New Yorker
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By David Denby
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Jul 23, 2012
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Stone devotes considerable ingenuity to making atrocity appear as a terrifying kind of home movie, but "Savages" is no more than a summertime debauch.
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LA Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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2
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By Billy Tatum
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Jul 18, 2012
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Three young people try to reinvent themselves, but find out that sometimes no matter what youdo, someone always seems to lose their head. At least, that's what Oliver Stone wants you tobelieve in the drug carnage flick 'Savages' based on the 2010 novel by Don Winslow.Chon (Taylor Klitsch) is an ex-Navy SEAL with the tatts and killer instincts to prove it. His best pal is the mellow do-gooder Ben (Aaron Johnson). Their best gal is Ophelia (Blake Lively)....
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Orlando Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Christopher Crespo
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Jul 14, 2012
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It’s been quite a while since Oliver Stone made a movie this fun and exuberant and not so weighed down by politics and posturing. Sure "Savages" is a movie about the U.S....
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New York Observer
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Critic Rating:
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2
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By Rex Reed
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Jul 12, 2012
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These are neither good people nor interesting savages, and they're not worth caring about. Neither is the movie.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Roger Moore
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Jul 10, 2012
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Can a movie be utterly done in by a botched ending? Maybe.
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Christian Science Monitor
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Peter Rainer
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Jul 07, 2012
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Savages isn't about anything except flashily directed mayhem. In this nest of vipers, it's the slitheriest varieties that survive -- at least for a time.
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Denver Post
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Lisa Kennedy
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Jul 07, 2012
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Savages points to a problem with gifted directors, which Stone is, like him or not: They can make a movie that aggravates, infuriates, falters even, but they can really make a movie.
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Globe and Mail
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Critic Rating:
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5
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By Liam Lacey
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Jul 06, 2012
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It all feels more like flexing atrophied muscles rather than creating a believable experience.
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Newsday
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Critic Rating:
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4
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By Rafer Guzman
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Jul 06, 2012
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"Savages" is a juvenile fantasy of bullets, breasts and bongs -- not such a bad thing, if Stone would just admit it and stop staging the film as a profound ethical wrestling match.
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New York Post
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Kyle Smith
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Jul 06, 2012
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This Elmore Leonard-style noir about lowlifes versus dirtbags is nasty, vicious fun.
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Detroit News
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Tom Long
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Jul 06, 2012
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"Savages" makes you wonder where Stone, that most pointed of directors, is going. And then it never gets there, backing off at the last minute. As such, it is literally a brutal disappointment.
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Washington Post
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Ann Hornaday
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Jul 06, 2012
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A candy-colored black valentine to titillation, garish brutality and groovy post-fin-de-siecle excess, this ode to cinema's most exploitative pleasures finds Stone chronicling America's dark side at its most sun-kissed.
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Newark Star-Ledger
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Critic Rating:
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5
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By Stephen Whitty
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Jul 06, 2012
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The occasionally sharp tone of Don Winslow's original novel has been lost, and the film's ending isn't much more than a joke.
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Chicago Reader
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By J. R. Jones
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Jul 06, 2012
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The real schism here, however, is between the brainless fun of the action plot and Stone's cheap exploitation of the cartels' real-life sadism.
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NPR
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By David Edelstein
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Jul 06, 2012
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Stone has evolved in the past decade and a half, and the new film has a deeper, more complicated perspective. The violence isn't a kick. It's horrifying, senseless.
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Wall Street Journal
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Joe Morgenstern
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Jul 06, 2012
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The movie's great surprise, and delight, is Salma Hayek's Elena, a svelte monster with a Cleopatra haircut who runs the cartel.
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Houston Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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6
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By Chris Sawin
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Jul 06, 2012
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Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) aren't your average pot growers. Ben is a Buddhist and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Chon is a former U.S. Navy SEAL. They were potheads who became pot masterminds solely because they wondered where the best stuff was (Afghanistan), shipped it directly to the states, and grew it themselves. Ben and Chon became the biggest pot supplier in Laguna Beach.They're best friends who share everything; even lovers....
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Detroit Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Tom Santilli
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Jul 06, 2012
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The lasting importance of Oliver Stone's latest film Savages is the performance of Benicio Del Toro. He plays Lado, a brutal hit-man for a Mexican drug cartel, and in doing so has created one of the fiercest, most iconic villains since Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh in the Coen's No Country For Old Men. It's a performance that stays with you and should be deserving of serious contention come award season. By far my favorite performance...
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West Palm Beach and Miami Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Steven Lebowitz
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Jul 06, 2012
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If William Shakespeare were alive today and writing screenplays instead of stage plays, he may have written "Savages", the new movie by director Oliver Stone. When you go see this movie don’t worry, no character says anything like, "Chon, where art thou?...
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Phoenix Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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4
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By Joseph Airdo
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Jul 06, 2012
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For a movie titled "Savages," writer/director Oliver Stone's latest crime thriller is awfully boring.That is not to say that it is even remotely tame, though. To be clear, this is one graphically violent movie. It is just that said graphic violence is too few and far between thanks to a sluggish pace that allows for more talk than action....
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Chicago Tribune
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Critic Rating:
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5
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By Michael Phillips
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Jul 05, 2012
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"Savages" has trouble making us care what happens to the beautiful people - the untouchables - at the center of the sun-baked fairy tale.
