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Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 08 July 2012

SAVAGES (Rated R)

Brutal, violent nihilism runs rampant in Oliver Stone’s “Savages,” as if the director was channeling his basest instincts from “Natural Born Killers.”

The famed cinematic master has stepped off his soapbox, foregoing his predictably preachy tendencies to swaddle his audience in a torrent of political and societal diatribes.

If there’s a message to be found in “Savages,” it is a cautionary warning that the uninitiated had better give up any thoughts of poaching on the turf of violent Mexican drug cartels.

To drive home that point, a videotape warning is delivered early on to two laid-back Southern California dope peddlers. Enemies of the cartel are grotesquely beheaded.

The warning is directed to Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson). These two childhood drug-dealing buddies live a lavish lifestyle in an oceanfront pad in tony Laguna Beach.

A veteran of the Afghanistan war, Chon brought back home powerful cannabis seeds from his several tours of duty in the war-torn country famous for drug crops.

Battle-scarred and muscle-bound, Chon uses his Special Ops training and war-zone skills to be the physical protector of an elaborate marijuana production plant.

The shy, quiet Ben, a former biology student and the brains of the operation, happens to be so mellow that he spends time in Africa doing charitable work.

Ben and Chon share more than just an interest in weed. In a strange love triangle, both of them share the love of the free-spirited Ophelia (Blake Lively), who goes by the name of O.

Using their smarts and ingenuity, the two guys have created a very powerful strain of marijuana with an unusually high level of THC. Stoners would call it “good stuff” or words to that effect.

While the California trio would love to enjoy the surfing lifestyle, their success draws the unwanted notice of a vile Mexican drug cartel run by Elena Sanchez (Salma Hayek) and her violent henchmen.

At first, the cartel sends guys in suits offering a sweet deal to partner with Ben and Chon, which anyone with a half-brain would instantly recognize as the first volley in a hostile takeover.

After being rebuffed, the Mexican cartel ups the ante with violent warnings of decapitation, leading to the kidnapping of O where she’s threatened with immediate physical harm.

The American boys scheme a big money heist from other drug dealers to buy O’s freedom, but that ploy fails to do the trick.

As ruthless Elena leaves the dirty work to others, she dispatches her chief enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro), a decidedly vile monster to get what she wants.

Unlike a savvy chess player, Elena doesn’t figure that Ben and Chon would turn the tables by kidnapping her beloved daughter attending college in the United States.

A key player in the twisted tale of corruption and double crosses is John Travolta’s slimy, crooked DEA agent, a man on the take from every drug operation north and south of the border.

Del Toro is brilliant as the volatile, raging sociopath, while Travolta brings a welcome element of dark humor to his role of a corrupt official with flexible convictions. These delightful two are like characters from “Pulp Fiction.”

Often, the villains are the ones to liven up the action, and that’s certainly the case here. Hayek’s coldly malicious drug lord is mere icing on the cake.

Bouncing back from the disaster of “John Carter,” Taylor Kitsch provides an explosive performance as the smoldering anti-hero, ably assisted by Aaron Johnson’s less savage portrayal of a sidekick.

“Savages,” a brutal, violent action film, is, after all, savage. This is fitting for an Oliver Stone who decided to roll the dice to exploit the savagery of the raging drug wars.

The film’s ending may prove troubling for many viewers, because it is both self-indulgently clever and preposterous.

Other than that, “Savages” is a good movie for the cold-blooded warring drug cartel genre.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.