Now Playing: Limitless

Today I had made arrangements to go see a movie at the theater with my friend @Foebeard, but we soon found out that the movies I was looking forward too had either been delayed at the last minute (Apollo 18) or don't open here in Canada this weekend like they did in the US (POM Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold). So instead we decided to see Limitless. I had been mildly interested in this from the trailer, but I'd heard some comments that it wasn't super great and probably mediocre at best. Nevertheless, I would have rather seen this than Arther. So hit the jump to find out what my own opinion turned out to be and if I felt it was money well spent.


The story is really pretty simple. Bradley Cooper plays the down-on-his-luck writer Eddie Morra. One day he runs into his ex-brother-in-law who used to be a drug dealer. He seems to be doing far better now and reformed. He gives Eddie a top-secret pill which he claims will unlock the rest of the human brain's potential. Even though Eddie is suspicious, he figures he's so far down, he has nothing really to lose, and pops the pill. To his amazement, the pill seems to do exactly as he was told, and he is quickly able to write up 90 pages of his book which he had previously been unable to write a single word. He soon becomes dependent on the drug to maintain his new, lavish lifestyle that his 4-digit intelligence has unlocked for him.

I really like Bradley Cooper, and his charming, friendly demeanor seems to suit this role perfectly. I can't imagine anyone else doing this as he just fits it so well. When he's off the drug it was really believable that he was simply not as smart, and he genuinely seemed sick and helpless too. Likewise, when he was taking these pills, he was smart and witty and seemed unstoppable. He even has to pull off several scenes in other languages, and even though I'm certainly no expert in any of these languages, it seemed perfectly fluent to me.

What I didn't expect was that Robert De Niro would play such a minor role in the film. Sure he's in it more than some others, but he has relatively few lines and doesn't appear until about halfway through the film. There are even scenes in which it basically ignores him completely while Eddie is distracted by other events going on at the time. It just seemed really odd that they'd get someone like De Niro when the role just didn't seem all that important. Perhaps it's just to get that weight of authority that De Niro imbues. It's hard to say.

Mostly the effects were pretty cool, but this single scene just looked weird

I'd like to lastly mention that I really like the visual cues that were used to try to portray the world the way the people on the drug see it. Sometimes it's as if they are looking at themselves, or how the world seems to brighten and become more colourful and rich. There is one scene that was a little odd, in which Eddie can suddenly write thousands of words with ease in which letters just rain down from the sky and land on shelves and tables around the room. I get what they were going for, I just think that there must have been a more subtle way to portray it like they did for the rest of the film. An example of a scene that I did like was when Eddie starts to clean up his apartment and he seems to split into many Eddies all doing something different. It's a simple editing trick, but they did some fun things with it like the multiple Eddies helping each other to move a couch for example.

For the last bit of full disclosure, I saw this movie for half-price. I don't think that actually affected my enjoyment of the movie, because I honestly don't think it would have bothered me if I had to pay full price. I really liked the movie, the acting and character of Eddie, and the ever so slight sci-fi twist of the drug. Again, the story is pretty simple, but it was a fun time seeing how he turns his life from trash, to cash. Check it out, but you probably won't miss anything if you wait for this on BluRay or rental.