Amazon.com video review:
The original cowriter and director of Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas was Alex Cox, whose earlier film Sid and Nancy
suggests that Cox could have been a perfect match in filming
Hunter S. Thompson's psychotropic masterpiece of "gonzo"
journalism. Unfortunately Cox departed due to the usual "creative
differences," and this ill-fated adaptation was thrust upon Terry
Gilliam, whose formidable gifts as a visionary filmmaker were
squandered on the seemingly unfilmable elements of Thompson's
ether-fogged narrative. The result is a one-joke movie without the
joke--an endless series of repetitive scenes involving rampant
substance abuse and the hallucinogenic fallout of a road trip that's
run crazily out of control. Johnny Depp plays Thompson's alter ego,
"gonzo" journalist Raoul Duke, and Benicio Del Toro is his sidekick
and so-called lawyer Dr. Gonzo. During the course of a trip to Las
Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, they ingest a veritable chemistry
set of drugs, and Gilliam does his best to show us the hallucinatory
state of their zonked-out minds. This allows for some dazzling imagery
and the rampant humor of stumbling buffoons, and the mumbling
performances of Depp and Del Toro wholeheartedly embrace the
tripped-out, paranoid lunacy of Thompson's celebrated book. But over
two hours of this insanity tends to grate on the nerves--like being
the only sober guest at a party full of drunken idiots. So while
Gilliam's film may achieve some modest cult status over the years,
it's only because Fear and Loathing is best enjoyed by those
who are just as stoned as the characters in the movie. The DVD offers
the film in its full 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio. --Jeff
Shannon
