Movie · 2012 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 2h 11m · R · English
Curator score: 1.9/10 (140.5K ratings)
Young. Beautiful. Deadly.
Overview
Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.9/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
Metacritic: 59
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
Oliver Stone
Production
Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Moritz Borman Productions
Cast
Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Travolta, Salma Hayek Pinault, Benicio del Toro, Emile Hirsch, Demián Bichir, Sandra Echeverría, Diego Cataño, Joaquín Cosío, Jake McLaughlin, Joel David Moore, Leonard Roberts, Shea Whigham, Jana Banker, Candra Docherty, Gary Stretch, Karishma Ahluwalia, Jonathan Carr
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
Savages is a glossy, overstuffed crime thriller with flashes of Oliver Stone’s old appetite for chaos, sex, and geopolitical paranoia. It has some strong location work, a few memorable performances, and enough momentum to keep genre fans engaged, but the tone is uneven and the script often feels more interested in provocation than coherence.
Best for
Oliver Stone completists
Viewers who like drug-war crime dramas
Fans of lurid, high-gloss 2010s thrillers
People who don’t mind campy dialogue and excess
Skip if
You want a tight, disciplined crime story
Bad dialogue is a dealbreaker
You prefer grounded realism over melodrama
You’re looking for a nuanced romance or cartel drama
Overview
Savages is the kind of movie that wants to be both a pulpy crime saga and a grand statement about greed, violence, and the rot inside modern power structures. That ambition gives it energy, but it also makes the film feel overloaded, with characters and plot turns competing for attention instead of building toward a clean payoff.
Worth noting
What works best is the surface-level filmmaking: sun-baked Southern California imagery, a few sharp action beats, and a cast that occasionally finds the movie’s sleazy, heightened rhythm. Benicio del Toro and some of the supporting players bring texture, even when the script gives them thin material.
Bottom line
What sinks it for many viewers is the dialogue and tonal whiplash. The movie swings from erotic melodrama to cartel brutality to black-comic absurdity, sometimes in the same scene, and not always with control. If you like crime films that are messy, excessive, and a little unhinged, there’s enough here to justify the ride; if you want precision, this is a rough watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
danica (2★) · 865 likes
the line “i have orgasms, he has wargasms" is possibly the worst thing i've ever heard in my life
nickusen · 476 likes
wonder if ryan reynolds has ever sat through this
Ozols (0.5★) · 378 likes
I almost turned it off at the three minute mark when Blake Lively says "I have orgasms, he has wargasms." I can't believe I almost paid to see this in theaters, it's way too long and besides Benicio Del Toro (the reason I watched it) and a few alright bits of action, there's really nothing to see here. Travolta, stop.
Scott Tobias (2.5★) · 146 likes
Wargasms.
Michael James (2.5★) · 143 likes
A neatly directed crime drama from Oliver Stone, one that offers some impressive cinematography, cool South California locations, good performances and savvy action sequences. It does manage keep one hooked enough with a decent entertaining vibe despite of being dark and messy. The characters of Salma Hayek and John Travalto felt weak had wish they had more meat. A passable watch.
2007 · Crime, Thriller, Western · 2h 2m · R · Curator 9.6/10 (3.1M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
Shares the fatalism, criminal pursuit, and desert menace, but with much tighter craft and far less self-indulgence.