Oliver Stone has always hit home runs controversially and commercially, but lately he’s been striking out critically. Savages, which came out back in July, is a break from Stone’s controversial oeuvre. Revolving around a drug cartel kidnapping and an unlikely friendship, Savages is one well-crafted, sexy-ass slugfest. It’s more U-Turn Stone than W. (I have no idea what Wall-Street: Money Never Sleeps was supposed to be) and despite its mediocre run in theaters (nothing this summer fared well in the shadow of The Avengers), it was one of the most entertaining films of summer 2012. Hit the jump to find out how the Universal Blu-ray holds up.

Oliver Stone, a remarkable wordsmith, can alternate from topic to topic with nary a breath in between.  A simple question on working with Salma Hayek can suddenly morph into Stone remarking on the nature of masculinity in the country to his first and only encounter with George W. Bush.  Add the equally outspoken Benicio Del Toro into the conversation – and it’s best just to shut up and let the two extraordinarily talented men talk.

The topic at hand was supposed to be the twosome’s collaborative effort: the unfairly maligned Savages (currently on DVD and Blu-ray); but the conversation veered from the film to thoughts on the drug war to a fourth cut of Alexander to Del Toro’s debut appearance in License to Kill to Stone’s current documentary series The Untold History of The United States, among many other topics of conversation.  For highlights from Stone and Del Toro, hit the jump.

A few casting notices:

• Benicio del Toro is in final negotiations to play Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in Paradise Lost, which is not exactly a Pablo Escobar biopic.
• Scoot McNairy booked two roles.  He will star opposite Michael Fassbender in Frank, and joins Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson in The Rover.
• The full cast list for Reach Me features Tom Berenger, Kevin Connolly, Thomas Jane, Sylvester Stallone, Kyra Sedgwick, Kelsey Grammer, Nelly, Terry Crews, Ryan Kwanten, and more.

Details on each project after the jump.

Steve walked the floor at the American Film Market (AFM) early this morning and managed to bring back some detailed synopses for the following films:

• Jane Got a Gun – A Western starring Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender
• Parkland – A drama about the JFK assassination starring Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti, and Jacki Weaver.
• The Green Inferno – The next directorial project from Eli Roth.
• A Walk Among the Tombstones – A crime thriller starring Liam Neeson.
• Agent: Century 21 – An action comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Benicio Del Toro.

Hit the jump to check out all the detailed synopses, which include production start dates.

As much as I enjoy film, my first entertainment love will always be music. As such, this weekend finds me in Chicago in anticipation of what could be my final Warped Tour appearance. That’s right, I’m a 26 year-old man (I use the term “man” lightly, of course) who still finds immense joy in the pop-punk genre. Nevertheless, it’s becoming harder and harder for my oldness to blend in with a predominantly sub-18 crowd without looking like a total creep and, therefore, today may very well be my last Warped experience. On the bright side, I still have XBox Live to remind me that I’ve never completely grown up.

Maturity issues aside, on tap in this week’s version of the Top 5 is a slew of interviews for The Amazing Spider-Man, the first trailer and new images for Tom Cruise‘s Jack Reacher, our most anticipated movies from July to September, Savages interviews with Oliver Stone, Blake Lively, etc., and more The Dark Knight Rises coverage than most humans are capable of comprehending. Links and brief recaps for each reside after the break.

The drama Savages, from three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, follows entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), and their shared girlfriend O (Blake Lively), who run a lucrative business raising some of the best marijuana ever developed.  But, the legendary weed of these Laguna Beach heroes soon catches the interest of the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by the merciless Elena “La Reina” (Salma Hayek).  Along with her brutal enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro) and her head attorney Alex (Demian Bichir), Elena demands a partnership which she ensures by kidnapping that which they love most, and what was once a peaceful and easy lifestyle becomes a high-stakes battle of wills.  For more on the film, here’s six clips.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Benicio Del Toro and Demian Bichir talked about what it was like to work with each other again (they had previously co-starred in Che), the freedom that director Oliver Stone gave them in portraying their characters, what resonated with them about the men they were playing, and their concerns with playing this type of role.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

A wise man once said*, “If you have them in the first fifteen minutes, you have a movie.  If you have them in the last fifteen minutes, you have a hit.”  By that metric, Oliver Stone‘s Savages is neither a movie nor a hit.  It begins with an atrocious first act full of flat expository narration including one of the worst lines of dialogue I’ve ever heard: “I have orgasms.  He has wargasms.”  That’s a deep hole to dig out of, but Savages manages to do so with a strong, thoughtful, exciting middle section that explore where people derive their power.  And then the movie falls apart with an ending that erases all the hard work the film had accomplished.

The drama Savages, from three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, follows entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), and their shared girlfriend O (Blake Lively), who run a lucrative business raising some of the best marijuana ever developed.  But, the legendary weed of these Laguna Beach heroes soon catches the interest of the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by the merciless Elena “La Reina” (Salma Hayek).  Along with her brutal enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro) and her head attorney Alex (Demian Bichir), Elena demands a partnership which she ensures by kidnapping that which they love most, and what was once a peaceful and easy lifestyle becomes a high-stakes battle of wills.  For more on the film, here’s six clips.

