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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Criterion Collection

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Criterion Collection

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $29.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: buy the ticket, take the ride
Review: outstanding performances by depp and del toro. fast paced, capturing the feel of vegas in the early 70's. great cameos by ellen barkin, cameron diaz, gary busey, christina ricci and of course the incredible doctor thompson himself. the lizard and drug frenzied scenes were typical terry gilliam. depp as he tends to do in his films "became" thompson. fear and loathing isn't for everyone but it has an edge and either you get it or you don't...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ellen Barkin ...
Review: An strange and interesting movie. I knew Ellen Barkin was in it, but had forgotten until I saw the credits. I watched the credits to find out who played the waitress in one of the scenes near the end of the film, and it was Barkin. I was astounded! I didn't recognize her. It was a very small part, but it was the most outstanding scene in the whole movie. I love it when an outstanding actor like Barkin does a small dynamite role like that one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Disorienting, strange, wonderful!
Review: I was surprised by this film. I bought it because it was directed by Terry Gilliam and I have loved all his other films. This is very different in both the subject matter and style. Although it is arguably no less of a film than (say) Munchausen or Time Bandits, it is for me less enjoyable, just because those films use the innocence of childhood to make you feel good, but this uses the cynicism of experience to make you feel you have just been very, very sick. If this is what being an adult is like, send me back to Jack Lint!

I had no idea who Hunter Thompson was before watching this, and still have trouble believing he's real. (No, he's not the chap who wrote about the Beatles). Even if he is real, did he write himself as he truly is in the book, or some abstract version? Did Gilliam take the book version of Hunter Thompson and twist him into a Gilliamesque character? We may never know. What we do know is the care with which Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro play Thompson and his chum Doctor Gonzo.
There is an intensity to Depp's performance counterbalanced by the languid Toro which demonstrates uppers and downers in all their ghastly glory. Christina Ricci makes a noteworthy appearance, proving that she isn't just a washed up child star.
On the whole, a very interesting and strangely compelling film, but not necessarily a pleasant experience.

The DVD has a ton of extras, so it's well worth the money, especially the out-takes which show us something of what the film could have been like if it was longer (it was long enough!).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fady Ghaly's reviews
Review: Plot Line (from back cover of film's package)
When a writing assignment lands journalist Raoul Duke (Depp) and sidekick Dr. Gonzo (Toro) in Las Vegas, they decide to make it the ultimate business trip. But before long, business is long forgotten and trip has become the key word. Fueled by a suitcase full of mind-bending pharmaceuticals, Duke and Gonzo set off on a fast and furious ride through nonstop neon, surreal surroundings and a crew of the craziest characters ever! But no matter where misadventure leads them, Duke and Gonzo discover that sometimes going too far is the only way to go.

My remarks toward this picture
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is simply one of those movies that you'll either love or loathe. It's a pseudo-psychedelic, very colorful and stylized comedy that's-in my opinion-so funny, so excruciatingly funny that the mere thought of it will draw a smirk on your face, and perhaps even have you laugh, then!

While it, to many, seemed as being a painfully long and senseless film, it really defined the counterculture of its day. Needless to say, with characters who'll suppose of such mind-bending pharmaceuticals as daily substances to indulge upon, unnecessary close-ups of vomit and urine, and swooping camera movements at any and every opportunity, this very atypical and repellent film is certainly not for everyone. ("We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls... But the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge," Duke narrates to us.)
But for the self-seeking and fans of either Hunter S. Thompson or Terry Gilliam...

Although it was clear that the film had no real plot line to support it, no shape, trajectory, or purpose, that did not matter-to me, anyway-because it regards these two characters, Duke and Gonzo, and if you'll find them appealing to me, if you'll like them, then so will you like this film. Why do people enjoy such innovative television sitcoms as Seinfeld? It has absolutely no plot line to it, no objectives by any means; it's about nothing. So why is it that it has become one of the primary choices in popular culture? -Because we enjoy seeing these four comical characters' every day lives...about nothing; they entertain us, as both Duke and Gonzo had entertained me. It's all about them, you see. It's all about their world, which is frequently seen entirely through their eyes, thereby generating greater sidesplitting and outrageous moments as the images and events they think they're seeing further affects their mental stability. We see these guys rambling fatuously past the eccentric backdrops of Las Vegas while zonked out of their minds. We see them take more drugs, get themselves into new situations, fall about, flounder, wreak havoc, and retreat to their hotel suit, and oftentimes these events will be introduced by Duke himself as the narrator who comments on them. Now, humor relies on behavior. Beyond a particular point, you don't have a behavior, you reside a state, but that was okay, because I, as I have previously said, liked these characters, and although there reached a point when they no longer made me laugh as hard, their lives, somehow, in an awkward way, still managed to entertain me. Also, I enjoyed all of the visuals and computer-generated scenes.

