Rating: Summary: "I was in the middle of a f***ing Reptile zoo" Review: This movie is excellent anyone who hasn't seen it needs to because this is one of the best that i have seen from Johnny depp and some of his most unrecognized work. Two guys a convertible, A lot of drugs and LAS VEGAS. this film is excellent 5 out of 5.
Rating: Summary: Holy Jesus. What are these goddamn animals? Review: Ah...I just recently saw this film for the first time. I was completely sober and I swear to God I have never enjoyed a film like I enjoyed this one. I love Gilliam and I honestly think Johnny Depp is a phenomenal actor. Del Toro is likewise fantastic. Enyone who has doubts about this movie, forget them! Watch it anyway!
Rating: Summary: If you get F*d up, Buy This movie! Stop browsing, Buy it!!!! Review: This is a classic hands down. Visually stunning, emotionally riveting; the closest you will come to the good guy/bad guy of intoxicated culture. Staple of my collection. I've seen this movie soooo many times and I still only remember the first time when I was somewhere around Barstow. I think I have brain bubbles.
Rating: Summary: A comical look at the drug culture of the early 1970s Review: If a movie has one good actor in it its good. If you add a second good actor its magic.Enter Johnny Depp and Benico Del Toro two great actors that light up this film.The year is 1971 and we get a good look at the strange journey of two wacky, drugged out guys and their adventure that takes them from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Along the way we see a host of cameos by Gary Busey, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Cameron Diaz and Mark Harmon, plus many more. The movie cannot be described in writing you must watch it and come to your own conclusion. That is the beauty of it. The soundtrack is rich with 1970s music that is applicable to the era it depicts and the acting is surreal and amazing. You'll watch this one again and again.
Rating: Summary: An incredible journey into Psychedelia and hell Review: This film is nearly indescribable. It ranges from interesting and funny (often hilarious) for the first part of the film, to a trip into the depths of hell. It has been said, in reviews on this website and elsewhere, that it is a movie for drug users, yet I beg to differ. If anything, this film, along with the great "Requiem for a Dream", is the greatest anti-drug statement ever put on film. It is not only an EXTREMELY accurate and fascinating depiction of drug use, but a disturbing depiction of the complete hell that drugs can put one in. See it once, and you will come out of it feeling as though you have a hangover. See it again, and again, and you cannot help but be entertained. The performances are awesome, and Johnny Depp manages to be riotous at times. The dialogue, particularly in the voice-overs, is biting, witty, and intelligently funny. Intelligence is not what you'd expect from your typical drug movie. It is beautifully photographed, and has a great soundtrack. Terry Gilliam, the brilliant director, has said of his film that you will not like it upon seeing it first, and that you may well have no idea what is going on. Repeated viewings will register the film as great. It will make you laugh, cry, and wail in misery, but the end product is, I'm convinced, one of the masterpieces of recent cinema. People say Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is "not for every taste", but really now, what person on earth could have this taste? It is not a matter of taste, for this film defies taste, it has no taste. Anyone is capable of seeing it and enjoying it. Just give it a chance, it's such a monumental effort. The entire film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I think can be described as the character Dr. Gonzo (played by Benicio Del Toro) is in the very end of the film: "Too weird to live, too rare to die"
Rating: Summary: Depp and Del Toro are Acting Gods in this Classic Review: what should be said, has been said by others. depp's acting should have garnered an academy award. if you thought jack sparrow was good acting, wait 'til you see Raoul Duke aka Hunter S Thompson, the legend. the story is about Hunter, a real life journalist who wrote the book that this movie takes its name (and most contents) from, who was constantly f*cked up on drugs. bill murray did an earlier version with good acting, but the movie was poor. the directing in this movie is unbelievable. be advised: watching this movie on drugs will mess with your mind, especially that damned circus scene.
Rating: Summary: To sum up: Drugs are bad and Las Vegas is its own drug trip Review: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is, supposedly about two journalists, Raoul Duke (played by Johnny Depp) and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (played by Benicio Del Toro) as they journey to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race in Las Vegas. And oh yeah, they do every drug imaginable on the way. Ironically, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a vitriolic attack on the drug culture. It doesn't make getting high look glamorous, appealing, or fun. It makes it look disgusting, a descent into madness and an entry into a nightmarish world where people look like lizards, rooms fill with garbage, and everyone's one bad hit away from killing themselves...or someone else. During the trip, the world rages on. It's a time of war and it haunts the drug trips of our two...err, protagonists. The 60s are over, it's clear, but the two main characters are not willing to let go - so they dig deeper, and deeper, and deeper into drugs. There's really no plot. How could there be? The trip itself is the point. Benicio Del Toro is amazing as a huge, fat Samoan. It's the role he was born for (and that's not a compliment). Conversely, Depp is wasted here. He mutters through his teeth - in fact, both of them mumble so much that we had to watch the movie with subtitles on. Maleficent laughed a lot at this movie. But for the most part it gave me a headache. The movie could have achieved in a 30 minutes what it takes hours to demonstrate, over and over and over. To sum up: Drugs are bad and the 60's free-living culture was a big fat lie and Las Vegas is its own drug trip. There, now you don't have to watch the movie.
Rating: Summary: A Misunderstood Masterpiece Review: Where this movie goes right and "Natural Born Killers" goes wrong is in the directing and performances. The trick is also that the audience has to completly forget movie convention and just go along for the ride. "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas" is supposed to give us glimps into a world that we dont want to be in, and at the same time, add a little humor for good enjoymnt. Terry Gilliam scores another hit.
Rating: Summary: Worth watching for the performances alone Review: Visionary director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) helms this would be mess (which was originally set to be directed by Repo Man and Sid & Nancy director Alex Cox) based on Hunter S. Thompson's drug induced "gonzo" journals. The film revolves around journalist Raoul (Johnny Depp) and his lawyer Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) traveling to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to seemingly cover a motor cycle race, and we're treated to the duo's hallucinatory visions brought to us by the always great Gilliam. If not for Gilliam's visionary directing and the outstanding performances from Depp and Del Toro, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would be a pure waste of film. And while the film borderlines on annoying, and the film outstays it's welcome thanks to it's running time (over two full hours), Fear and Loathing still manages to funny and enjoyable for the most part, and has since become a cult classic and is now part of Criterion's DVD series. Had it been in the hands of Cox however, this could have been something really special. Look for cameos aplenty from the likes of Tobey Maguire, Cameron Diaz, Mark Harmon, Gary Busey, Christina Ricci, Ellen Barkin, and Law & Order: SVU's Christopher Meloni. The Criterion Collection DVD is a true work of art that is well worth the money, and the commentary by Depp and Del Toro; as well as the look at the controversey of the screenwriting credit (Cox receives credit as a co-screenwriter) are worth the price of admission alone.
Rating: Summary: A psychedelic masterpiece... Review: I recently bought this movie based on a lot of the reviews, which made me think that it may be something worth seeing. After the first viewing I was hooked. I watched it twice the first day I received it and again the next day. The performances by Johnny Depp and Bencio del Toro were amazing, capturing not only the essence of the people they portrayed but the behavior of the hallucenigenic drug-user personality perfectly. Terry Gilliam absolutely captures the LSD-type experience like has never been done before. All the while totally maintaining the spirit of the book, being one of the best screen adaptations I have ever seen. The extras on the Criterion DVD are fantastic, and if you really like this movie you should definitely read the book, and vice versa. Funny and disturbing at the same time, this movie is a must have for any one who truly appreciates (or has a taste for) the bizarre.
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