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 that Duke and Gonzo
reside in. 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 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.
