Moments in Oliver Stone’s pulpy drug caper, Savages, connect with the violence and horror it wants to evoke. But then Blake Lively’s sleepy, surfer-girl narration pops up and any goodwill washes away. Lively, as “O,” brings nearly nothing to her role as lady love to a couple of polyamorous pot-growing buddies (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Taylor Kitsch). When “O” is kidnapped by a drug cartel trying to teach her loves a lesson, the boys instead fight fire with fire to get her back. Veterans, like a fierce Salma Hayek as the cartel boss and a slimy Benecio del Toro as her number two, are left to do the heavy lifting here. The director and his protagonists seem more concerned with stoner philosophizing about the currency of violence. Which doesn’t exactly burn up the screen.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2012.