Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas reviews (1998)

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

1998

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

from 22,282 members

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS is a whirlwind of a movie, a wacky, drug-laden story backed by a fist-pumping rock & roll soundtrack featuring everything from Wayne Newton and Tom Jones to Combustible Edison and Dead Kennedys. Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) heads to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, bringing along his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro), in this furious adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. It is 1971, and Duke and Gonzo are on their way to Sin City with a frightened hitchhiker (a nearly unrecognizable Tobey Maguire) and a trunkful of drugs, which they ingest nonstop. Depp is terrific as Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and Del Toro is a riot as the crazy lawyer. To perfect his Thompsonian performance, Depp spent a lot of time with the good doctor, and it paid off in a film that captures the frenetic pace of the counterculture novel. Director Terry Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, has a field day interpreting the drug-hazed world in which Duke and Gonzo reside. An all-star cast chimes in with wonderfully offbeat bit parts, including Harry Dean Stanton, Gilliam regular Katherine Helmond, Flea, Cameron Diaz, Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Lyle Lovett, and others.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas details

Formats:	18 DVD, Blu-ray
Starring:	Gary Busey, Benicio Del Toro, Benicio Del Toro, Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz
Director:	Terry Gilliam
Genres:	Comedy, Drama

Name	Discs
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas	18 Feature

DVD Information

Run time:	1 hour 53 minutes
Rental release:	Currently unavailable
Main languages:	English
Subtitles:	Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Hearing impaired subtitles:	English

Name	Discs
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas	18 Feature

Blu-ray Information

Run time:	1 hour 53 minutes
Rental release:	01 Mar 2010
Main languages:	English

Write your own review

Most helpful review Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

We're Your Friends, we're not like the others...

By Jason Hood from Birmingham , 02 May 2004

[Highly rated reviewer]

Quite why this film has been unavailable on DVD in the UK for so long is beyond me, especially with the brilliant Region One Criterion package you can get on import.

It might be an acquired taste - two men on a drug fuelled exploration of the death of the American dream, but it features one of Johnny Depp's best performances (easily matching Jack Sparrow) and Del Toro matches up to him with acting which was so accurate that casting agents for months afterwards were convinced that he'd turned into a bloated drug addled headcase for real.

It's also hilarious, disturbing, surprisingly affecting (when you know what happened to the real life Dr Gonzo) and Gilliam's direction is as inspired as ever.

Reserve it now!
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (61) Yes |
- No (6)
Report this review

All reviews

(200)

Sort by:

out of the ordinary

By wilsonwilson (9 reviews) , 22 Jan 2013

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Show review anywayHide

visually attractive tale of excessive drug and alcohol use and the resulting paranoia,little real story but plenty to think about due to the musings of the characters. some great quotes including my favourite-'There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. '
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review
Waste of time

By obrother (4 reviews) , 18 Jan 2013

This (and Mamma Mia) are 4 wasted hours of my life that I'll never get back. There was one funny moment at the start involving imagined bats and that's it, the rest of the film was incomprehensible gibberish.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (4)
Report this review
What is this film all about?

By a customer , 23 Dec 2012

Oh my god, you have got to be taking the same things they are, to get near what this film is trying to do. I can only say that we switched it off after 20 minutes as we we could not believe what a unequivocal pile of pooh this really is!
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (1) Yes |
- No (1)
Report this review
great if you're well into drugs, awful if you're not

By skyblues83 (3 reviews) , 30 Nov 2012

so they're off their face on drugs - we get it. anything else going to happen in this film? Awful
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (1) Yes |
- No (3)
Report this review
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

By a customer , 21 Nov 2012

I didn't enjoy it at all and was so disappointed. A waste of time. I watched for about an hour then found something more interesting to do.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (1) Yes |
- No (2)
Report this review