Zippy and more entertaining than some might expect, Limitless is directed with a lot of visual panache by Neil Burger. Leslie Dixon's screenplay has the interesting problem of mixing some intelligent dialogue with some stupid plotting, but the film manages to overcome most of the script's shortcomings. This has a lot to do with Bradley Cooper, whose charismatic likability is the film's biggest asset. Robert DeNiro shows up and plays it mostly straight for once in recent memory, while Abbie Cornish is effective in an underwritten girlfriend role. Limitless is a bit of an unconventional thriller that works despite certain plot holes, and I'd certainly recommend it. B

Limitless is an exercise in style (and movie-star swagger) over substance, but it is fine entertainment. Directed by Neil Burger, whose previous credits include The Illusionist, the entertaining and stylish Edward Norton vehicle, the films open near the end of the story: protagonist Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is standing on a railing high above New York City, contemplating suicide. We see his luxurious apartment is fortified, but not impenetrable. The surveillance cameras have been blinded, and unseen foes are attempting to come in. Eddie has just a moment to either end his own life or face those on the other side of his steel door. It's an intriguing start--what must have transpired before this desperate moment?

The film then returns to the beginning. Anyone who has seen the high-profile, Kanye West-centric ad campaign knows the basic concept: Eddie is a hard-living, tousled writer. His inspiration has run dry, and his beautiful and successful long-term girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) has just left him. He is at the end of his rope when, by chance, he runs into his ex-brother-in-law (Johnny Whitworth), a fishy drug dealer turned (maybe) legitimate pharmaceutical salesman. He gives Eddie a sample of NZT, a mind-enhancing designer drug which expands and intensifies the user's intellectual capacity. Before long, Eddie's life has been turned upside down: he completes his long-delayed novel in four days, learns new languages with ease, etc. Then he decides to conquer the world of high finance, turning a couple a thousand dollars into several million almost overnight. This attracts the attention of a character with the cinematic surname of Van Loon, a formidable businessman played by the very formidable Robert De Niro.

This is the rare film where I feel compelled to praise the opening titles, perhaps the most inspired since Catch Me If You Can or at least last year's Enter the Void. As Paul Leonard-Morgan's electronic score pulsates, the credits appear over an extended, computer-assisted, single-shot zoom through the streets of the city, through crowded streets and even car windows. Hitchcock and Saul Bass would be proud!

Burger's directorial decisions are striking in general. He conjures several effective visual methods to convey the drug-induced sensations (inspiration, bliss, anxiety) experienced by Cooper's character, the most simple of which is introducing flashes of hot orange and red into the film's largely blue-and-grey color scheme. More overt examples include letters falling from the ceiling during the character's marathon writing sessions. Even when Leslie Dixon's (Mrs. Doubtfire) screenplay, based on a novel by Alan Glynn, overheats and loses focus--Russian gangsters! corporate merger! a murdered model! lost time! addiction!--Limitless remains a consistent and inspired visual experience. (The Russian gangsters are the most extraneous inclusion, a distraction in a film already crowded with complications and rising tensions. And turning to a brutish loan shark for a quick fix kind of undermines Eddie's claim of a 4-digit IQ.)

Bradley Cooper is in almost every scene, and he delivers an impressive performance. I'm still not convinced there's a great deal beneath the attractive, rugged surface, but his charisma and screen presence are undeniable. He holds his own against Robert De Niro, who is on point here. Dixon gives the acting icon a great, intimidating, you-don-want-to-be-my-enemy monologue halfway through, and De Niro doesn't disappoint. Limitless' most egregious misstep: the absolute squandering of Abbie Cornish, the rising star who gave one of my favorite performances of the last decade in Jane Campion's brilliant Bright Star. As the obligatory love interest, Cornish is given next to nothing to do. And the one scene truly centered on her character is the also the film's most absurd and WTF?-worthy (two words: ice skates).

All in all, though, Limitless is a well-oiled and eye-catching popcorn movie with strong turns by Cooper and De Niro. It builds to an ending which seems standard-issue on the surface, perhaps even a tad too sentimental, but also has compelling currents of uneasy ambiguity.

B

A gigantic waste of a premise and talent. Pardon the upcoming pun, but the story possibilities could've been limitless thanks to the idea of the wonder drug, but all they're going to have the main character do is become a stockbroker who manages a merger while fighting off Russian tough guys? That's the only story they could come up with? How about politics? It's an areas the film toys with at the end. I would've much rather have seen that film. Or how about more behind what the drug does? The film begins to toy with the idea, but then a murder and the stockbroking cut it off. And speaking about the murder, do we ever find out who does it? I might be misremembering the events, but he seems to get off based on a technicality and not actual proof. So long empathy and sympathy. And might that hurt his run for senate if anyone bothers to dig? Hell, the entire film could've been made up of this subplot and it would've been more interesting. Instead we're left with thoughts of what could've been.

*1/2 (D+)

I assume he did murder the girl.

Which gives the ending, with him running for office, a certain creepiness. He's a very compromised protagonist.

Chappaquiddick.

