Midnight Movie: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp on the road to Vegas in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Universal)

Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (playing April 25 and 26 at midnight at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters) came after Twelve Monkeys and just before Gilliam attempted to tilt windmills (his attempt to bring Don Quixote to the screen with Johnny Depp failed). I couldn't find my review for the film from when it came out in 1998 but I remember loving it despite its flaws.

The movie is based on the semi-autobiographical memoirs of gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson's roman a clef follows a journalist not unlike himself whose name is Raoul Duke (an almost unrecognizable Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (a heavily beefed up Benicio Del Toro) as they travel to Las Vegas in search of drugs, women and the American Dream. The tale mirrors a pair of Thompson's own trips to Vegas with an overweight Samoan lawyer named Oscar Zeta Acosta. His intent is to cover a motor cycle race, but his professional duties quickly fall by the wayside.

The pair's psychedelic, drug-induced weekend provides a metaphor for America adrift after the sixties. Duke, Gonzo and the film move in a permanent drug haze, and former Monty Pythonite Gilliam is just the right director to visualize that on the screen. The sense of disorientation and surrealism feels first-hand as if we were inside the heads of these characters. We're not being shown a couple of doped up guys, we're made to feel like one of them and it's a freaky, mind-bending experience. Depp and De Toro are amazing, both losing themselves in the bizarrely caricatured performances they deliver.

Enjoy this one on the big screen, and seeing it at midnight when your mind might be a little tired and fuzzy might make the experience all the better.

My Blueberry Nights

Norah Jones in the latest film by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai, My Blueberry Nights (TWC)

Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai is like a jazz musician and his films are like cinematic riffs. His films are all about mood. They really aren't about plot and in some ways not even about character. They are about longing, desire, obsession -- intangible feelings that can consume a person. As someone who has an aversion to most contemporary romantic movies, Wong is a filmmaker whose lush romanticism makes me swoon. His latest outing, My Blueberry Nights (opening April 18 at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters, AMC Palm Promenade, and UA's Horton Plaza 14), is his first film in English. But romantic riffs like his translate into any language. (You can also listen to our Film Club discussion of Wong's film.)

The Grand

Werner Herzog plays it straight in The Grand (Anchor Bay)

In 1980, Werner Herzog appeared in a Les Blank short film called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, in which he did precisely that. The new film The Grand (opened April 4 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) should have been called Werner Herzog Steals the Show because that's precisely what he does in this mockumentary about a poker tournament.

21

Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth try to beat the odds in 21. (Columbia)

The new film 21 (opening March 28 throughout San Diego) claims a true story as its source. That story involves a group of MIT students who put together a card-counting team that took Vegas casinos for several million dollars in the 1990s. A 2002 Wired magazine article called "Hacking Las Vegas" detailed the team's exploits and caught the eye of actor Kevin Spacey who decided to make a movie based on the article and subsequent book Bringing Down the House, written by Ben Mezrich. The end result is 21.

Planet B-Boy

Breakdancing around the globe in Planet B-Boy (Elephant Eye Films)

Breakdancing has fallen out of the popularity it enjoyed in the years following the 1983 film Flashdance. But for some, the fall from fad-dom may be a relief, clearing out all the wannabes and just leaving the true devotees to practice the art. The current state of breakdancing is explored in the new documentary Planet B-Boy (opening March 28 at Landmark's Ken Cinema), which bears the description: "About One of the Greatest Dance Phenomena the World Has Ever Seen." Well you can see the film and a little pre-show, live entertainment by B-Boys Phobangers and Rock So Fresh at the Ken for the March 28 7:00 pm and 9:45 pm shows.

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days And 30 Nights — Hollywood To The Heartland

On the road with Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show (Picturehouse)

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days And 30 Nights — Hollywood To The Heartland -- I think that tests the limits of marquee real estate even more than The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. At the very least it uses more eccentric punctuation to break up its extensive title. But don't judge a movie by the excessive length of its title. Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show (opening February 8 throughout San Diego) delivers a lively and fun documentary as it follows Vaughn and a quartet of hand-picked stand-up comics as they traverse the country performing live shows. The four male comedians -- I guess a female stand up might have posed problems in the tight sleeping quarters on the bus -- are Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco.