Rating: Summary: COLORFUL Review: I wasn't in San Francisco in 1965 but I appreciate the music produced in California in the mid-sixties. I wasn't in Viêt-Nam but I'm intimately convinced that all the flowers of the world couldn't have stopped this war before its ending in the early seventies. I don't live in the U.S. but I really believe that to take drugs is NOT an act of rebellion. So the substance (!) , if there is one, of director Terry Gilliam's FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS doesn't touch me at all.Terry Gilliam alternates objective and subjective points of view so that we can feel and witness the pharmaceutical experiments of Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Nothing new under the sun since our new generation of directors, helped by the computers, proposes every year now dozens of so-called psychedelic movies. So the style of FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS doesn't touch me at all. Good musical score and cinematography though. Hence the second star. A DVD zone nostalgic fans only.
Rating: Summary: What happened? Review: In a word - awful. A really big disappointment...
Rating: Summary: What A Generation Review: Johnny Depp provides a voice to Hunter Thompson that is worth taking into the book, if you decide to read it. Great acting (obviously realistic) and great adaptation. The movie provides an outstanding illustration of one of Thompson's themes: the outcast. In Las Vegas, anything goes, and these two disillusioned 60's drugees are able to get away with their permissive lifestyle because of the absurdity of the city. The film misses the recapturing of the America Dream in the 70's, something I believe was a common effort for those who lost their idealism of the 60's. Thankfully, Thomspons 'high water mark' speech is still in the film, providing enough fodder for those of you who want to try to see this as an American Dream movie as well. Highly entertaining.
Rating: Summary: this is bat country!! Review: this is perhaps the best cult film to ever be made. i personally have watched it countless times, and each time it is just as funny, and obscure as the time before. people that don't like the movie, such as leonard maltin, have absolutely no sense of humor, don't like cult films, and have no business writing reviews...if your into more than just plain vanilla movies, this is for you, if not go rent 'the sound of music'. cynde morgan rosen
Rating: Summary: The critics are half right, but I still love this movie. Review: I saw this movie with my friend in May of 1998 when I was 16, and it was one of the best times I've ever had. Yes, the movie doesn't really have a point, but it is hilarious and just plain fun. Smart move by Gilliam to include huge chunks of voiceover narration, ripped straight out of the book. You can't beat Thompson's breathless hyperbole! I don't know why, but this has become my favorite film. I've since seen it over 50 times and it never gets old.
Rating: Summary: it wasn't good enough Review: it was a good movie but it didn't have enough scenes where you actually see through the eyes of the tripper. rent it.
Rating: Summary: Still laughing & shaking my head... Review: This movie can best be described as weird, in a good way. It starts out funnier than anything I've ever seen, then takes a right turn into freaky, but still manages to remain funny. Most people won't get it, and it will be dismissed as a movie that started out funny, then it took the drugs that were in the suitcase, and became freakier than hell. Or maybe not, all I know is I loved it. "You people voted for Hubert Humphrey - and you killed Jesus!" Watch the movie, if only to hear that one line.
Rating: Summary: Drug Voyeurs Review: This movie is for all those sad people who want to do drugs but don't (and there are a great many of them). Watching these two guys get stoned in Las Vegas is similar to watching two people making love, very deeply unsatisfying. It's one of those things that you've got to do yourself. No amount of watching helps. I watched it because of Terry Gilliam, but he wasn't able to find any artistic tension in the "anything goes" atmosphere of a drug binge in Vegas.
Rating: Summary: Gilliam is a genius Review: This film definitely confirmed my view that Terry Gilliam is one of the best film directors of today. Before I saw it, I thought nobdoy could successfully transmit Hunter S. Thompson's classic, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" to the screen - but Gilliam proved me wrong. It was almost like stepping into the pages of the book. Gilliam totally captured the feel and intensity of Thompson's drug-induced view of Las Vegas and his biting commentary on American culture. "Fear and Loathing" is thus simultaneously satire, social criticism and psychedelic mayhem. Johnny Depp as Thompson is also fantastic, as he plays the role with a driven, paranoid brilliance. I can't praise this film enough, it's an instant classic.
Rating: Summary: WHAT YOU USED TO BE ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH Review: Hunter S. Thomspon's "epitaph for the 60's" as translated by directorial genius Terry Gilliam. I doubt most of the reviewers who have spoken unkindly of this film have any clue what Thompson or Gilliam were up to, but the fact remains that this is one of the finest examples of a successful translation from book to film. People really used to live like this, and it is an important reminder that nobody could ever get away with this in today's maximum security world. Gilliam captures the feel, look and most importantly, the message Thompson conveyed in the original print version, and he does it in an entertaining and artful way. Merging the natural surrealism of Vegas with Ralph Steadman's illustrations and Thompson's vivid imagery, Gilliam succeeds magnificently in an almost impossible task. The DVD of the movie is one of the finest currently available on the market.
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