Is Oliver Stone Back To His Best With 'Savages'?

Oliver Stone releases his new movie 'Savages' on Friday (July 6, 2012), though the controversial director's latest movie has not enjoyed the same level of publicity attached to his previous efforts. Nevertheless, it boasts a stellar cast include Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta and appears to have split critics straight down the middle.

Though fans of Stone's hard-hitting movies will head to theaters this weekend in search of more of the same, a younger generation may be also attracted to movie, for the likes of Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively. A solid box-office placement is highly likely, though is the movie any good? Time magazine seems to think so, writing, "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". The usually hard-to-please A.O Scott of the New York Times was also impressed, writing, "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". The movie follows a couple of friends who run a home-grown marijuana business, only be to be forced into a partnership by a Mexican Baja Cartel. Though the film has its fair share of admirers, not everyone is so enamoured with Oliver Stone's comeback. Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote, "While Savages aims for provocative and dynamic, it comes off as predictable and strained".

Stone is best known for his movies JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994). In recent years, he's made 'World Trade Center' and 'W'.