Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.
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13 films that influenced Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
What critics say influenced Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
He's like Steve Martin in The Jerk, only much, much less inspired.
Back to the storyline: Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp), who is a fictional representation of the book's protagonist, author Thompson, is headed to Las Vegas in the company of his "Samoan lawyer," Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro, looking more bloated than Robert De Niro in the closing moments of Raging Bull).
The character is, in fact, the embodiment of Hunter S. Thompson (at least until Johnny Depp's turn in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)--Gonzo made manifest, aided by massive amounts of alcohol and an astringent stupidity too calculated to be stupid.
Thompson's book has endured for 27 years, and not just because of its drug-induced strangeness: like William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, it uses hallucinatory states as a funhouse mirror on the sordid, ugly face of humanity.
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Visually and viscerally, there is a connection between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Trainspotting , albeit with two critical differences: the British picture developed real characters and didn't go on and on and on, ad nauesum, like this one.
As was the message in the film Trainspotting, drugs are appealing.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas puts Trainspotting to shame when it comes to exposing the glamorous drug culture: the daily vomiting, the wallowing in your own filth, the insane paranoia, the sickening hallucinations, the waking up with a lizard tail strapped to your butt.
His Walker (1988) and Highway Patrolman (1992) were critically acclaimed in Europe, but failed miserably in the U.S. Cox was originally set to direct both Ian McKellen's Richard III (1995) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) with Johnny Depp, but both projects fell through and were completed by others.
It started with the preemptive "creative differences" as original punk writer-director Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy, Repo Man) got booted at Johnny Depp's behest.
Cult director Alex Cox ( Repo Man , Sid and Nancy ) still retains his writing credit on the film, even though none of his script made it to this film.
But even with such gifted creators, brilliant production design and several moments that capture the wobbly sensations of an acid trip better than anything since Oliver Stone's "The Doors," "Fear and Loathing" is disappointing, pointless and repetitive.
It started with the preemptive "creative differences" as original punk writer-director Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy, Repo Man) got booted at Johnny Depp's behest.
The movie's original director was Alex Cox , whose brilliant " Sid and Nancy " showed insight into the world of addiction.
Cult director Alex Cox ( Repo Man , Sid and Nancy ) still retains his writing credit on the film, even though none of his script made it to this film.
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As directed by Terry Gilliam ( Time Bandits , 12 Monkeys ), this seemingly pointless celebration of bad behavior is also a hilarious and crazily visual comedy for adults already inducted into the Hunter S. Thompson cult.
Maybe too much insight; he was replaced by Terry Gilliam (" Brazil ," " Time Bandits "), whose input is hard to gauge; this is not his proudest moment.
After his twisted dreams-and-the-dreamer "trilogy" of Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Gilliam seemed damn near unemployable.
I'm also enamored of Gilliam, the imaginative mind behind such stunningly surreal works as 12 Monkeys , Time Bandits, and Brazil ? the latter's extended version is a cornerstone of my laserdisc collection.
Whereas most of his films focus on a sane man in an insane world — Bruce Willis in Twelve Monkeys, Jonathan Pryce in Brazil, Jeff Bridges in The Fisher King, the little boy in Time Bandits — Fear and Loathing focuses on an insane man, Hunter S. Thompson, in a sane world.
The relationship of Thompson and his attorney was the basis of " Where the Buffalo Roam ," an unsuccessful 1980 movie starring Bill Murray as the writer and Peter Boyle as his attorney.
This movie was "based on the twisted legend of Hunter S Thompson" according to its title sequence - though its essential sources are Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.