At the film’s press day, actor Aaron Johnson spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about how Oliver Stone wanted him for the film but didn’t immediately know for which role, how he enjoyed being challenged by the director, and the journey he went on with co-star Taylor Kitsch.  He also talked about the type of roles he wants to play, having read the Kick-Ass 2 script, which he says is definitely a hard R and that he expects will go into production in the Fall, and he addressed the recent statement that American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis made on Twitter about how he would be a good choice for the male lead in the film adaptation of the much-talked-about erotic novel 50 Shades of Grey.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

The drama Savages, from three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, follows entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), and their shared girlfriend O (Blake Lively), who run a lucrative business raising some of the best marijuana ever developed.  But, the legendary weed of these Laguna Beach heroes soon catches the interest of the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by the merciless Elena “La Reina” (Salma Hayek).  Along with her brutal enforcer Lado (Benicio Del Toro) and her head attorney Alex (Demian Bichir), Elena demands a partnership which she ensures by kidnapping that which they love most, and what was once a peaceful and easy lifestyle becomes a high-stakes battle of wills.

At the film’s press day, actor Taylor Kitsch talked about his reaction to director Oliver Stone wanting him for the role of Chon, how he prepared for the more intimate scenes in the film, what it was like to shoot his intense confrontation with John Travolta, the incredible attention to detail on set, how he felt about the ending, and his desire to stay away from projects with a lot of green screen for awhile.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

We’ve got a good selection of new posters to share with you today (in addition to these awesome examples from the upcoming Total Recall reboot).  Here’s what we have to offer:

• Taken 2 – The sequel to Pierre Morel’s Taken features the return of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) who finds himself on the wrong end of a kidnapping.  Taken 2 opens October 5th.
• Savages – Oliver Stone’s newest film stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two marijuana dealers who must rescue their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) from Mexican cartel runners (Salma Hayek and Benicio Del Toro). Savages opens July 6th.
• Magic Mike – Based on his real-life experience as a male stripper, Magic Mike follows Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello and more through their daily (and nightly) exploits.  Magic Mike opens June 29th.
• Won’t Back Down – Based on a true story of the fight to reform urban education, Won’t Back Down stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis.  The film opens September 28th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

We recently brought you a bunch of new images from director Oliver Stone’s upcoming crime drama, Savages. Now you can view Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson and Blake Lively in motion in six new clips!  The newest film from the three-time Oscar winner follows Ben (Johnson) and Chon (Kitsch) as two industrious pot growers who go up against a Mexican drug cartel who muscles in on their territory.  Elena, the cartel leader (Salma Hayek)  and her enforcer, Lado (Benicio Del Toro) find leverage in the form of Ben and Chon’s mutual girlfriend, Ophelia (Lively).  John Travolta also stars as a DEA agent.  Savages opens July 6th.  Hit the jump to check out the clips.

14 new images from Oliver Stone’s crime drama Savages have gone online.  The story centers on two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson) who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.  These images highlight Stone’s impressive supporting cast which includes Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta and Demian Bichir.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Savages opens on July 6th.

We’ve got a few casting stories to share this evening.  Briefly:

• Benicio Del Toro will star in the drama adaptation Jimmy Picard.
• Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine joins Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo in Can A Song Save Your Life?
• Footloose star Kenny Wormald is set for in the true story indie Kid Cannabis.

Hit the jump for more on each film.

The big sci-fi release of the summer has come and gone, and now it’s time to look at what the rest of these next few “big movie” months have to offer.  Buried between the animated fare and superhero pics is the next film from director Oliver Stone: the crime drama Savages.  While Stone has been relatively off his game for the past few years, Savages looks to be a return to the gritty crime-filled pics of his earlier career.  The story centers on two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson) who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.

As part of the film’s marketing campaign, a slew of “interrogation” videos have landed online.  They feature the principal characters of the film in an interrogation environment, and it gives us a chance to get to know these guys a bit more.  Hit the jump to take a look.  The film also stars Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta and Uma Thurman.  Savages opens on July 6th.

Director Terrence Malick is currently in production on his follow-up to the yet-to-be-released follow-up to last year’s The Tree of Life, and some set photos have revealed a new addition to the cast.  While we wait for a release announcement regarding Malick’s Ben Affleck-fronted romantic drama To the Wonder, the director is in the midst of filming Knight of Cups, one of two films he plans to shoot this year (the other is currently untitled, but was previously called Lawless).

Plot details for Knight of Cups are basically non-existent, but we know that Christian Bale stars alongside Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett and possibly Isabel Lucas.  We recently saw set photos of Bale and Portman horsing around on the beach, but new shots show Bale filming scenes with a punked-up Imogen Poots (Fright Night, Jane Eyre).  Hit the jump for more, including set photos and a humorous video of Malick caught on TMZ.