Limitless does a good job with its original plot though some solutions are not always complete. Bradley Cooper is very likeable in his lead role and does well with all thew consequences that will later come about from taking the drug. The film's points of conflict were very realistic and not out there which could of very well happened when the film revolves around something that doesn't exist in the first place. There are some plot devices, like a hotel murder in the middle of the film, that get brushed to the side quickly or too easily, that it causes the film to lose some of its grip. There is also some editing that could give some a bit of a headache. One aspect of the film that was actually really impressive and harder to praise today is the use of color in the film. All in all, the film is a good fun ride. **1/2

I enjoyed this.

B+

I definitely enjoyed it, which in big part due to the style and energy. It's plotline is very mediocre, as why would this super smart guy get tangled up in the mob guy's business instead of paying him off as soon as he had the money?? I did like how they didn't really have to explain how he fixed his supply problems in the end.

B

This is a slightly difficult movie to grade. Coming out I certainly did enjoy it, but it does feel disjointed and leaves plotholes gaping.

The first trailer sold me on this film immediately being high-concept and certainly interesting premise but, as history points out, most of these movies tend to falter with their execution, and in some ways Limitless falls into this trap, yet I still find myself not really accepting that it would have been better any other way. Performance-wise, Cooper, de Niro and Cornish do decent, nothing spectacular but nothing terrible, Cooper, in particular fits his role very well though, almost tailor-made. Direction by Burger was sometimes inspired and I think he mostly deserves the credit for making me still like this and still want to buy the film after viewing it as the script loses itself halfway through, undecided what it wants to be and what direction to go in with the characters.

The biggest plotholes would probably be with so much documentation or knowledge by certain individuals of the drug, no one confronted Cooper about it, the person who trashed the apartment of the ex-half-brother and all his hotel rooms, in fact one may ask why did the searcher not ever confront Cooper directly? Surely that would be easier than breaking into the apartment/hotel time and time again and coming up fruitless. The potential murder of the woman in the hotel also is flawed, what is its purpose? In the long run it seems it doesn't matter and therefore it is pointless being in the film, and even with the pill, Cooper still made elementary mistakes like leaving his fingerprints on the knife that killed the Russian gangster, hell, all his belongings remain there as well. If he was a person of interest in both cases, surely the police would crack down harder than they actually did. There is so much dirt for the digging that it would be ridiculous to not put the pieces together and have it reported by some newspaper. Maybe we are supposed to believe he was always ahead of the competition like de Nero, yet, you cannot fight DNA proof. The way Cornish took him back is also unbelievable unless we actually believe he has stopped taking the drug/ironed out its kinks, but that would mean he'd be cheating.

So how can one like it? Depending on your position of whether you want to like the film or not, you could fill in the blanks yourself and therefore decide how much of it actually weighs itself down. Cooper may have seemed like an arrogant prick at first, but you can't deny he had his charm and that as much as he did things for himself, he was also selfless from the very beginning believing he could change the world and contrasting that with the Russian gangsters, greedy lawyers and dubious businessmen. He is very much the definition of a flawed protagonist, yet the film doesn't truly engage all the hypotheticals it brings up.

B

Heh, very convoluted and needs an edit but I'm too lazy for that.

In answer to your question - the mob guy didn't want money, he was after the drug afer he discovered it and took one earlier. Paying him off with money would not have worked and he didn't have enough pills to give away and get rid of him.

Agree there are plot holes and generally agree with what Gunslinger and BK have to say.

But I'm shocked to say I really loved it. It was just damn entertaining and also some interesting direction from Burger. And like others have said Cooper is perfect in the role.

BTW (spoiler ahead).....

I don't think he kills the model as at that stage he wasn't sick or experiencing withdrawal symptoms and more importantly - you see a glimpse of the guy chasing him following them before they enter the room.

I agree that I don't think he killed her. I mean, just because he was "blacked out" doesn't mean his mind went stupid. The pill made him intelligent, and murder would be idiotic.

No, he waited long enough to pay it back that the mob guy had to attack him in his apartment complex, which is when the pills were revealed to the mob guy. He could had $100,000 in like a day anyway.

Rotten Tomatoes pretty much got this one on the nose. Aside from the ultra-snotty bit on the end, i.e. Cooper folding into himself and out of character too much, his performance was fairly charming and while not particularly noteworthy it worked. Burger's directions is surprisingly unrestrained and ambitious. The visuals intermix a flair of retro, extended zoom-in shots, shallow focus, and manipulation of color and atmosphere that, while not nearing Ford's experiments in A Single Man, were pretty cool to see. He definitely needs to work on developing focus and restraint at the expository scenes that don't require the stylish camerawork, but it was still very interesting and effective.
The problem with the film is the conventional, unimaginitive, extremely disjointed and often flat out bad script. In the introductory voice over narration, which was an awful and unnecessary piece through the whole movie, Cooper says he has a 4 digit IQ. I know the drug makes him super, out-rageously smart, but a genius IQ is 170, 1000 is simply impossible on an IQ test. It's a minute detail but that's the type of silly, lazy writing that annoys the hell out of me when it blatantly lets down an otherwise solid film like this. Moreover this movie carried the typical problem of average people trying to write super-intelligent characters, the actions they come up with these characters to carry out are not super-intelligent. They are generally very obvious, simplistic, and blunt, which makes the whole concept unreal and ironically idiotic.
In spite of all this I liked the movie. Pretty comparable to the adjustment bureau. The screenplay wasn't THAT bad, and Burger's direction and the personal appeal the subject matter has to me are more than enough to earn a B- type response from me, but it could have been much better.

