Limitless

Limitless is ironically limited by its own subject matter. This movie is about a drug, one that hasn't been named with any sort of care or fashion (was that neglected?) and makes the taker access 100% of their brain, even though people can only access 20%. If you haven't noticed, I named two of the central problems in the previous sentence. The first is that it's bullshit that we use 20% of our brains. Perhaps while flinging a rubberband across a room I do, but that "theory" has been (and not recently) deemed bullshit. So, a movie about accessing unusual amounts of energy and power to do hot shit doesn't know a pretty simple fact that a high school kid knows. The second problem I alluded to was that the film neglects many aspects of itself. The first way it does this is in the drug itself, for with such grandiosity coming into play, doesn't take advantage of all that it could. Secondly, the film has delusions of style and grit and only utilizes them when it feels like it. At other times, the film is murky and uninteresting. It falls into stupid action movie plotlines, which doesn't help a film that wasn't confident in the first place. The story to support the drug (which is the only interesting aspect) ruins the film. For it uses Bradley Cooper in the lead as a low-key writer who discovers the drug by accident, and skyrockets to prominence. Along the way the character meets a mogul played by Robert De Niro. Even though De Niro is neglected as was the pattern with Limitless he has a line of dialogue that serves as a commentary upon the film and its essentially ruining flaw. In the scene, De Niro turns on the cocky Cooper and explains how no matter what the drug does, Cooper does not have the innate skills required. This is ignored by the film from that point onwards: which is a shame for it could have changed the destructive road the film started for itself. There is also a side story with Cooper's girlfriend played by the sublime Abbie Cornish. Cornish is excellent in the role, but her storyline doesn't make any sense, for, at first she is horrified by Cooper and claims he is not himself anymore (it is implied that he is the drug). But later, she takes him back when he exhibits no noticeable change. The finale is even stupider than what has followed, as the film cements its problems in a cocky monologue by Bradley Cooper. This is all really a shame for the film could have explored an, at first interesting, idea in an alternative and intriguing fashion. But Limitless falls flat.
Limitless: ★★