I've read quite a bit of the good doctor Hunter S. Thompson's work, so this has been on the list to see for a while. It is a patchy collection of adventures taken from his writings and hewn together as a borderline watchable, series of drug-drenched debacles. Either way, it's still a cultural curiosity; the stories of Thompson starring a young Bill Murray and Peter Boyle, featuring a soundtrack containing Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix. Of course I wanted to see it.
The acting of the two leads is great. Murray's portrayal plays more human than Johnny Depp's in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) while retaining Thompson's fiendish character. Boyle stands out as Lazlo, the wild eyed attorney and civil libertarian who's antics even strike terror into his accomplice. Unless you're familiar with Thompson's batty gonzo tales though, you'll struggle to make much sense of it all. The script and directing are a disjointed mess, so it's the occasional moment of inspired mayhem that maintains curiosity. Thompson was involved in the project but was apparently pretty pissed with the end result. He and Murray got on like crazy old knuckleheads though. Can you imagine that? Now that would have been entertaining.
2/5
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