FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

(1998, USA)

DIRECTED BY: Terry Gilliam.

STARRING: Johnny Depp,Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, Michael Lee Gogin, Larry Cedar, Brian Le Baron, Katherine Helmond, Michael Warwick, Craig Bierko, Tyde Kierney, Mark Harmon, Tim Thomerson, Richard Riehle, Ransom Gates, Cameron Diaz.

"Wait! We can't stop here! This is BAT COUNTRY!"

"We had 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 multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. But the only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing more irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we would be getting into that rotten stuff sooner or later."

Mind numbing descent into drug induced insanity is a good and simple way to describe Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. Nothing more than a box office bomb the movie hasn't been given proper credit for being a mainstay for drug films in the nineties (Well, I guess you could include Half Baked but it doesn't have the same intensity). The movie unfolds events in the life of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson by Johnny Depp.

The concept of gonzo journalism if your not aware involves covering or reporting ridiculous events such as in this case Desert Racing (buggies scramble across sandstorm laden lands in confusion). The life of Thompson is amazingly portrayed as an endless barrage of drug use and the images brought fourth are quite the sight to behold. The movie itself is a mess but maybe that is the way it was intended to be. Nevertheless, it is a very entertaining mess and one hell of a ride to partake in.

The movie has Depp and his lawyer (played by Benico Del Torro, horrendously overweight) who stock up on numerous drugs (mescaline, acid, ether, cocaine, uppers, downers, pot etc) in their Cadillac and high tail it to Las Vegas. I really enjoyed Johnny Depp's character, it was simply brilliant, a tight and high strung drug using wacky bat. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas has to be seen to be believed.

Rating: 5 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

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