The Gun and Traffic (mostly the latter). Just felt the trailer had a similar vibe in parts to each of those films.

Way of the Gun yes but the only reason I could see you linking it to Traffic is some of the same actors are in it, there's drugs and there's a large ensemble cast?

Looks promising I have to say!

SK1979

This seems to be the only thread on this film in the forum, strange!

Anyway, this is out on Friday and seems to be getting some excellent early reviews (I know, early and all that). Has there been any preview / press showings over here yet? If so, anyone get to it and have any thoughts?

The source material (the book) is excellent so I'm really looking forward to this.

SK1979

SK1979 wrote: »

This seems to be the only thread on this film in the forum, strange!

Anyway, this is out on Friday and seems to be getting some excellent early reviews (I know, early and all that). Has there been any preview / press showings over here yet? If so, anyone get to it and have any thoughts?

The source material (the book) is excellent so I'm really looking forward to this.

Its out this Friday in the U.S, but the Irish release date is September 28th

SK1979

Deleted User wrote: »

Its out this Friday in the U.S, but the Irish release date is September 28th

Thanks bmbm, I just checked and you're right, its the 28th September. Sorry about that. I'm blaming my stupid Ireland Cinema Times app that says its out on the 6th.

Christ though, whatever about a week or two behind the states, its surely against the norm nowadays for it to be nearly 3 months?

Mickeroo

SK1979 wrote: »

Christ though, whatever about a week or two behind the states, its surely against the norm nowadays for it to be nearly 3 months?

Pixar movies tend to have a similar gap, though I'm not sure what the story is with Brave yet but its already out in the states and not here yet.

Its a pain in the ass and only makes people more likely to download and such, I don't understand why it hppens with high profile films.

Reviews thus far are not exactly glowing:

From Twitch

Savages, however, finds a new low for this auteur. It's a trashy, repulsive little flick, so darned unwatchable that it's not even fun to rip the thing apart.

DVDTalk

Savages is meant to be provocative and dangerous, but it's a sham. It says nothing about the war on drugs, or about violence in our culture, or even about one individual's capacity for bad choices and his or her atonement for the same. Savages is the cynical concoction of over-the-hill, one-time rebels trying to prove they are down with the kids and only end up appropriating what they think is the "new school" in the same desperate manner as any other commercial or corporate concern after the disposable income of the young.

Sad Professor

It has received several very positive reviews as well, from critics who I have a lot of time for. Roger Ebert, A.O. Scott, among others.

Sad Professor

Sad Professor wrote: »

It has received several very positive reviews as well, from critics who I have a lot of time for. Roger Ebert, A.O. Scott, among others.

Hopefully it's a return to form for Stone but from everything I've read I'm not getting setting my expectations to high. I know one friend who saw it awhile back and despised it, he called it the worst Stone film to date and compared it to the dreadful Joel Schumacher film Twelve.

latenia

Watchable from a drug/heist/kidnap movie point of view but the main story arc of the three-way romance was cringeworthy, especially when recounted by the most irritating voiceover I've ever witnessed in a film. The "heroes" are vapid self-absorbed douchebags - one of them is a white boy with dreadlocks who likes to tour Asia and tell stories of wonderful the people are when he comes home FFS. By the end I was cheering for the Cartel

but Stone wouldn't even give me the pleasure of seeing them all die by deploying the lamest deus ex machina I've ever seen not written by a child saying "I woke up and it was all a dream."

What saves this one is the performances of the 'old hands' Del Toro and Travolta and to a lesser extent Hayek who does what she can with a character that just doesn't ring true.

Happened to get the US Blu-Ray of this on Friday and just after watching it. Really must say that I was pleasently surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Sure it's an eercise in self indulgence and the Unrated cut could easily lose half an hour and be a better film but this is Stone at his most playful and while it lacks the gravitas of say Traffic it remains damn fine entertainment.

The cast are ecellent with the supporting cast really shining. Del Toro, Travolta, Demián Bichir and Hayek were having a blast and really made the film. The main cast, our three heroes were less successful though in no part due to the performances but rather the characters who were written as 2 dimensional as hell. Much was made of Kitsch being some cold hearted bad ass but it never came across onscreen. Much like the opposite was made of Johnson's character being some pacifist hippie but he really just came across as a doucebag who reminded me a lot of Andy Samberg's character in the TV show Cuckoo. Lively was window dressing and her 13 minute voice over at the start was painful, really lazy film making and completely uninteresting. The "I have orgasms he has wargasms" line is one of the most cringe worthy I have heard in a long time, really can't believe that anyone thought it was a good idea to leave it in.

A lot has been said of the ending with most hating it but I think it actually kind of worked. Sure it's cliched and lazy writing but it fits in witht eh films overall dream like quality. The score through out and many of the visuals work to create a somewhat surreal reality and if you wanted you could read into the ending as waking up from the dream.

nyarlothothep

This film was terrible, self indulgent with a farcical ending made all the more so by John Travolta's deus ex last minute entrance replete with late 70s Saturday Night Fever-esque music. The performances from the two male leads were in the smell one's own farts territory, ditto for the eco ethical weed growing angle, also the marines who turn up at every opportunity screamed of 'plot device.' An excessively overlong pompous film, completely silly in many instances. 1/10. The only other film which I saw that was worse this year was Shiver.

Kenny Logins

nyarlothothep wrote: »

This film was terrible, self indulgent with a farcical ending made all the more so by John Travolta's deus ex last minute entrance replete with late 70s Saturday Night Fever-esque music. The performances from the two male leads were in the smell one's own farts territory, ditto for the eco ethical weed growing angle, also the marines who turn up at every opportunity screamed of 'plot device.' An excessively overlong pompous film, completely silly in many instances. 1/10. The only other film which I saw that was worse this year was Shiver.

Have to agree on all points. This film was a complete mess.