Review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) by Brian R — 14 Apr 2012

"With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know.".

A remarkably linear adaptation of the literary classic which really should be required reading for young folks of taste and refinement (certainly if they want to progress from being square to being hip, groovy and ultimately cool). The script is pretty good given that it was assembled in a very short space of time (a couple of weeks apparently) but it's the unrestrained performances of Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro which make the film positively fizz along. For a film of a supposedly unfilmable book I think it manages to capture a lot of the spirit of the book, certainly more successfully than David Cronenberg's version of Burroughs's "The Naked Lunch" or Mike Nichols's take on Joseph Heller's "Catch 22".