I watched The Rum Diary last night. I thought it was a horrible film. It missed the point of the book entirely, failed to flesh out the characters to any sort of depth, ultimately presenting them in a two-dimensional framework that was uninteresting at its high points. The atmosphere was all wrong. Puerto Rico was as much a character as anyone else in the book, but here it was just this pretty backdrop for a story lacking any sort of emotion. Giovanni Ribisi delivered a great performance as the drunkard Moberg, but that was all that was memorable. I thought this could have been so much more. Whoever thought Bruce Robinson was a good choice for screenwriter/director should have been fired. Where was the return of Terry Gilliam? At least Gilliam seemed to understand the text of Fear and Loathing and got it right for a screen adaptation. The Rum Diary was a pitiful waste of two hours.  

I watched The Rum Diary last night. I thought it was a horrible film. It missed the point of the book entirely, failed to flesh out the characters to any sort of depth, ultimately presenting them in a two-dimensional framework that was uninteresting at its high points. The atmosphere was all wrong. Puerto Rico was as much a character as anyone else in the book, but here it was just this pretty backdrop for a story lacking any sort of emotion. Giovanni Ribisi delivered a great performance as the drunkard Moberg, but that was all that was memorable. I thought this could have been so much more. Whoever thought Bruce Robinson was a good choice for screenwriter/director should have been fired. Where was the return of Terry Gilliam? At least Gilliam seemed to understand the text of Fear and Loathing and got it right for a screen adaptation. The Rum Diary was a pitiful waste of two hours.  

3 months ago
  1. whitehottrash posted this