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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: It's F***ing Monumental.
Review: Put on our Art Caps people. This is important f*cking stuff man. CAN YOU HEAR ME!!! Depp and Del Toro deserve academy nominations for having the best portrayal of BURN-OUTS since Brad Pitt in " True Romance." I've read "F & L in Las Vegas" and "Tales of the Degredation in the 80's" and the Raoul Duke portrayal is on the ball. How can someone rip apart a job well done? Just because actors portray someone on drugs doesn't mean they're terrible or hideous. I have decided to create a TOP TEN BURNOUTS IN A MOVIE. Ranging from the way they walk, act, and the amount of drugs they consume: 1) Johnny Depp -- Fear and loathing in Las Vegas 2)Benicio Del Toro-- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 2)Val Kilmer-- The Doors 3)Meg Ryan --The Doors 4)Brad Pitt -- True Romance 5)Geoffrey Rush-- Shine (Didn't do Drugs in the Movie But he was definately loony) 6)Chris Tucker-- Friday 7)Uma Thurman-- Pulp Fiction 8)Leonardo DiCaprio-- Basketball Diaries 9)Dennis Hoper-- Apocalypse Now 10) Cheech & Chong-- Up in Smoke and Nice Dreams ( With an Epic performance by Pee Wee Herman) Other worthy nominees: The Jack-a** -- Bachelor Party Willam Dafoe-- Platoon Willam Dafoe-- The Last Tempataion of Christ ( There are two scenes that qualify this. 1) when Harvey Keitel puts the knife to Dafoe's throat and when Dafoe walks back from the dessert.) Harvey Keitel-- Bad Leitentant Ray Liotta-- Goodfellas Robert DeNiro-- Jackie Brown Bridgette Fonda-- Jackie Brown Marlon Brando-- Apocalypse Now Al Pacino-- Scarface The Cast-- Half Baked Bill Clinton-- The President John Travolta-- Pulp Fiction Chris Farley-- Black Sheep Adam Sandler-- Happy Gilmore these actors portrayed the BEST BURN-OUTS Its like talking to a TV set for Christ sakes. CAN YOU HEAR ME OUT THERE. I will be randomly reviewing BURN OUT Actors and Actresses in movies and randomly drafting a new Top Ten to insure these great actors the gratitude every actor gets. A simple Applause of Appreciation.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Faithful to Hunter the Original
Review: Turn on, Tune in, Drop out. Now add Las Vegas, a convertible, and a 300 lb. Somoan, shake well, and you have the film version of Hunter Thompson's famous road-drug epic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Wrongly subtitled as 'A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream' it is more like a journey into the soul of a '60s anti-hero.

The American Dream is not an ideal or a theory; it is not existential and far off. It is a tangible thing that stands for liberty. First and foremost religious liberty, but also liberty to live where you choose, make life better for those you love, and to manage your own affairs. Apparently to Thompson and his ilk, the Dream means acting like juveniles, taking volumes of illegal narcotics, and generally thumbing your nose at any and all conventions and authorities in your vicinity.

Mimicking one of the best opening scenes of any book, the movie begins: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." It is the story of Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro), who go hurtling off to Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle and dune buggy race with "...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 multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."

Regarding the use of drugs the film varies from a sober to a namby-pamby account of life with dope. For instance Duke speaks with gravity: "...the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge." But the tone for much of the abuse is one of Otis in Mayberry: wasted people are funny people. Always a funny book, Fear and Loathing is Dr. Thompson's magnum opus; his unexpurgated diary and a part of our cultural wallpaper. His style is coarse and verbose as he chronicles the trip in filthy and original reportage. Yet I wonder what made the producers choose this book a full twenty-five years after its release, especially considering the widespread belief that it was unfilmable (mostly due to the majority of the action happening inside Duke's head.)

