'Savages' a return to Oliver Stone's violent side

"Just because I'm telling you this story doesn't mean I'm alive at the end of it," O tells us at the beginning of Oliver Stone's chaotic, violent and sexy drug cartel thriller "Savages."

Oh, great. This means that Blake Lively's character O - short for Ophelia, as in Hamlet's main squeeze - could turn out to be a dead narrator just like William Holden in "Sunset Boulevard." Or maybe not a dead narrator.

Well, she's got to be one or the other. But why would a narrator bother to point out she could be either dead or alive at the end, when viewers will all find out soon enough?

Lively's O turns the first 20 minutes of "Savages" into a virtual book-on-tape experience as her voice-over narration introduces a trio of pot-growing protagonists, a plethora of sleazy supporting players, and the chief villainess: a ruthless Mexican cartel drug lady.

This lazy and annoying stylistic tip of the fedora to classic noir pulp novels doesn't stop even after "Savages" ventures into scenes that O's character could not possibly know about and therefore could not be reporting to us.

Nonetheless, sitting through some curdled spoon-fed exposition is a small price to pay to witness Oliver Stone's overdue return to the nervously humorous, violently crazy and nightmarishly hallucinogenic thrillers that have defined his early career.

Let's face it. Stone has long ago gone Styrofoam with his recent films "W.," "World Trade Center" and " Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

"Savages" celebrates the return of the "Natural Born Killers" Stone. The "U-Turn" Stone has made his own U-turn back to his element.

Based on Don Winslow's 2010 best-seller of the same title, "Savages" uses drug wars as a metaphor for how high-quality American-made goods become compromised and cheapened by imports and a "Wal-Mart" mentality.

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson), a philanthropic Buddhist, and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and mercenary, have little in common except their business, and the lovely O, lover to both men.

Ben and Chon have become rich growing and selling high-quality cannabis with a whopping 33 percent THC content, contrasted with 5 percent or less for imported hash.

Their stuff is so good that Elena (Salma Hayek, sporting a Cleopatra wig), the head of the deadly Mexican Baja Cartel, insists on becoming partners with the guys.

When they prove to be lukewarm to the deal, Elena's right-hand slimeball enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro, a wave of smoldering menace) kidnaps O and threatens to start snipping off body parts while the guys helplessly watch on their laptop.

Forced to play ball with Elena's rules, Ben and Chon come up with some inventive ways to fight back.

O's all-knowing voice-over narration explains it for us, and even tosses in a sports metaphor: "My boys took a page from Elena's playbook!"

(Seriously,like we couldn't figure this out for ourselves?)

Kitsch comes off as the Channing Tatum of the story, a gruff block of concrete who can move quickly.

Lively, when she's not feeding us superfluous data, has little to do other than look helpless and demand toothbrushes from her captors.

That leaves Johnson with the most intricate character, a Buddhist nice guy forced to visit the violent dark side to protect his friends.

Even so, none of these major cast members is nearly as interesting as Hayek, del Toro and John Travolta, whose guest-turn as a corrupt federal agent with a receding hairline provides the movie's most engaging character, one who actually gets laughs from being stabbed in the hand.

Reportedly, Stone's film softens the harder edges of Winslow's book, and that might explain why no woman in the movie takes her clothes off during sex or while climbing into a bath with Ben.

"Savages" traffics in some fairly gruesome executions and tortures, yet the movie possesses a loopy sense of humor that pops up in extremely awkward moments.

Let's give Stone some credit.

This may be the closest he ever gets to making his version of the French romantic triangle classic "Jules and Jim."

“Savages”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Benicio del Toro, Aaron Johnson, Salma Hayek, John Travolta

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations and extreme violence. 130 minutes