Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 64
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 32
Visually creative, but also aimless, repetitve, and devoid of character development.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 9
Visually creative, but also aimless, repetitve, and devoid of character development.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 246,898
My Rating
Movie Info
Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King) directed this colorful, stylized, pseudo-psychedelic $21-million adaptation of the 1971 Hunter S. Thompson classic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream, about stoned sportswriter Raoul Duke, Thompson's alter ego, on a wild drug-crazed road trip, a paranoid plummet into the belly of the beast, with his pal, lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta. Originally serialized in Rolling Stone (November 1971), the
May 22, 1998 Wide
Nov 17, 1998
Universal Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Johnny Depp
Raoul Duke -
Benicio Del Toro
Dr. Gonzo -
Craig Bierko
Lacerda -
Ellen Barkin
North Star Waitress -
Gary Busey
Highway Patrolman -
Cameron Diaz
Blonde TV Reporter -
Flea
Musician -
Mark Harmon
Magazine Reporter -
Katherine Helmond
Reservations Clerk -
Michael Jeter
L. Ron Bumquist -
Penn Jillette
Carnie Talker -
Lyle Lovett
Road Person -
Tobey Maguire
Hitchiker -
Christina Ricci
Lucy -
Harry Dean Stanton
Judge -
Tim Thomerson
Hoodlum -
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (35) | DVD (31)
It's certainly distinctive, looking at times like Richard Lester put through a postmodernist blender.
Top Critic(Gilliam's) vision is too reflexively comic to evoke the shadows of dread in Thompson's writing.
Pic serves up a sensory overload without any compensatory reflection on the outlandish and irresponsible behavior on view.
A film of brilliant moments, but sadly less coherent - and, on senses, rather less personal - than most of Gilliam's work.
It's really a series of sketches on one theme.
If you encountered characters like this on an elevator, you'd push a button and get off at the next floor. Here the elevator is trapped between floors for 128 minutes.
One of Terry Gilliam's worst films (almost unwatchable)
A peculiar and oddly haunting achievement.
Bizarre, unpredictable yet strangely alluring.
The film is intensely pretentious, far too clever for its own good.
It's larger-than life, wild, dizzy, colourful and vulgar, and goes round in circles - for a very long time.
The fear is comical; the loathing almost nonexistent.
Certainly uneven at times, but Terry Gilliam's surreal mood piece paints a vivid, splashy picture of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
A beautiful cinematic showcase for Thompson at the peak of his writing skills.
It may start off as a lighthearted, excess-filled, party-road-trip movie, but Depp is reigned in a little towards the end as his character (a stand-in for Thompson) poetically bemoans the sad failure of the late-60s ideals and values.
More headache than head trip.
This is the best acid-inspired movie since Roger Corman's The Trip - and it is a darn sight more accurate in its depiction [of] the highs and the lows, the terrible confusion alternating with lucidity, the excitement that gives way to paranoia.
...he first hour of the film is as successful as anything I've ever seen or read at conveying how the world looks to the drugged.
Years from now, it will be reappraised as a misunderstood masterpiece. Well, this is one American critic who's not waiting until years from now.
Audience Reviews for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
-
- Hitchiker: Hot damn! I never rode in a convertible before!
- Raoul Duke: Is that right? Well I guess you're about ready, then, aren't you?
- Dr. Gonzo: We're your friends. We're not like the others, man, really.
- Raoul Duke: No more of that talk or I'll put the fucking leeches on you, understand? Get in.
-
- Raoul Duke: Quick, like a bunny!
-
- Raoul Duke: There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.
-
- Dr. Gonzo: This is bat country...
-
- Raoul Duke: Look, there's two women fucking a polar bear!
- Dr. Gonzo: Don't tell me these things. Not now man.
-
- Dr. Gonzo: [spills the cocaine] Jesus! You see what God just did to us, man?
- Raoul Duke: God didn't do that, you did it. You're a fucking narcotics agent, I knew it!
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas yet.
Latest News on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
October 24, 2011:
Five Favorite Films with Bruce RobinsonIf British writer-director Bruce Robinson had only made one film -- 1987's inimitable comedy...
April 27, 2011:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Fear and Loathing on Criterion Blu-RayIt's finally happened: this week on home video, we don't have any notable DVDs of recent films that...
January 14, 2009:
More Fear and/or Loathing for Johnny Depp?Johnny Depp has been a very busy man lately, and according to the folks at The Bad and Ugly, he's...
What's Hot On RT
Movies Directed by Tyler Perry
Blockbuster news and reviews
Ellen Page in an intriguing new thriller
A gallery of classic books on film
Featured on RT
- Total Recall: Movies Directed by Tyler Perry 49
- Parental Guidance: The Great Gatsby, Jack Reacher, and Safe Haven 6
- Video Interview: Aftershock Producer Eli Roth 3
- Ray Harryhausen: 1920-2013 33
- Digital Multiplex: Cloud Atlas, Pulp Fiction and more 4
- RT on DVD and Blu-Ray: Jack Reacher, Mama, and Upstream Color 34
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man 3 Soars Above the Rest 64
Top Headlines
-
Baz Luhrmann Wants DiCaprio for Hamlet
1
-
Bryan Singer Shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past in 3D and Simul-Cam
0
-
Avatar Sequels Shooting in 2014
3
-
Shane Black Confirmed for Doc Savage
0
-
Warner Bros. Plans New Dungeons & Dragons Movie
5
-
Adam Scott in Talks for Hot Tub Time Machine 2
0
-
Summit Already Thinking About Divergent Sequel
2
Fresh Links
Featured
10 Best Movie Trilogies
Pretty self-explanatory here; HitFix offers up their favorite trilogies of all time.
10 Jilted Movie Grooms
Feeling a little sappy? Here are 10 movie grooms who were left at the altar.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
50 Youth-Gone-Wild Movies
TimeOut lists the best movies about youth and rebellion.
30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments
Rolling Stone boldly proclaims the rockin'-est moments in cinema.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Las Vegas parano (FR)
- Miedo y asco en Las Vegas (ES)
