Review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) by Campbell P — 09 Jun 2015

It's kind of difficult to review a movie as weird as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You can either view this as something that's too artsy to be good or a really cool stoner movie. I'm more towards it being too artsy.

The plot line is all over the place, it starts off as the sportscaster Raoul Duke reporting the motorcycle race with his attorney but while being under serious drug influence then turns into finding the American dream.

I'm not going to lie, I had fun with this movie for the first half. It was a pretty cool concept and seemed to stay relevant to what I thought the movie was supposed to be about. Then it kind of derailed and just focused on the weird things that Raoul can see under the influence and different effects that they can pull.

After the first half I really lost interest in what the characters encountered. It turned into one huge drug trip which I guess was fun at first but got kinda old. On the brighter side of this film Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro were really good, they made their under the influence acting really funny and convincing.

This film because of the way these two act is actually really funny, but in the beginning at least. The stylish shots of what the two look like when they are high is pretty neat too but as the movie progressed got kind of obnoxious.

Raoul's narration throughout the film was pretty quirky and likable and gave the film life when they were acting lifeless. This film has absolutely NO character development at all sadly. These two never learn from their mistakes and I can't really feel for them as characters.

I feel that if the movie really toned down its oddness it can potentially be recreated to be a better film but it's weirdness is what makes me interested in it. It's really weird how one part of me finds this movie interesting and thought provoking but at the same time idiotic and way too confusing.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starts off really entertaining but loses steam in the last half of the film and ends up losing appeal to me. A film totally deserving of its cult status due to the weirdness factor.

Just don't expect to learn or gain anything from viewing. C-.