But Hunter S. Thompson is a pure American original: avid gun collector, neo-libertarian, obscene abuser of narcotics, and founder of gonzo journalism. He was an original frequenter of the Haight-Ashbury scene as well as an early and often public dissenter of President Nixon., but what we miss in his pseudo-realistic drama (as filmed by Terry Gilliam) is key: recognition. I have never seen or heard bats that were not there. I have never trashed hotels until "the room looked like the site of some disastrous zoological experiment involving whiskey and gorillas." The character, the setting, the experiences: all foreign to the average person. The thrill of recognition is absent. I do not see my own or a transcendent human condition proposed, quite the opposite, I see a slovenly made movie faithfully recreated from a similarly untidy tome.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Love or Hate?
Review: If you notice the above reviews, everyone seems to have very definite opinions about this movie. They either love it or hate it. I'm a diehard Terry Gilliam fan, I'd go see him flush a toilet, then ask for my money back. Well, that's how I felt about this movie. I waited a long time before I was able to see it and expected great things from Gilliam, Depp and Del Toro and got nothing but disappointment. I'd be curious to hear (or read) Hunter S. Thompson's take on the finished version of this movie. My impressions of Mr. Thompson are very different from the portrayal by Johnny Depp. And there are too many reasons to list here. My advice: If you really like Terry Gilliam's movies, you probably have to see this film anyway--just don't come looking for me when you want your money back.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Drug Crazed and In las vegas, could it get any better!?
Review: . Depp does an excellent job at playing the great Thompson. I'm not big into drugs or things of that nature, but a big fan of Thompson, and this movie followed the book quite well. I think everyone should watch this movie, laugh and enjoy what is exactly going on. I'd have to say one of my favorite movies. Depp as i said before was awsome... the way his eyes and cig holder expressed emotion and what not, was intoxicating. Rent it and enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like reading the book
Review: Well, I saw this movie at the cinema first, and there you get hit by the effects so hard that you don't need to be on drugs... On DVD it's the same only smaller, so you need the drugs. I like to remind those that thought this movie was about Hunter S. Thompson that it's acctually a movie version of HST's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and it is Gonzo, fiction built on facts with a message. If you didn't like the book then don't buy the DVD.

I personally loved it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This movey is amazing
Review: THis movie is great. But if you have never tripped before you probably wont understand a thing. their are many subtle drug jokes that only those experienced with the drugs may get. So if you like being in an altered state this is a great move

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Review: If you go into Fear & Loathing expecting a movie, you'll be thoroughly disappointed. This isn't a movie in any conventional sense. It defies all convention; This may turn away some, but others should be able to appreciate its unflinching, unbiased look at the aftermath of the great 60's drug wave.

Despite the film's lack of a clearly-definably plot, it still maintains a sense of being and knowing which more than makes up for it. Its moral ambiguity and disconnected stream of events come together at some magic point where they thrive without plot, moving along by will alone. Just like the idealistic youth hidden by the waves of the film's past. Notice how the film's apparent plotlessness is indicative of the time it portrays? If you didn't, it's cause you were expecting a movie. This isn't a movie. It's a ride through time, a peripheral view of the 70s done without the paternalistic overtones of documentary. It's not always a great place to be, but that only serves to reinforce the film's honest force.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "This film is not for everyone" - Terry Gilliam
Review: this film idealizes nothing. the characters are confused, grotesque and completely incoherent... except for the subtle moments of brilliance uttered by R. Duke in profound moments of clarity. if that doesn't sound appealing to you, don't see this movie... you won't understand or enjoy it. in my opinion, it's worth seeing for Depp's performance alone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A terrific vision about the 60's 70's and drugs
Review: Absolut talent from Gilliam managing a incredible performance from Depp and Del Toro

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Stapling my head to the carpet every morning for the rest of my life, would be better than having to sit through this movie another time. It was the worst piece of garbage movie I have EVER seen. I strongly discourage anyone from wasting their time...really...it's not worth the three bucks. Taking a lighter and setting those three dollars on fire in the middle of your living room would be more exciting than this sorry excuse for a movie. Go watch Forrest Gump instead. And that's all I have to say about that.


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