Savages Reviews
Las Vegas CityLife
compelling action scenes with momentum-killing dialogue digressions
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Deadspin
Amid all the violence and profanity, Oliver Stone reveals a begrudging respect for his damned characters.
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: D-
Eclipse Magazine
Well made and slickly made but amoral junk.
| Original Score: F
eFilmCritic.com
This is by no means Oliver Stone's best work. But it's his best work in well over a decade.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
ABC Radio (Australia)
Veers way off course in its second act, becoming confusing and vague - indeed, stoned. But it all comes good in the end.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Projection Booth
Essentially stupid, but stylistically invigorating, like watching a genius muck about with finger paints like a child on a sugar high. And then it throws it back in your face.
| Original Score: 3/4
The Vine
This film goes about as deep and dark as a summer high. Sure there are flashes of mexploitation fun, but ultimately it's just way too mellow, man.
ABC Radio Brisbane
Savages reels you in but then doesn't finish the job.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
The Mercury
Oliver Stone isn't known for making pretty films but ugly is something he does very well.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
3AW
A good piece of gritty, grown-up entertainment. One question, though - has Oliver Stone lost his movie mojo?
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
FILMINK (Australia)
It's a dirty and messy firecracker of a film, but one that's directed with thrill and skill.
Trespass
Its energy has long deflated before an ending that will try the patience of even the most forgiving viewers. There's little to defend once Stone and company have so eagerly adopted the cheap twists of a latter day Shyamalan picture.
MovieFIX
Savages is a hot mess - beautiful actors and locations mixed with a plot that starts strong but ultimately turns into a snooze-fest. With a lead villain seemingly ripped from the cover of Cosmo magazine, Stone's latest flick savagely disappoints.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
The Age (Australia)
The messy insouciance wears a little thin, and by the time we get to the absurdity of the extended ending, enough is definitely enough.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
At the Movies (Australia)
I think it's really interesting that Oliver Stone has gone back to this visceral, mischievous, hard-hitting filmmaking.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
At the Movies (Australia)
The three leads are a bit on the bland side but perhaps that's the way California potheads are. Del Toro and Travolta are terrific in their more interesting roles.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
sbs.com.au
Stone does his best with the material-aided by no less than three credited editors-but can't compensate for the void at the film's centre. An absence less of morality, than of simple chemistry.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Urban Cinefile
Bloody violent, bloody savage and bloody wonderful, Oliver Stone's Savages shows how well a talented filmmaker can transform a novel into a movie
Urban Cinefile
Spraying flair as well as blood, Oliver Stone's über-colourful and graphically violent thriller depicting drug cartels, double dealings, foul play and sex is a wild, full throttle experience
