Director: Oliver Stone
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 1.0
Two successful pot growers (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) go up against a nasty Mexican cartel lord (Salma Hayek) and her sleazy henchman (Benicio Del Toro) when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) gets kidnapped - playing both sides is a corrupt DEA agent (John Travolta). Stone's best films have a controversial and misguided and, well, crackpot view of American politics, while here he's contrasting this Proto-Hip Free Love, Good Drugs Californian way of life to the Loveless, Ruthless Mexican way of life - the mentions of the Occupation in Iraq/Afghanistan (Kitsch's character is a Vet) are awkwardly inserted (also awkwardly inserted: the sweaty, violent sex scenes) and the dialogue is consistently dreadful (also dreadful: the acting, particularly Lively and her 'philosophical' voice-over readings). I get the impression every time Stone tries to do this kind of hip Natural Born Killers-type movie (also see: U-Turn) his penchant for stylistic excess (ugly colors, constant cutting, overbearing music) get the better of him (also see: Tony Scott).
