Not going to leave a lengthy review here. Maybe will add later. Curious to other opinions on the film. Spoilers may follow, be warned.

The movie starts slow. The female lead does a VO for what feels like the first 10 minutes. It goes on and on, and becomes a major distraction. Especially since what she says is for the most part uninteresting.

There's also a strange aspect to the beginning where it seems like this is going to incorporate a mixed found footage element. This is even reflected in her narration. But other than the beginning and a few shots at the end, the only other times this technique is used is when they're showing surveillance video shots, which are fairly frequent in the film(I think this technique, the mixed FF type shots, it going to become prevalent).

The film eventually finds its groove, at least to the extent that it becomes continuous tension with a clear goal, the rescue of the girl. The tension builds so the story keeps you awake.

There are some strange choices, however, in which you can almost see the writers in a room arguing over the plot. For example, the ticking clock aspect seems forced into the plot to create urgency. It just doesn't make sense, and it's clearly only there as a cheap plot device.

The strangest choice comes at the end, and...spoiler alert...this is going to piss a lot of writers off. We go through the dramatic conclusion at the end where several things happen. First, our main protag completes his arc. He's a nice guy who doesn't believe in violence, but has to learn the lesson that sometimes violence is necessary to protect those you care about. This is the clearest arc in the story. His arc culminates in his shooting the bad guy in this ending. But he is shot in the process, a mortal wound. Meanwhile, the other two protags, his blood brother and girlfriend, all commit suicide in order to die with him. They just can't live apart. So this is the final shot, the 3 of them on the ground dead, the bad guys dead around them.

And then this: rewind. The narrator comes back to tell us that this was the ending she imagined, her dream ending. The footage rewinds several minutes, and then we get the real ending.

Leaving aside the annoyance factor for that, the main issue is that it leaves the character arc of the main protag incomplete. He never fully becomes the killer he needs to. It really feels like the writers wanted that ending and the studio wouldn't let them. Maybe that's not what happened, but that's what it feels like.

A word on the violence. I'm not against violence, and I have plenty of it in my scripts. But I'm not sure what it says about us that apparently we need this level of constant violence in order to be stimulated. There are times it feels like the violence is not completely connected to the story. It's certainly not needed, not all of it. Grindhouse is one thing, because it's kind of tongue in cheek. But it's apparently becoming something the director feels is needed now to move his film.

Stone tries to frame his story as though he's making a larger point. He deludes himself. I'm not even going to go into it. It's not even worth it. The film works from the perspective of creating tension, and in that several of the performances are worth watch, such as Del Torro's. It's not the kind of film you'll ever go back to watch a second time. If you want to be more or less stimulated for a couple of hours, it's worth a few bucks.

Damn, Kev, you're all of a sudden a movie going guy.  What happened?  Did your money tree start bearing fruit, or what?  

I plan on seeing this one this week and will leave my feedback.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this one. I'm still not sure myself completely what I think of it. Sometimes it takes a few days to digest for me. I hope you didn't read my review! Pretty big spoiler.

I did not read it, as I saw potential spoilers, and decided I didn't want to know anything.

Finally got to see this today.  I was worried it may leave the majority of theaters tomorrow and I definitely wanted to see it on the big screen.

So...I have mixed feelings, as I had mixed feelings while watching as well.  The movie is a mixed bag any way you look at it.

It's very violent and bloody, and played for reals on 1 hand, but then it's so over the top and downright goofy on another hand, it's hard to decide what Mr. Stone was really going for here.  IMO, it is not to be taken seriously, and I'll base that on 2 things...

1)  Travolta's character and his performance - neither was good.  Actually, both were really bad.

2)  Del Toro's wig - This thing should have showed up as the credits rolled, as it was just unbelievable.  Lado as a character was a real badass all the way around, but like Travolta's Dennis, it got to the point where it was just too over the top, that it became a sort of a joke, to be honest.  And the biggest reason for laughing, was that wig - just terrible.

I liked much of the movie, especially the first 45 minutes or so.  I didn't like how Ophelia had to have sex while still wearing her top all the time.  Show those pups, Blake...c'mon now...

Once O was taken, things fell apart for me, as the reality of the happenings lost all touch with reality.  The actions of the characters, the action itself, and the plot all spiraled downward together.

