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Writer/director Robinson is anything but disciplined... and he's more inclined to just turn the camera on and let Depp do his thing. Which Depp does very well, but as talented and watchable as he is, even he can't completely save the picture.
The Rum Diary has no mighty gonzo wind. Even with a push from its Thompson-worshipping star, Johnny Depp, it leaves our freak flag limp.
Maybe Depp just doesn't want to upstage his hero.
The supporting cast of journalistic riffraff is uniformly excellent.
There was a reason "The Rum Diary" didn't find a publisher until a late-in-life Thompson resurgence, and it's clearer still in this adaptation - there's no real drama here.
The Rum Diary is too muted to convey the intensity that propelled Thompson past most of the other magazine feature writers of his boozy era.
Because the pace and trajectory changes so noticeably, "The Rum Diary" almost feels like three different films. Some may like that; I didn't.
This very funny, keenly observant movie meanders in the best way possible.
A so-so film adaptation of a Hunter S. Thompson book, "The Rum Diary" isn't as exciting as either the novel or other movie adaptations of Thompson's work, let alone the marvelous documentary 'Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.'
There are some good things including a great soundtrack and strong performances from the likes of Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Rispoli, but it is a disappointing and overlong affair.
A literal-mindedness about Hunter S. Thompson's metaphors infuses the film: scary Puerto Rican natives threaten Paul and Salas during their wild nights, rich white men look overstuffed in their wicker chair.
[D]isappointingly unengaging... [F]eels sadly quaint from our perspective today, half a century into the journo-zombie infopocalypse...
If the end result doesn't quite manage to stir up the indignation Robinson obviously intends, it's still a creditable and very likeable offering.
It is just disappointing - sadly not interesting or funny enough.
It's not until the close that Depp as Thompson's screen surrogate finally uncorks the cascading darkly comic poetic rage that he would go on to direct against the world's 'bastards', but by then it's too late to set the movie on fire.
There are colorful moments in 'The Rum Diary,' but they don't jell together. It feels more like a 1st episode than a movie.
It's a smart, good-looking adaptation - if nothing else, proof that Robinson deserves more directing work - but just a bit too sober to truly excite.
By the time it finally gets going, viewers may have lost patience with it.
The result is a lot of myth-making fun with Depp as Thompson's faux-naif 30-year-old alter ego Paul Kemp.
Much of it is interesting to a short point, well directed with good scenery etc, but the introduction of substances means Depp looks far too Pirates' fit.
Never coheres as anything but a set of disconnected incidents.
It's pretty much Withnail & I in a tropical climate, but far less fun.
It's this romantic sub-plot and the film's strangely unsatisfactory climax that stop it being perfect.
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