The Rum Diary (**1/2 out of **** stars)

Hunter S. Thompson was an interesting man. His ideas and just general behavior is the most bizarre thing you'll read about. Johnny Depp and he were friends and this film is based of a fictional story Thompson wrote. Well not all fictional. He went down to Puerto Rico for a job, didn't get it and went home to write an account based off him actually getting the job. As a movie it's good but nothing brilliant. It's a tad slow and I prefer the chaos brought in Terry Gillian and Depp's collaboration on Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is a journalist hired at a newspaper in Puerto Rico. He drinks heavily ( he says "the high end of social") and likes to experiment in drugs. He pals around with photographer Sala (Michael Rispoli) and the loose canon and drug tripping Moburg (scene stealing Giovanni Ribisi). Paul also meets Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a real state tycoon. Sanderson and his legion of doom friends are planning on building a series of hotels. This of course is just displacing the locals and in some way enslaving them. Paul  actually has his eyes more on Chenault (Amber Heard), Sanderson's girl instead of opposing his plans until the end of the earth. Chenault is pretty one dimensional, Paul's thoughts are murky, the plot never really kicks in and there are a few other things that make this descent but nothing great. It's still quite good thanks in part to Bruce Robinson (director of the classic Withnail & I). I personally don't see the lasting appeal of this work in the end.

**1/2 out of **** stars