Fear and Loathing is a cult film about a savage journey to the heart of the American Dream and is a dark comedy. The movie’s storyline is about two hippies, a peculiar journalist and a psychopathic lawyer that go on a psychedelic journey to Vegas.
Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro play the main characters in Fear and Loathing. It details the duo’s journey through Las Vegas as their initial journalistic intentions decentralize into an exploration of the city under the influence of psychoactive drugs.
The Plot
Duke (Johnny Depp) has been assigned by a magazine to travel to Vegas and cover the Mint 400 cycle race. The duo has, however also decided to take advantage of the assignment and purchase a large variety of drugs which sets them on a downward spiral. Chaos and mayhem reign supreme. Their drug-induced states see them destroying hotel rooms, leaving casinos due to hallucinations and finally Dr Gonzo ditching Duke in Vegas and leaving him with an expensive bill for the hotel room.
Duke tracks Dr Gonzo down and finds out he has a suite at the Flamingo Las Vegas so Duke checks into the suite so he can cover the District Attorneys convention on narcotics, somewhat ironic! The pair attend the conference and snort cocaine during the guest speakers speech on marijuana addicts. They eventually leave the conference and continue their binge for an unspecified number of days where they finally part ways and Duke finishes his article.
Conclusion
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a narrative of drug-induced delusions of a reporter while on assignment in Las Vegas. Initially, it was supposed to be a journey with a journalistic purpose but instead turns into the exploration of Vegas and Casinos under the umbrella of illegal substances.
Rounders is a movie that stars Matt Damon as a genuinely gifted Poker player and New Attorney. It’s about compulsive gambling and how the hero gambles away his tuition money, his law degree, his girlfriend and almost his life. Yet amidst all of this, he seems to be a happy gambler.
As a Poker movie, it is entertaining and knowledgeable and takes place within the pro poker underground of New York and Atlantic City. The ensemble of players are known to one another, and Mike McDermott (Damon) ventures into this world of cutthroats where he meets the poker genius of the Russian American mob who tries to reform McDermott. However, he lands up taking him down a destructive path of compulsive gambling which the movie depicts in a humorous light.
About Rounders
Rounders is all about the places McDermott & Worm visit and the dangerous people they encounter while trying to win a lot of money. The movie buys into the seedy glamour of Poker, almost romanticizing a game that consists of exhausted players who risk everything they own to enjoy those sudden bursts of adrenalin.
The best scenes in Rounders is where they contrast the personalities of Mike and Worm. Mike wants to win by playing a good game of Poker, whereas Worm wants to hustle. He is, however, a card mechanic who takes outrageous chances and his intoxicating personality leads them both into trouble. The one defining moment is when they find themselves in a high stakes game with many State Troopers in the room.
Conclusion
John Dahl directed Rounders. It’s mostly a movie based on a Sport which in this case is Poker and depicts the talented hero winning and facing disaster time and time again. However, he gets back up and continues playing until he has nothing left to lose.
21 is a 2008 American heist drama based on a true story about six MIT students who were experts in card counting at Blackjack. They subsequently took Vegas casinos for Millions of Dollars.
These six friends go on a secret trip to Las Vegas where they use their skills, code talk, hand signals and the probability of winning at various casinos leading them to earn substantial profits. The main character Ben, who initially only wanted to make enough to get into Harvard, becomes corrupted by greed.
Storyline
Ben Campbell is a student at MIT in Boston who desperately wants a scholarship to transfer to Harvard’s School of Medicine but cannot afford it. One evening he is introduced into a small, secretive club by his unorthodox math professor who is learning to count cards. Ben joins the group as he sees it as a solution to fulfilling his dreams of getting into Harvard. Sadly once he makes enough to get into Harvard, he is not able to quit and morphs into his alter ego and does a complete 360.
His devotion to Blackjack causes him to lose focus in an engineering competition which estranges him from his friends which causes him to become distracted, resulting in making a significant loss at the tables on their next Las Vegas trip. It then highlights how friendships falter, deception and revenge take priority when money is involved. There is certainly no honour amongst thieves, be it at the tables in Vegas or holding up a bank.
Conclusion
21 is thematically relevant, particularly in today’s world of materialism and greed. It has a more significant impact than other films in this genre because the events of 21 are based on a true story. It is both engaging and entertaining and emphasizes the dangers of obsessive gambling and how it affects individuals and their lives.