Savages Looks Nothing Short of Brilliance.

UK Release Date: 28th September 2012.

From acclaimed director Oliver Stone comes Savages, the story of two young marijuana growers Ben and Chon who face off against a Mexican cartel who have kidnapped their shared girlfriend.

The cast is a stellar one indeed featuring star after star. Taylor Kitsch headlines the film and despite his recent flops this one could buck the trend. Before, with John Carter and Battleship you could tell that they were never going to do that well, there was just something about them, whereas I think Savages looks a lot better than the both of them. Aaron Johnson looks almost unrecognisable as Ben, a marijuana growing graduate of the University of California. The rest of the cast has more stars in it than a pack of Milky Way Magic Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Salma Hayek, Benecio Del Toro, Blake Lively and Emile Hirsch, a fine cast indeed.

Savages is a crime thriller and audiences never get bored of the crime genre and everyone loves an exciting thriller and it looks as though Oliver Stone has captured the essence of the genres brilliant, although just a sneak peak the trailer provides great excitement and gives fans something to really look forward to.

The trailer itself introduces us to the three main characters and their unusual relationship in which the two men share Blake Lively’s character as she is the girlfriend to both of them. It is her narration that informs us who the characters are and tell us that even though she is narrating, it doesn’t mean she makes it out of the story alive (a good bit of dialogue delivered badly in the trailer, if it’s in the movie it better be more dramatic) but this provides an interesting story either way and Savages could be Stone’s next big hit!

Why Can’t Taylor Kitsch Catch a Break?

Taylor Kitsch is not having a year to remember by any stretch of the imagination. So far in 2012 he has headlined two huge box office flops; John Carter and Battleship. With Savages coming out later this year this could be his last chance to crack Hollywood as a leading man. It could have all been so different for Taylor Kitsch.

Kitsch’s first major role was in television show Friday Night Lights and, despite not having a high viewership it went down very well with critics and, the odd episodes I saw, I really enjoyed it; Kitsch himself was praised for his performance as the hard drinking and womanising running back Tim Riggins. It was his performance on the show that got him his big chances in Hollywood in the first place, so he must have some quality as an actor.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was Kitsch’s introduction to mainstream cinema audiences in the role of fan favourite X-men character, Gambit. This was only a smaller part in an ensemble cast and although the film was heavily criticised (especially by comic book fans) I thought Kitsch portrayed Gambit well and it’s a shame he won’t be reprising the role for The Wolverine.

John Carter of Mars was Taylor Kitsch’s big chance. It was hugely budgeted by Disney and prolifically marketed yet for one reason or another it just didn’t have enough pull to draw in audiences and cost Disney huge losses (which thankfully are now being recovered by The Avengers). Battleship was a chance for Kitsch to win back fans and critics with another starring role in a big budget film and yet this film failed again, largely because of the success of The Avengers. I think anything released at the same time as The Avengers was never going to do as well as it could have done another month.

Later on this year Taylor Kitsch is playing the lead role in Oliver Stone’s Savages. Stone is a well acclaimed director and the rest of the cast includes Aaron Johnson, Benicio del Toro, John Travolta and Uma Thurman so these factors could make Savages a success and bring Kitsch to public prominence which I think he deserves. Before casting Taylor Kitsch in the lead role Stone asked to see 30 minutes of footage from Battleship to get an idea of how Kitsch could handle being a leading man and something obviously impressed Stone enough to cast him.

I think that Taylor Kitsch is a good actor and deserves a proper chance. Perhaps it was a bit unfair throwing him in at the deep end in films with huge budgets because huge budgets tend to take away from actors performances and so people will see Kitsch as a failure because of the loss of money rather than his performances. If he started with movies that were more low budget then he would have had a better chance at making it as a leading man; it would have been helpful to build up an audience first before throwing him in as a lead action hero. However, I don’t think this is his fault, it is that of the studios.

Savages could be Kitsch’s last chance at being a leading man without having to start again because with potentially three huge flops with his name on it in the space of a year will not look good on his CV.