I paid very little mind to the man next to me who left his seat, never to return. Maybe he was a theater hopper, I thought. However, during the last half of the movie I noticed more people had left their seats and were not returning. This new Oliver Stone movie had bloody violence and graphic torture scenes; I wondered if I had just become jaded towards it. By the end of the movie at least one quarter of the audience had left early. As the film ended and the lights came on a manager announced apologies for the theater’s broken air conditioning. I had no idea that was the reason people were leaving during the movie. Did those individuals miss a great movie? Not really, but some aspects of it were good. The best part was Salma Hayek (Frida, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) as Elena, the head of a Mexican drug cartel. She was crazy good in this role. Another standout was her henchman Lado, played by Benico Del Toro (The Wolfman, Che: Part One and Two). Their cartel was determined to take control of the California based drug operations of Ben and Chon, played by Aaron Johnson (The Illusionist, Kick-Ass) and Taylor Kitsch(John Carter, Battleship). As I mentioned earlier, there were intense torture scenes in Oliver Stone’s version of violence. Though there were tight action scenes, I felt the character development was insufficient. The way Mr. Stone chose to do the ending was a turn off for me. On the plus side, this film kept my attention for me not to be aware of the theater’s lack of air conditioning.

2 2/3 stars

http://youtu.be/xcptJ-Ja3_E