This is actually a group effort with Thompson the center of attention. I think the most interesting track on here, though, is the audio commentary by author Hunter S. Nabulsi also talks about other interesting choices for actors she had considered to be in the roles over the years, including (but not limited to) Jack Nicholson, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Dan Aykroyd/John Belushi and so on.
Del Toro doesn’t appear as much unfortunately, but the other two carry it rather nicely.
Fear and loathing in las vegas dvd movie#
Depp offers the best bits as he talks a lot about studying to play Thompson, which of course called for basically living with him, while Del Toro talks a lot about his ways of getting into the role (gaining weight) and Naibulsi talks about the hard time she had getting this movie made (which took over a decade). The second commentary by Depp, Del Toro and producer Laila Nabulsi is another excellent track. It's a funny, rather informative and entertaining track. Gilliam has a lot to talk about, going from production to the themes, the cast, anecdotes and its acceptance (or lack there-of) in some circles. And like all the other commentaries I've heard from Gilliam it's an energetic, funny and insightful commentary that never misses a beat. Criterion has now ported all of that great material over to this Blu-rays single disc.įirst up are three audio commentaries, the first being one by director Terry Gilliam. They both sound good but the 5.1 track offers some more creative uses with the surrounds and bass is also stronger.Ĭriterion’s 2-disc DVD for the film was one of their more aggressive editions, covering every aspect of the film and its source novel and author. If it wasn’t for that fact the track would actually be quite impressive.Īs to which one you should go with it will come down to preference. But again the dialogue still comes off weak and really doesn’t have much in the way of fidelity. Music sounds good, sound effects are sharp, and the surrounds present some great splits and natural movements. This actually makes it hard to hear sometimes, especially since a lot of lines are mumbled by the two main characters. While the film does make great use of the surrounds and the bass, specifically during the hallucinatory scenes (the late adrenochrome “freak out” possibly best displays this aspect) dialogue is still incredibly flat. In the commentary Gilliam addresses the fact he’s not very good with the sound and I suspect this may have to do with the track’s obvious problems. Unfortunately overall quality hasn’t been improved upon much. Why this happened I can’t say but I think many will be pleased to know that this has been corrected. In a later part of the scene, where Duke is sitting outside of the bathroom, Gonzo’s background screams were missing in the 5.1 tracks but were present in the 2.0 track. Many should be pleased that Criterion has corrected one issue originally found in the DVD’s 5.1 tracks (it presented both Dolby Digital and DTS tracks.) Bizarrely Criterion’s 5.1 mix was missing audio in some scenes, with the most noticeable instance occurring during chapter 10 where Dr.
But the image here is strong and far better than the original DVD’s presentation.Ĭriterion includes two lossless DTS-HD MA tracks: a 2.0 surround track, similar to what was presented in theaters, along with a remastered 5.1 surround track. Universal released the film on HD-DVD and Blu-ray though haven’t seen them so I can’t compare. The print is generally clean though I did notice the same vertical line that appears during Duke’s final “freak-out” of the film on the original DVD (I assume the same source was used.) Other than that I can’t say I noticed anything else. Blacks are deep and remain inky without losing any details. The film is loaded with neon lights and a variety of bright colours of many shades, which are used during some of the more hallucinatory sequences, and they’re rendered beautifully, namely the reds, which look incredible. Film grain is noticeable and remains natural.Ĭolours also look much better here. Close-ups are sharp and fine details are clear. The previous compression artifacts are now all gone and long shots look much sharper, if still a bit soft around the edges. The new Blu-ray offers a significant improvement over Criterion’s DVD with a much smoother and cleaner image. Looking at it now the transfer does look a little smudgier than I initially thought and presents many noticeable artifacts. Revisiting their DVD I have to say I was probably a little too generous with it originally. Criterion ports their popular DVD edition of the cult favourite Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas over to Blu-ray, presenting the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this dual-layer disc.