Super Bradley loves Limitless.


1000¹⁰⁰⁰ out of 5.

limitless plotholes

C-.

2nd experience in an aussie theater (love the lazy boy seats!) meh

5/10 -> C-

Limitless has proved itself to be very limited and pointless to be honest. After a pretty cool opening shot (the editing throughout was quite possibly the best thing about the movie - it felt fresh and it never settled, always trying a new trick or two - which did came in handy because the movie does drag at points) the whole thing took a while to get going. First 30 minutes or so were much more effectively summarized in a trailer. Character development was non existent. Even the main character was never fully fleshed out. But Bradley Cooper did carry the whole thing by himself. He's quite charismatic I think. Though I still don't see him being an A-class actor. Abbie Cornish had such a stupid character to work with (skating blades???? LOL, it felt more like the pill turned her into an idiot than a smart person) and De Niro was on autopilot. Not that he had much to work with anyway.

It's quite ironic for a movie with a premise about a pill that allows the brain usage to go from 20% to 100% and makes someone ultrafocused, to seemingly use much less than that standard 20% for its script, which is by far its main problem. As somebody previously already mentioned I have no idea how somebody on pill, which makes him ultrasmart and ultrafocused, managed to forget to pay his debt which, in result, effected the whole 2nd part of the movie. I mean, it makes no sense for something as important as that to happen to him. Really stupid oversight from the writers.

Also when blackouts started to happen I actually thought I was dealing with a sci-fi techno thriller. Some theories juggle the thought of people being able to do telekinesis and/or even teleportation with the full capacity of their brain. And I was like - hey, this is getting cool. But no. Blank bullets. It's just a side effect of "regular" memory loss. You know, just like even the common cough medicine can have on some people.

I saw the movie a few days ago, and I Googled about the book it's based on just a few moments ago before writing all this. It's really laughable how anybody thought this new ending was better than the one in the book. The ending of the book provides much better overall explanation of why the pill was in the works and why it never hit the street market. And it gives an appropriate ending to the main character. The happy end we have in the movie felt like a complete cheat to me and what I read about the book confirms this. It just doesn't feel like a likely ending at all.

I didn't expect much from this movie and it turns out it really is a mixed bag. I liked Bradley and sporadic minor twists (the lawyer for example), but it's very uneven movie in all aspects.

That could be my review for Source Code.

Then I'm guessing this:

will be my grade for Source Code.

Sure, there were some plot holes. Lucky for Limitless, I saw Battle: Los Angeles immediately afterwards. Compared to that lumbering nonsense, Limitless came off as brilliant and airtight!

For whatever small gripes about the plot one can make, I was taken by the high energy verve, the brilliant use of colors and extreme close ups, and some truly inventive editing tricks. As someone else said, Limitless is much more style than substance. And while I can see how someone would say it wastes the potential of its inherently awesome premise, the great thing about the movie is it being ultimate wish fulfillment. Anyone with real ambition wouldn't stop once they make that dream creative project.

Someone could fairly say that I'm being hypocritical by tearing up Battle: LA's stupidity while giving Limitless a pass for flair. But Limitless kept me emotionally engaged, possesses an unusually good narrative voice, has fine acting (I like that DeNiro maintained his dignity by playing it relatively understated) and enough half-baked twists and ideas in its noggin' to make it one of this spring's best rides.

I eagerly await your SC review to go along with that grade - - I hope you like it more than I did!

I hope you're not too eager. Source Code is opening here on June 26th.

Where???

I liked it, didn't love it. Entertaining movie but left me a little cold emotionally. Probably because the #winning ending was such an FU to the norm, ordinarily Cooper would realize he's better off rejecting the drug and going back to old Eddie, then getting his girl as a reward for it. Having him own the world and keep the drug state permanently left me a little cold admittedly, even if it was a ballsy move. And I didn't even realize he probably killed that girl, LOL. Poor Matt Damon in Adjustment Bureau couldn't be Senator cause a photograph of his ass made it in the paper, Bradley Cooper can kill a girl and lock it in. Then again Plexico went to jail for years for shooting himself in the leg and Kobe did nothing for rape so I guess it's accurate

Cooper was very good though, I didn't really take him seriously as an actor before this but he's legit. De Niro came off OK, character is basically the toothless Gordon Gecko, they even set up the camera in the limo the same way as an obvious homage



I thought making Cooper go after as much money as possible in his superform, was perfect and relevant, actually.

Solid B, nothing spectacular but entertaining

B

I liked it but didn't love it.

And I don't think he killed the model.