Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas review

 Number 555 on the top 1000 films of all time is Terry Gilliam's black-comedy 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.'

Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) is a journalist sent to Las Vegas to cover an important motorcycle race. He is joined by his friend and laywer Dr Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro.) Once there, they get high on every drug doing and get into all manner of chaos.

Terry Gilliam is well-known for his surreal, incomprehensible films like Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. However, while those films had some semblance of a storyline 'Fear and Loathing' was an exercise in excess. 'Brazil was about a civil servant looking for love in a hellscape world while Twelve Monkeys focussed on trying to reverse an apocalypse. Sure these films were weird, but I think there was at least supposed to be a point. Or for Twelve Monkeys anyway. Like Brazil, Fear and Loathing seemed to be weird for the sake of weird.

The antics of Raoul Duke and Dr Gonzo soon became tiresome especially as Dr Gonzo is a pretty nasty psychopath. It didn't help that neither Depp or Del Toro were particularly memorable in their roles. And this is saying something considering the calibre of the actors: Del Toro went onto win a Best Supporting Oscar for Stephen Soderbergh's Traffic a few years later. Depp also has a few Oscar nods under his belt. Yet he was just boring lacking any of the usual charisma he brings to a role. And I didn't like Dr Gonzo so I didn't care for Del Toro's performance.

In terms of comedy, it didn't make me laugh very much. Sure, the situations are black and we're supposed to be laughing at and not with the characters, but I spent much of the film rolling my eyes rather than laughing out loud. None of the psychadelic visuals or quirky camera angles could do anything to make the film more interesting.

Instead this was a tedious, overly-indulgent affair which was about two hours too long. I was very glad when the credits started rolling.

La Dolce Vita review

 Number 212 on the top 1000 films of all time is Federico Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita.'

Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid journalist who is going through a mid-life crisis. To rediscover his passion in life, he spends seven days and nights journeying through Rome.

This is my third Fellini film after 8 1/2 and La Strada and I was really hoping it would be closer to the latter than the former. But alas it was not to be. Just like 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita was slow, boring and surreal. It reminds me of Modernist literature where nothing happens in the real world. Everything plays out in the character's minds. And there's nothing inherently wrong in having films that are effectively character studies, but you need to have interesting and likeable characters. Similarly, to the Great Gatsby, La Dolce Vita is populated by rich people having existential moments. These are people I'm never going to relate to or care about. You can only imagine my horror at realising that I have to watch these characters for three bloody hours.

And that is especially true of the arrogant and unlikeable Marcello who very much has a meltdown at film's conclusion. All of the movie's themes culminate in the surrealist and most vulgar way. Marcello and his friends break into a beach house. Marcello becomes drunk and tries inciting the partygoers into having an orgy. He then has a young woman crawling on her knees and starts to ride her before covering her in alcohol, ripping a pillow and sticking feathers to her. And he only does this out of spite as the partygoers refused to agree to his demands. Yet the young woman is fine with it? And nobody else reacts to this. It's just so weird.

You get surrealism and then you get Fellini. He is on a whole other level. Let me tell you, I did not have a good life while watching this film.