In 1971, journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his companion Dr
Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) arrive in Las Ve, ostensibly so Raoul
can cover the Mint 400 off-track race. The duo embark on a
massive drugs binge, checking into the Mint hotel before visiting
the Bazzoka Circus casino while high on ether. The hedonistic
weekend continues the following day, with Raoul and Gonzo meeting
various way-out characters along the way. Watch out for cameos by
Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci and Gary Busey in Terry Gilliam's
visually stunning adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's cult novel.
From .co.uk
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The original cowriter and director of Fear and Loathing in Las
Ve was Alex Cox, whose earlier film Sid and Nancy suggests
that Cox could have been a perfect match in filming Hunter S.
Thompson's psychotropic masterpiece of "gonzo" journalism.
Unfortunately Cox departed due to the usual "creative
differences," and this ill-ed adaptation was thrust upon Terry
Gilliam, whose formidable gifts as a visionary filmmaker were
squandered on the seemingly unfilmable elements of Thompson's
ether-fogged narrative. The result is a one-joke movie without
the joke--an endless series of repetitive scenes involving
rampant substance abuse and the hallucinogenic fallout of a road
trip that's run crazily out of control. Johnny Depp (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Johnny%20Depp+-ntsc )
plays Thompson's alter ego, "gonzo" journalist Raoul Duke, and
Benicio Del Toro (
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) is his sidekick and so-called lawyer Dr. Gonzo. During the
course of a trip to Las Ve to cover a motorcycle race, they
ingest a veritable chemistry set of drugs, and Gilliam does his
best to show us the hallucinatory state of their zonked-out
minds. This allows for some dazzling imagery and the rampant
humour of stumbling buffoons, and the mumbling performances of
Depp and Del Toro wholeheartedly embrace the tripped-out,
paranoid lunacy of Thompson's celebrated book. But over two hours
of this insanity tends to grate on the nerves--like being the
only sober guest at a party full of drunken idiots. So while
Gilliam's film may achieve some modest cult status over the
years, it's only because Fear and Loathing is best enjoyed by
those who are just as stoned as the characters in the movie.
--Jeff Shannon
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Synopsis
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Fear and Loathing in Las Ve is a whirlwind of a movie, a
wacky, drug-laden story backed by a fist-pumping rock & roll
soundtrack featuring everything from Wayne Newton and Tom Jones
to Combustible Edison and Dead Kennedys. Journalist Raoul Duke
(Johnny Depp) heads to Las Ve to cover a motorcycle race,
bringing along his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro),
in this furious adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. It
is 1971, and Duke and Gonzo are on their way to Sin City with a
frightened hitchhiker (a nearly unrecognizable Tobey Maguire) and
a trunkful of drugs, which they ingest nonstop. Depp is terrific
as Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and Del Toro is a riot as the
crazy lawyer. To perfect his Thompsonian performance, Depp spent
a lot of time with the good doctor, and it paid off in a film
that captures the frenetic pace of the counterculture novel.
Director Terry Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual
imagery, has a field day interpreting the drug-hazed world in
which Duke and Gonzo reside. An all-star cast chimes in with
wonderfully offbeat bit parts, including Harry Dean Stanton,
Gilliam regular Katherine Helmond, Flea, Cameron Diaz, Ellen
Barkin, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Lyle Lovett, and others.
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