The Rum Diary (2011) - Even the great Johnny Depp struggles to save this  

The Rum Diaries is based on another of writer Hunter S Thompson's books. Depp originally played the man himself in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and gained many fans, much kudos and critical accolade in the process. Therefore, it was fair to say that when people found out that Depp would, once again, be playing Hunter S Thompson, they expected more of the same.

How wrong they were.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a trippy, drug-fuelled, crazy, chaotic mess that only the talents of Terry Gilliam at the helm could really bring to the screen. It was mad and it worked. However, the Rum Diary falls at the first hurdle for being as far away from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as is possible to get.

First of all, it's described as an `Action/adventure/drama/comedy.' That is a clue as to another of its failings. It has no idea what it wants to be. It borrows elements from all of those genres, but can never quite decide which one it wants to be and ends up being none of the above. There's not enough action, not enough comedy and no real drama. As for `adventure' - I would describe an Indiana Jones film as an adventure. The Rum Diary is NOT Indiana Jones.

Johnny Depp is a master at playing larger-than-life characters, yet his version of Paul Kemp is pretty flat. The other characters all seem like they're just about to start being wacky, but the camera cuts away before they can truly shine.

Johnny Depp will always be one of the great modern actors of our time and The Rum Diary will do little to dampen his appeal. He just had an off day/film (or two off days if you've seen The Tourist). The Rum Diary just isn't interesting on any level. Too long. Too slow. Too unsure of itself. And when it does show signs of promise (and there are the occasional flares of the Depp/Thompson we want to see) it's too little too late.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back