Movie Review: Limitless

This week’s cine-visual treat was Limitless staring Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, The A-Team) as a failing writer; It is never really explained how he actually managed to get a book contract when he had never even managed to write a single word – I would love the name of his literary agent, or the publisher who is handing out advances based on concepts for that matter – His life is changed for ever after a chance encounter with his Ex-Brother in Law (Brother of his Ex Wife rather than his Sisters Ex Husband) who offers him a pill. The Ex-Brother in Law having given up drug dealing in order to work in selling pharmaceuticals, This pill he explains is the answer to the fact that we only use 20% of our brains and can open up the other 80% - Obviously at this point I have to point out that this is not true and in fact all of our brain is used just for reasons of controlling electrical output our minds do not all fire at once as this would over heat our receptors. – Anyway he decided he has nothing to lose so tries the pill and instantly becomes alert focused and seemingly has total memory recall. A few days later he has finished his book, started trading shares and started to learn new languages, although his first priority does seem to get as many women into bed (Or bathroom cubicle) as possible. Obviously there is a catch, would be a pretty boring film if not :- “Here’s a Pill” “Thanks, here’s a book” “Thanks” So the film starts with Bradley contemplating suicide as a gang of murder intent criminals are breaking down his door, and then tracks back to see how he gets there (Always a bit annoying to me to know where a certain point in the film will be as it then locks the possibilities into a certain point, and this film didn’t really throw up any shocks on how he got there.) The only really annoying points for me were that 1) He had an advanced intellect and thought through all possibilities and yet never once considered the possible side effects, surely as a genius this should have been a consideration. 2) The criminal “mastermind” that he was pitted against (Not Robert De Nero who was very good as his boss/adversary) did not seem a worthy opponent, if we were to believe that he did in fact have all the skills that he had received from this pill then he should instead have been a minor inconvenience. 3) too many questions were simply ignored, I don’t want to ruin anything with spoilers but I left with a great deal of unanswered questions, and it isn’t one of those “Imagine your own ending” films (Which also annoy me – I pay you to tell me a story, I can easily stay at home and tell myself one.) the questions are simply ignored entirely. The film is based on the book “The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn and rather unusually for a Science Fiction film a book I had never read, so it was quite unknown territory for me which probably led to me liking the film a little more than if I had known the story. However I do think this is a good film, and a good concept so well worth watching if you get a chance. Finally a quick bit of trivia, Bradley Cooper attended the Actors Studio New York, If you watch the series Inside the Actors Studio in which stars are interviewed in front of students Bradley Cooper was in the audience which interviewed Robert De Nero, must be quite a good feeling to think that De Nero is now supporting him in a movie.