Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Review

Terry Gilliam has come a long ways since his days in Python. Both sides to his filmography have positive and negative outcomes, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a very unique exception to that. In all of Gilliam’s films there seems to be a very distinct look, not to the extent of Wes Anderson, but it’s definitely there. It seems to be somewhat different in the installment. Now, within the context of the film, it makes sense. It’s a film about a couple of drug addicts trying to have a good time in Las Vegas and live through this strange drug trip of a film. While, as I said, this is very different from what we have become used to from Gilliam, it works here. Occasionally, the action will even take place in the foreground, which is something I’m a fan of, and there’s plenty of non-nonsensical drug trip visions that add, not only to the quirkiness of the film, but also some of its more serious elements. Which brings me to the story. Terry Gilliam has never been the best at storytelling. He can come up with some wonderful creative overall ideas, but, often I feel that there’s just something missing to the stories in every single one of his movies. While it doesn’t necessarily apply to every one of his films, the missing piece in Fear and Loathing is clear. He has a hard time sticking to the plot. In fact, it seems that Gilliam almost completely threw the story out of the window in favor of the bizarre visuals and entertaining scenes. This is a fairly big problem, because it seems like there’s always too much happening at once in every scene, and often, many things aren’t needed to propel the story nor the characters. Speaking, or… Typing of the characters, the main two are great. Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro are giving some great performances in the movie. Johnny Depp narrates the film in an excellent way, and has the clearest arc of anything in the film. As for Benicio Del Toro, he felt like a plus one to Johnny Depp. While he did give a good performance, it seemed that the only purpose he served was to Johnny Depp. The lacking character and story is partially due to the dialogue. Although the dialogue felt real, it felt too real for a movie that was seemingly trying to be a comedy, which is not what I would call Fear and Loathing. To put it simply, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is kind of like a road trip movie, but on a lot of drugs. It’s quite entertaining, despite my criticisms, and I’d most likely recommend it. It just doesn’t quite live up to what I know Gilliam is capable of. 7.3/10