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Chicago Sun-Times
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Critic Rating:
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9
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By Roger Ebert
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Jul 05, 2012
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A return to form for Stone's dark side, "Savages" generates ruthless energy and some, but not too much, humor.
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Arizona Republic
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Bill Goodykoontz
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Jul 05, 2012
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While making such movies as "JFK" and "Natural Born Killers," Stone seemed fearless, both in what he put on screen and how he put it there. A lot of that spirit returns here.
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Entertainment Weekly
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Owen Gleiberman
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Jul 05, 2012
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Savages is Oliver Stone doing what he should have done a long time ago: making a tricky, amoral, down-and-dirty crime thriller that's blessedly free of any social, topical, or political relevance.
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TIME Magazine
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Richard Corliss
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Jul 05, 2012
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After a decade or so of suppressing his more lurid instincts, Oliver Stone is back in the bat-crap-crazy mode that made his Oscar-winning rap-sheet rep.
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New York Times
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Critic Rating:
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7
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By A.O. Scott
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Jul 05, 2012
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"Savages" is a daylight noir, a western, a stoner buddy movie and a love story, which is to say that it is a bit of a mess. But also a lot of fun, especially as its pulp elements rub up against some gritty geopolitical and economic themes.
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New York Daily News
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Joe Neumaier
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Jul 05, 2012
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Working from a novel by Don Winslow, Stone's landscape of corrupt innocents is beautifully nuanced, allowing every character, no matter how drug-war-weary, a chance to be shell-shocked.
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Film.com
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Critic Rating:
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7
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By Eric D. Snider
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Jul 05, 2012
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Hayek strikes the right balance between thinking too hard about the story's inherent nonsense and sitting back and enjoying the ride.
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Tampa Movie Examiner
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Critic Rating:
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4
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By Joe Belcastro
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Jul 05, 2012
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With Savages, director Oliver Stone decided to go full-blown Shakespeare on us. Or, at least try.Armed with an assortment of flawed characters, Stone methodically weaves a story centered around a drug cartel in Mexico, who tries to capitalize on two young "indie" California drug dealers’ popular, and creative, enterprise; which leads to kidnapping, betrayal, death and…an awful lot of chatter.In other words, a 136 minute modern-tragedy, covered w...
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Village Voice
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Karina Longworth
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Jul 04, 2012
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More than two hours long -- and building to two endings, one romantic-tragic and one quasi-ironic and romantic-ludicrous -- Savages is bloated with plot and exposition...
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ReelViews
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By James Berardinelli
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Jul 04, 2012
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Doesn't break much new ground in the genre but offers a volatile concoction of violence, heroism, and amorality that is compulsively watchable.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Critic Rating:
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9
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By Joe Williams
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Jul 03, 2012
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After decades of digging beneath the surface, Stone understands the synthesis of good and evil in a way that weekend savages cannot.
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indieWIRE
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Eric Kohn
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Jul 03, 2012
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Stone's uneven direction veers from near-amateurish genre antics to an enjoyable awareness of those same standards.
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EmanuelLevy.Com
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Emanuel Levy
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Jul 03, 2012
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Oliver Stone's dynamic direction elevates what could have been just another ultra-violent crime-thriller into an ironic, darkly humorous, and even poignant chronicle.
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Miami Herald
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Critic Rating:
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2
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By Rene Rodriguez
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Jul 03, 2012
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The superb craftsmanship and care behind Savages only helps to underscore what an asinine, unconvincing picture this is.
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Time Out New York
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Critic Rating:
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4
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By Joshua Rothkopf
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Jul 03, 2012
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When John Travolta and Benicio Del Toro show up for extended, cartoonish dialogues, you'll wonder what year it is, and let out a sigh of relief that the moment is long gone.
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Associated Press
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Christy Lemire
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Jul 03, 2012
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"Savages" is an enjoyably gratuitous romp, but with something to say.
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MSN Movies
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Critic Rating:
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4
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By Glenn Kenny
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Jul 03, 2012
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Frustration turned to irritation by the time the thoroughly anti-climactic, can't-make-up-its-mind dénouement finally rolls around.
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San Jose Mercury News
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Critic Rating:
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9
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By Randy Myers
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Jul 03, 2012
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With "Savages," Stone gets his mojo back and pulp-fiction fans are all the better for it.
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ComingSoon.net
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Critic Rating:
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7
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By Edward Douglas
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Jul 02, 2012
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Stone creates a gritty and violent modern crime-thriller that's both literary and lyrical at the same time.
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Boxoffice Magazine
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Critic Rating:
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8
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By Pete Hammond
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Jun 30, 2012
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The perfect Stone-r movie.
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HitFix
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Critic Rating:
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9
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By Drew McWeeny
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Jun 30, 2012
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While this is a ridiculously violent movie at times and there are some big chaotic action scenes, there's something delicate and small about 'Savages,' and I like that about it as well.
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Hollywood Reporter
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Todd McCarthy
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Jun 29, 2012
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Savages represents at least a partial resurrection of [Stone's] more hallucinatory, violent, sexual and, in a word, savage side.
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Variety
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Critic Rating:
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0
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By Justin Chang
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Jun 29, 2012
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The disreputable Oliver Stone of old makes a largely welcome reappearance.
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