Fear
and loathing in a movie theater is more like it. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
is a sporadically entertaining film based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson,
that becomes quite tedious towards the last quarter of it's 130 minute running
time.
Terry
Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) directs Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro as two
drugged-out buddies who take a road trip to Las Vegas. While on their journey,
they try every drug they can get their hands on.
Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas has some very funny moments and some striking images,
but essentially it's a one joke movie that wears itself thin. Depp is solid as
the Gonzo journalist, but Del Toro steals the show as his psychotic lawyer with
a substance abuse problem that surpasses even that of Depp's strung out character.
Gillliam's camera work and effects will no doubt give the audience a hallucinatory
experience, but the material just isn't all that interesting. I've never read
any of Thompson's stuff, and maybe that was part of the problem.
Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas is well acted, well directed, and chalk full of great
cameos, but it just wasn't a very memorable experience.
