Chon and Ben (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively) are friends and business colleagues who live in the beautiful gated seaside community of Laguna Beach. They produce some of the finest weed available in the western world through a mutually beneficial partnership (Harvard educated Ben is the brains, while Iraq vet Chon provides the brawn) and their idea of a joint venture also extends beyond work, as they both share the same gorgeous young girlfriend, ‘O’ (Blake Lively).
Their blissful lifestyle is disrupted by the arrival of a notorious Mexican drug cartel headed by Elena (Salma Hayek), who dispatches her lawyer (Oscar nominee Demián Bichir) and hatchet man, Lado (Benicio del Toro) to broker a deal with the Californian duo. As to be expected, Chon and Ben are a little hesitant in joining forces, so as a means of strong-arming the pair, Elena has her crew kidnap O. With the clock ticking (Stone actually uses a digital countdown splashed across the screen at one juncture) they set out to save their loved one, enlisting the help of a crocked DEA agent (John Travolta) and Chon’s fellow ex-grunts.
His efforts are also stymied in the casting of Lively as the damsel in distress. Her superficial rich girl routine comes across as largely unsympathetic (a fault which must also be attributed to the writing) and as the time ebbs away whilst she’s held captive, it grows incredibly hard to stay emotionally invested in her fate. The anodyne narration she delivers (which is peppered with some excruciatingly overwrought lines) doesn’t help things either.
By the time the cheated ending reveals itself, most of the audience goodwill has been spent, and although Stone desperately wants to be down with the kids, his efforts end up looking dated and, sadly, a little irrelevant.
[Rating:2/5]