Director Terry Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, does such an outstanding job in capturing the exact agitated tone, intensity and utter madness of Hunter S. Thompson's classic book, which really came as to no surprise whatsoever, for the book itself was used as their screenplay. For the first time ever, a book was used as a screenplay, and the result is astonishing! Usually after having finished with a book that's based upon a film you've previously seen, you wind up saying to yourself: the film was nowhere near as good, unlike for this title, where both the film and book equally major and have the same fine quality in a twisted kind of way. And, like the book, Gilliam really has you feel for these very dysfunctional individuals who, as you sit there and observe of the many risks they so carelessly make, you form a special care for and don't want anything fatal to happen to.

The performances were just incredulously stunning! In fact, these vivid actors were so persuasive, you'll forget of the fact that they were even acting at all, let alone whom they were portrayed by. The very underrated Johnny Depp clearly proves that he's a worthy actor who'll be willing to do anything for whatever roll that strikes his taste (rather than those that would strike moviegoers'), as this one had following his approbation upon Thompson's inspirational book, which also had an affect upon Benicio Del Toro, who, when gaining that much weight for a roll, you know he's committed. (And did you see Depp's bold scalp? It was amazing!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hunter S. Thompsons greatest book comes to life in a Movie
Review: Jonny depp and benico dela toro do an excellent job acting in this i mean if you can act like your triping on acid that good then they should have won an oscar. The movie is about Rauol Duke which is played by Jonny Depp and his attonery Dr.Gonzo which is played by dela toro to go to Las Vegas and cover the MINT 400 which is the super bowl of dirt bike racing, although the movie only spends 15 mins at the races it is also alot about two friends on drugs in Las Vegas and that makes it a movie to watch. This movie was written by Hunter S. Thompson the greatest journalist in the late 60s 70s 80's and 90's. You can find some of his columns at espn.com. To prepare for this role Depp spent monthes at Hunters cabin in Coloardo to figure out what it is like to be Hunter S. Thompson and he puts in a great preformance in this movie. If you like this movie you should take a look at Where the Buffalo Roam.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good and real...
Review: If you're looking for a movie to fall in love with Benicio del Toro or Johnny Depp you're wrong, this movie is to show you how deep can someone be (in the craziest days of Las Vegas), probably you'll get dizzy but only because the talent of the two main actors, just good and real with Terry Gilliam showing how to do the best with a camera in Nevada

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Johnny Depps's worst.
Review: When I heard about this film I thought I was in for a treat but I guess I was wrong. Basically about some drug addicts who explore las vegas with every drug you can think of and spend lots of cash during the 70's. Where is the storyline? There was no plot and you probably need to be wired in order to understand the movie. Never was a big fan of Depp anyway, but I do have to recommend Blow and Sleep Hollow.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dont buy this crap
Review: The book fear and loathing in las vegas, by the brilliant Hunter S. Thompson, was a fantastic book filled with social issues like the death of the american dream. The movie, however, had all of the high points of the book taken out and was turned into a crappy stoner flick. The high point of this film, is an astonishingly good preformance by Johnny Depp as deranged sports writer Hunter Thompson, aka Raoul Duke. Buy the book not the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fear and lothing on the tv set
Review: Don't be fooled. This movie is not just about two... addicts losing control in Las Vegas. "Its a gross natural salute to everything that is right and true in the american culture". The movie's plot is about two... addicts who go through fear and loathing but overall it was a symbol of how the counterculture felt when that wave of the sixties finally rolled back and in came the dull seventies. If you grew up then you will definetly love it or anybody involved in some kind of counterculutre. Enjoy

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fear and Lothing in Las vegas
Review: Dude, how can i describe this utter masterpice,humm.... BRILLIANT. Yes it is absolutely fantastic film, it has really, really funny dialogue and a trippy plot. I laughed so har that I couldn't hear what they were saying but it didn't matter anyway because i knew it would be hillarious. BUY THIS FILM NOW. A definate 5 star review.


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