Savages

First Hit:  Overly done mishmash of drugs, violence and machismo.

Oliver Stone has done a wide assortment of films and many of them have stories based in violence.

This one is another of those violent films of his and it appears he wanted to say something about the word savages. What the point was of this movie didn’t land on me.

I found this film overly acted (by Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek to name too examples) while aiming to shock the audience with the type of the uncaring violence we see in the news coming out of Mexico.

My interpretation of the purpose of this film was to see what happens when two friends Ben and Chon (played by Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch respectively), have their shared girlfriend O (played by Blake Lively) is taken from them because they didn't want to do a drug deal. The three of them love their life by making, selling and using their high grade pot.

Chon is an Iraqi war vet and is a cold killer but only has to use his skills occasionally to keep the drug payments flowing to their business. Ben is a botanist and is the creator of their product which exceeds all other pot in the world. He’s kind hearted and does volunteer work throughout the world when he’s not creating a new strain.

Elena (Hayek) is the leader of a Mexican drug cartel that wants Ben and Chon’s (names reminded me of Cheech and Chong – bad choice of names) product. Elena's enforcer is Lado (played by Del Toro). The film, which early on depicts beheadings and later on with lots of uncaring machismo violence, has no real point except we get to see Ben and Chon get their girl back after Elena kidnaps her to force a deal with the weed makers. For some acting relief, Stone has John Travolta as Dennis the dirty Federal Drug Agent.

Lively is pretty and, at times, plays an effective stupid girl who is a full blown pothead. Johnson is supposed to be the smart cool one and at times he’s OK in this role. Kitsch holds his role as non-caring enforcer well enough. Del Toro is overly slimy in his portrayal of an enforcer. Hayek is wasted in her role as an accidental drug cartel leader. Travolta made the most of his role and screen time. Shane Salerno, Don Winslow and Oliver Stone wrote this poorly constructed script with some stupid lines like “went all Henry the 8th on them”. Stone looks like he found a way to imbibe himself in drugs and violence once again.

Overall:  I enjoyed seeing my old playground town of Laguna Beach, but everything else was wasted – just like how the main characters spent most of their time.

Kick Ass

First Hit: An oddly funny and intensely dark action oriented film that is compelling to watch.

My interpretation of the previews was that this would be more comedy than anything else. I was wrong.

This film is also dark and intense. The beginning sets this tone with a young man standing on a very tall building spreading the wings of this superhero costume, the voice over has you believe the voice and person on the building are one in the same. The voice over is talking about the phenomenon as to why more people haven’t tried to become a superhero.

Meanwhile, in the street below, people are standing looking up at the young man as he spreads his wings and jumps off the building. As he speeds towards the ground the crowd gasps and is enthralled. Watching, we all expect him to turn up and either glide or fly to a landing. Instead he just continues straight down crashing head first on to a taxi. Shocking, yes but that isn’t the end of these sorts of scenes.

This film follows the journey of a self proclaimed nerdy young man named Dave "Kick Ass" Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) attempting to find his own place in the world by becoming a super hero. Although Dave gets his ass kicked on his first outing as Kick Ass, it gets filmed on mobile phones and these exploits go viral on the internet. He becomes a hero with his own website and emails flood in asking him for his assistance.

In another parallel story, Damon Macready aka Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Mindy aka Hit Girl (played by Chloe Moretz) are practicing their ability to kill and maim efficiently and accurately. They seize on the new wave excitement that Kick Ass is bringing and join him on one of Kick Ass’s attempts to bring justice.

However, what happens is that Big Daddy and Hit Girl (she’s 12 years old) waste the bad guys in a way that shocks Kick Ass. The real goal of Big Daddy and Hit Girl is to kill the town’s mobster and his minions because they killed Big Daddy’s wife.

It is a wild story by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and made even more intense and visual by Vaughn’s direction. It is comic book, it is outrageously violent (Tarantino like), and it is touching.

Johnson is really good as this guy who can look nerdy and cool all at the same time. The cool kids see him as nerdy and the nerdy kids see him as cool. As Kick Ass he’s perfect. Cage is his usual wild eyed, yet caring father who is a little twisted. Moretz on the other hand is amazing. She carried off the look and feel of a girl doing all the things that she does as Hit Girl. Crouching behind a foyer sculpture stand she looks frightened like a 12 year old, yet when she steps out to kill 7 men shooting at her, she is a superhero and looks it.

Overall: A very entertaining film, but there are shocks and therefore this isn’t your typical film and it is rated R for a reason.

The Greatest

First Hit:  This film is about grief and has some wonderful moments but it is overly melodramatic and manipulative.

I’m not sure why Carey Mulligan strives to play a teenager when she is clearly not one. Once again, just as in “An Education”, her age and maturity level are out of line with the part. That doesn’t make her a bad actress, in fact she’s rather good but she cannot play teenage parts.

Here she plays Rose, a high school senior, who passes the same boy, Bennett (played by Aaron Johnson), every day as they each leave school. For four years they’ve passed each other in the hallway always timing it so that they meet each other but don't speak.

It is the last day of their senior year at school and this time as they pass he speaks to her. As they both suspect, they are immediately attracted to each other and end up going off somewhere to make love. 

While driving back; he stupidly (naive urgency) stops in the middle of the road because he wants to tell her he loves her. Just as the words come out of his mouth, their car is hit by a truck and he dies, almost immediately (this is an important point). She lives and is able to make it to the funeral and there we see the pain of Bennett's family. Susan Sarandon plays Grace his mother and she is clearly devastated.

Pierce Brosnan plays Allen his father who is stoic, holding things together but clearly not processing his grief. And, then there is his younger brother Ryan (played by Johnny Simmons), who is struggling with his loss through mind numbing drugs.

All of this happens before film name credit awkwardly hits the screen on Brosnan's chest. The name comes from what Rose told him about his first time as a lover and what his parents think of him, “he was the greatest”.

This film is set up for boo hooing and tears. There are scenes that really work, like dinner the first night Rose comes to stay with them because she is pregnant with Bennett’s child.

Mulligan, as I said is too old for her part and although she does a fine job, I think it would have been better if she were a college senior and not a high school senior, but then again the story would have had to change as well. Sarandon is not very real to me in her expression of grief. It feels a bit contrived, forced and over manipulative. Brosnan, at times, is extraordinary in his role. I actually felt the pressure cooking within him as he attempted to hold himself and his family together as his grief slowly envelops him. Simmons is rather good as the younger brother who is struggling to deal with his own sadness as well as being the son who wasn’t “The Greatest” but is the only one left.

Overall: The film feels manipulative in the way scenes and dialogue are set up to make you feel something. I’d rather have an honest story be told in a real way and let me find my feelings rather than be manipulated into having a feeling.