“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

That line kicks off journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson’s book “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and the movie based on it of the same name.

As the movie gleefully points out, the drugs never let go once they initially kick in. This is the conflict in the movie.

Journalist Raoul Duke (played dynamically by Johnny Depp) and his lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (played adequately by Benicio Del Toro), are supposed to be covering the Mint 400, a desert motor-bike race.

Unfortunately, they are so trashed on illicit substances (mescaline, LSD, cocaine, pills, amyls and ether) that they can barely function, let alone cover the race.

What follows is a raucous romp in hilarious narrow escapes and drug-induced insanity that puts any Cheech and Chong movie to shame.

The only difference is that “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” has much better special effects. There are plenty of melting walls and floors, breathing ceilings and kaleidoscopic color patterns to add to the aura of psychedelia contained in the movie.

These effects are really cool to behold. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the larger hallucinations that director Terry Gilliam (“Brazil”) tries to create and capture on film.

For instance, there is a part in the movie in which Duke hallucinates in the casino bar. One second, there are normal people sitting around talking to each. The next second, they turn into giant lizards and start killing each other.

The lizards look extremely fake and out of place amongst the other special effects. So do the giant bats that Duke’s twisted mind conjures up while driving along the interstate in the desert.

However, even though there is a great deal of emphasis placed on the special effects in the movie, there is also a lot of humor as well.

It is hard not to laugh out loud when Gonzo is sitting in his underwear, listening to Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” waiting for the song to peak so he can electrocute himself to death.

He makes the mistake of asking Duke to throw the portable stereo into the bathtub. Duke smiles, agrees, watches the drugged-up Gonzo prepare for death, and then smacks him upside the head with a grapefruit when the music peaks.

This black humor is directly imported from Thompson’s novel. In fact, the movie is almost one hundred percent similar to the novel.

If any movie this year deserves to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Film, this is the one.

Depp gives the performance of his life as Duke. He is immediately foreboding and quirky, obnoxious and likeable. He spent a lot of time studying the habits of Thompson (he provides the basis for Duke), and it shows.

Unfortunately, Del Toro isn’t as likeable as Dr. Gonzo. He seems too rigid to play a person who has done a boat-load of drugs. Although he has perfected the insanity that the role requires, he fails to provide an adequate degree of humor in his role.

But both actors are completely capable of pretending they are in drugged-out hazes or absolutely insane. Depp especially has the entire act down.

The movie could easily be divided into two equal parts. While the first part deals with the Mint 400, the second part, which begins after Gonzo has fled Las Vegas by plane, begins with Duke trying to escape from Las Vegas without being caught.

Duke finds himself in a desperate situation that is ultimately ironic. When he came to Las Vegas, he did not give a damn about where his money was coming from (the magazine that accidentally sent him to cover the motorbike race is bankrolling Duke’s entire stay).

He was only concerned about spending it as fast as possible. Now, the hotel and the magazine knows he is a fraud, he is expected to pay all his debts off before leaving, and he still has a suitcase full of drugs and illegal weapons to smuggle out of the state.

True to drugged-out form, Duke becomes paranoid and freaks out. He speeds out of Las Vegas, gets pulled over by the highway patrol and is ordered to pull over into a rest stop to sleep.

Thus begins the second part, where Rolling Stone magazine sends Duke back to Las Vegas to cover the Drug Enforcement Agency conference going on there.

This is truly the funniest part of the entire movie. Duke is completely fried and surrounded by narcotics agents that are eager to bust anyone’s balls.

Even though this movie does not focus on Thompson’s quest for the American dream (which, in the book, he discovers is actually an American nightmare), it does a great job of focusing on Thompson’s great book, without embellishing or detracting from it.

There are plenty of moments worth the price of admission. But keep in mind, this is one of those movies that is better to see trashed than sober.

3 1/2 Stars out of five

---

Ben Jones is a doctor of journalism from Boulder, Colorado.