This was painful. My memories of the book were wonderful, but now I'm questioning them. Was Thompson's writing so good that the psychedelia and hallucinations are enjoyable brain candy and his social "commentary" seemed trenchant and timely? Here, all the drug-fueled activity and visuals seem boring and his observations seem almost enitrely trivial. (The comment about Leary's "revolution" ultimately leaving people unenlightened and vulnerable is perhaps the only interesting bit of the film.) What a waste of a novel, a good director, and two great actors (three if you count Barkin). Not to mention a wast of my time. It was nice to see the guy from Law & Order play the gay desk clerk; I think this is the only time I've ever seen him be something other than a cop.

I thought this movie was a trip. These guys do every kind of drug imaginable it looks like and I don't think that in real life no one can live through doing theme many drugs. To me its a movie about many things. History and drugs mainly. It is like a lesson. I don't see how any one can find doing what the did enjoyable.

Loved it. Watch out for bats and drunken reptiles.

So like, I was watching this movie, right bro? And then I was all, WOAH! Cool movie bro. Buying the blu-ray.

This movie leaves me feeling as if I've been to hell and back, which seems to be exactly what it wants to do. The deepest pits of American culture, both with and without drugs, are delved into fearlessly by Raoul Duke, who is now my favorite Johnny Depp roll of all time.The camera was horrid and unwatcchable, and the drug trips were repulsive. Everything about this movie is disgusting, but all sewn together such that you can't look away. You might complain that there is no story, but there is - it's a story of transition, of the 60s giving way to the 70s, and everything that goes along with it.The humor in this movie is what really got my attention, though. I'm not one to laugh out loud at a movie, but this one had me going at several points. Everything is overblown, and yet there is a great depth of subtlety in every moment that drives the movie to another level altogether. Just pick any point in the movie, pause, and start looking around at what's going on in the background, unacknowledged, and you'll see a small piece of what I mean.On a side note, THIS movie will keep your kids sober, all that DARE stuff is a waste of time compared to the trip scenes in Fear and Loathing.Final Word: A MUST WATCH, definately more clever than most of what gets put out nowadays, and if nothing else, it was a good balance to the fact that I had to suffer through Avatar last night, ugh.