This film adaptation of Dr Hunter S Thompson's 1971 pseudo-novel-cum-swan-song-for-the-Sixties charts the stay in Las Vegas of Raoul Duke (Thompson's alter ego) and his lawyer "Dr Gonzo" (based on Thompson's friend Oscar Acosta) to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race and National Conference of District Attorneys on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs - all while under the influence of mescaline, blotter acid, cocaine and raw ether, among other things.

Gilliam's direction (he co-wrote the screenplay after original director Alex Cox was removed from the project) is full of psychedelic interludes and surreal imagery, even when Duke and Gonzo aren't on drugs. Many sequences are spot-on in evoking the book's tone. The look of the film is not at the expense of character - Depp and Del Toro both disappear into their characters, and Depp in particular captures Thompson's larger-than-life persona perfectly. Neither is likeable, but if they were it wouldn't be Fear and Loathing.

This film split critics and audiences, with very few people not either liking or disliking it intensely. (While few of Fear and Loathing's reviews criticised it on the grounds that it was an unfaithful adaptation of the book, many questioned the book's suitability for filming in the first place.) I loved it, but I wouldn't recommend it exactly, as many people I thought would like it really didn't. If nothing else, come to see your favourite scenes from the book brought to life, and the cameos by Cameron Diaz, Penn Jillette, Christina Ricci, Thompson himself and many others.