A big problem for me was that I knew damn well what was going to happen, for the most part, in that our 2 lovable stoners were going to come up with a plan to thwart the evil cartel, and we'd have some kind of big confrontation at the end.  There just wasn't anywhere else to go here.

You know, for being this bigtime evil powerful cartel honcho, Selma Hayak's Elaina was a complete idiot.  I'm not gong to offer any spoilers here, but let's just say the last 45 minutes of they movie shouldn't have happened if this cartel had any clue what they were doing.

OK, 2 things to quickly discuss...

1)  The constant VO from O - I agree it was irritating, as VO's usually are.  It was also just a bad decision, IMO, as it added to the cheese factor here and by saying at the opening (in VO) I may or may not be dead now, but I'm still going to narrate this for you, I think Stone blew any chance he had of making a movie that would/could be taken seriously.

2)  The ending - The ultimate sin - an ending that's literally nothing but a dream.  A 10 minute sequence filled with action, suspense, and all the bloody gunfare you can imagine...and it's all a fucking dream?  For reals?  Unreal.  Then, the actual, "real" ending comes along and I almost have to believe that Stone knew damn well his audience would be laughing along with him, or maybe laughing at him.  Foolish, goofy, completely unrealistic.

But you know what?  I actually liked the movie overall, as it did have its moments.  I'd say it was a disappointment compared to what I thought it would be and what it could have been, but loads better than most of the garbage out there.

Sounds like we're on the same page. Don't tell anyone!

Travolta was so bad it was almost like a spoof of Travolta. I liked Del Torro, though. We agree on the VO and the ending.

The movie applies steady tension, so it entertains. It's a movie you watch once. And if not for our duty to report to Simplyscripts, it's a movie you forget by the time you reach your car. So it's basically an amusement park ride. A shame that this is all Stone can do these days. But not a bad ride.

I caught the Director's Cut (142 minutes) last night.
And I thought this was a very mixed bag.
Was shocked at how slow this one felt.

The movie slowed to a crawl once O got kidnapped.
Abduction is typically when movies pick up speed, but not these stoners. LOL.

The VO misdirect was irksome and didn't pay off at all.
I felt the direction here was... lazy. Shot choices felt very static.
And everyone kept calling everyone else savages. Really?

Worst ending I've seen in a while. Oh, man.
After two plus hours, I get slapped in the face for my trouble.
And for a movie about two guys sharing a hot woman, it was sadly, boobless.

Also had a hard time wrapping my brain around the Kick-Ass kid being the hero here.
Felt like this was a half hearted attempt to hybridize U-Turn and Scarface.

E.D.

The three of us basically on the same page.

That's a bad omen! Like a lining up of the constellations! Like 2012! Oh damn, it is 2012. Something's goin' down.

That makes four of us. Stone hasn't made a good movie since JFK. Views on the subject matter aside, I'm sure most are on the same page regards the quality of the filmmaking and performances. Savages, however, is not really sure what it wants to be and the plot is barely coherent. Agree with the Lenihan that Del Toro was good - especially during the sandwich scene at Travolta's. Unfortunately, DT didn't have that intensity in his character throughout, but he was top notch with his threats towards JT.

Not really a fan of the rewind - much like Haneke's self indulgent equivalent in Funny Games - and it ended the film on a note that left me disappointed. Also didn't think the two leads were up to much. They required a little more gravitas to carry off the characters.

Quoted from Electric Dreamer Worst ending I've seen in a while. Oh, man. After two plus hours, I get slapped in the face for my trouble.

That about sums this one up, it almost felt like the studio couldn’t figure out how to end the movie so they put two endings together.

It literally rewinds “Wayne’s World” style and has an alternative ending which had me groaning and about ready to throw in the towel there and then.

There are errors of logic throughout the plot and the characters were just not likeable at all. Others have already mentioned the flaws including the VO which was poor.

A disappointing one for sure.

I'm halfway through the novel this is based on, and it's a damn good book, as are all of Don Winslow's.

The Power Of The Dog is even better than is, powerful stuff.

Anyway, I checked out the trailer and reviews for this, out of interest. I could see straight away that the feeling of the book had been typically fucked up by Hollywood( what's new?). Read some reviews on imdb and the consensus was it was garbage.

Check out the book, guys, it rocks so far. The movie could've been better with a better cast for the 3 young leads.