Friday, November 21, 2008
I'm not really a Hunter S. Thompson fan, but I guess the idea of Bill Murray as Thompson was intriguing to me. This movie is funny enough to get a pass, but it feels like a wasted opportunity. The biggest problem is that it lacks any sort of POV on Thompson, and instead just tries to recreate his writing. Which would be fine, but they don't really figure out a great way of doing it, mostly resorting to having Murray dictate everything he does into a recorder as an excuse to work a bunch of Thompson's prose in to the film. I found it a little awkward. Obviously adapting something like this wouldn't be easy, since what people like about HST's works is the style in which they were written, not so much because they have a strong narrative thread... it's not very cinematic. So it doesn't translate well as a satisfying movie, but Murray is good in it, and it's funny enough that you won't waste your time with it.
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