2. Savages
I have always given Oliver Stone plenty of rope, despite the fact he has not made a good movie in well over a decade. I had high hopes for Savages, a film eschewing Stone's overt political angles and current-events obsessions to make way for a violent and hyper-active action flick. The film, about two California drug dealers taking on Mexican cartels, looks great. But it has the most hollow and annoyingly drab core. Most of the blame goes to the two leads, Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson, who have no charisma, and the female lead (Blake Lively) who plays her part as a dingy stoner chick. I could never buy into the three-way relationship between these characters, and didn't care what happened to any of them in the end. Benicio Del Toro is the only saving grace as Lado, the muscle of a drug cartel headed up by Salma Hayek. He chews the scenery as it should be chewed. Everyone else is sleepwalking. And speaking of the ending, what a manipulative give up that undercuts anything admirable before it. However little that may have been.