Bovie Movie

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 book catapulted Thompson headfirst toward the Kerouac-Mailer-Capote pantheon and jump-started the entire movement of “gonzo journalism.” Carrying a suitcase of drugs, Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp with shaved pate) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) drive a red convertible across the Mojave from L.A. to Vegas, where Duke has an assignment to cover the Mint 400 desert motorcycle race. As the drugs kick in, Duke ventures into voiceover, filling in the blank spots and narrative gaps. “This is not a good town for psychedelic drugs,” says Duke, but even so, they consume vast quantities, eventually escalating to ether. Duke notes that with ether “you can actually watch yourself behaving this terrible way, but you can’t control it.” The two trash their hotel room, and Gonzo goes back to L.A. Thinking the hotel room holocaust will lead to an arrest, Duke begins a drive back to L.A., but after an odd encounter with a highway patrolman (Gary Busey) and a telephone conversation with Gonzo, he returns to Vegas to cover the District Attorney Convention on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in the glitzy Flamingo Hotel. This time the drugged-out duo trash their Flamingo room. The crazed carnival atmosphere segues into a carney casino, Bazooko’s Circus, where a barker (Penn Jillette) spiels amid aerialists, clowns, and a rotating carousel bar. Gonzo worries over runaway teen Lucy (Christina Ricci), who paints portraits of Barbra Streisand. Soon the hallucinations begin: Duke sees Gonzo transmogrify into a demon with breasts on its back, and an acid vision of a Vegas bar features large legit lounge lizards (courtesy of monster makeup man Rob Bottin). Flashbacks depicting Duke’s intro to the drug scene jump back to love-Haight relationships in San Francisco’s Summer of Love. Cameos and guest stars include Mark Harmon, Cameron Diaz, Flea, Lyle Lovett, Harry Dean Stanton, Ellen Barkin, Tobey Maguire, and Hunter S. Thompson himself. The film features a Geffen Records soundtrack mixing rock of the period with Vegas lounge tunes. Over the years, various script adaptations came and went as did numerous talents; people connected with past efforts to film Thompson’s book include Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and writer-director Alex Cox. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

When Disney first adapted this comic fantasy back in 1976, it was Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster who assumed the roles of the mother and daughter who exchange bodies for the whole of a magical day. Now it’s Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s turn to learn some valuable life lessons of their own. Widowed psychiatrist Tess Coleman (Curtis) is about to get married again, although her teenage daughter, Anna (Lohan), objects, believing her mother is acting with unseemly haste. Besides — and here comes the update — she wants to get her rock band on the road. Then a fairy-godmother figure at a Chinese restaurant puts a spell on the warring twosome’s fortune cookies, and the transformation is made. Once in their new host bodies, Tess is shocked to discover that her daughter has put a ring through her navel, while Anna adopts make-up to prove she doesn’t look “like the Cryptkeeper”. Although the plot takes a familiar course from then on, director Mark Waters keeps up the comic momentum with some skill. 

Five liberal students serve poisoned alcohol to a collection of bigoted extremists in this entertaining but insubstantial black comedy. It could be an intriguing, double-edged premise — are Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard and the rest any less twisted than their victims? — but Dan Rosen’s script presents the culinary vigilantes in purely one-dimensional terms. By far the movie’s strongest features are its various dinner guests, particularly racist trucker Bill Paxton (the first victim), male chauvinist Mark Harmon and homophobic priest Charles Durning. While unquestionably unpleasant, these characters are infinitely more interesting than the ones serving the wine.