Limitless (2011)
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 184
Fresh: 128 | Rotten: 56
Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs Limitless with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 15
Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs Limitless with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 85,570
My Rating
Movie Info
Aspiring author Eddie Morra (Cooper) is suffering from chronic writer's block, but his life changes instantly when an old friend introduces him to NZT, a revolutionary new pharmaceutical that allows him to tap his full potential. Soon Eddie takes Wall Street by storm, parlaying a small stake into millions. His accomplishments catch the eye of mega-mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro),who invites him to help broker the largest merger in corporate history. But they also bring Eddie to the attention of
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Cast
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Bradley Cooper
Eddie Morra -
Robert De Niro
Carl Van Loon -
Abbie Cornish
Lindy -
Andrew Howard
Gennady -
Anna Friel
Melissa -
Johnny Whitworth
Vernon -
Tomas Arana
Man in Tan Coat -
Robert John Burke
Pierce -
Darren Goldstein
Kevin Doyle -
Ned Eisenberg
Morris Brandt -
T.V. Carpio
Valerie -
Richard Bekins
Hank Atwood -
Patricia Kalember
Mrs. Atwood -
Cindy Katz
Marla Sutton -
Brian Anthony Wilson
Detective -
Rebecca Dayan
Herself -
Ann Marie Green
Financial Newscaster -
Damali Mason
Female Cop -
Meg McCrossen
Female Assistant -
Tom Bloom
Dunham -
Nina Hodoruk
Realtor -
Tom Teti
Tailor -
Stephanie Humphrey
TV News Reporter -
Joe McCarthy
Day Trader #1 -
Peter Pryor
Day Trader #2 -
Daniel Breaker
Campaign Manager -
Chris McMullin
Cop -
Dave Droxler
Technician -
Lusina Quarleri
Italian Hostess/Waitres... -
Piper Brown
Girl Skater -
Simon MacLean
Father Skater -
Saxon Palmer
Businessman #1 -
Stephen Sable
Businessman #2 -
Caroline Maria Winberg
Maria Winberg -
Damaris Lewis
Beautiful Black Woman -
Martha Ann Talman
Van Loon's Assistant -
Robert Bizik
Coffee Shop Owner -
Hugh Douglas
Poker Player #1 -
Howard Strong
Poker Player #2 -
Arlette De Alba
Girl Passenger -
Eddie Fernandez
Gennady Thug -
Ray Siegle
Gennady Blind Thug -
Nicholas Le Guern
Friend at Beach #1 -
Richard Miller
Friend at Beach #2 -
Violeta Silva
Friend at Beach #3 -
Anna Parkinson
Friend at Beach #4 -
Laurence Roscoe
Friend at Beach #5
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Limitless Trailer & Photos
All Critics (185) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (131) | Rotten (56) | DVD (12)
You could pick the script apart for impossibilities. But why bother? It's much more enjoyable to shut your brain off and have a good time.
Top CriticIt's scatty and fast paced, and director Neil Burger employs some Gaspar Noé-style, bad-trip CG effects to heighten the mood.
Very limited, actually.
What would you do if you could take a pill and suddenly access 100 percent of your brain power? This is the premise behind Limitless, a sci-fi thriller that looks as if its makers utilized around 30 percent of theirs.
The filmmakers doesn't sweat the fact that Eddie is a chemically enhanced fraud. What scares them is any possibility of alienating the movie's target audience with a downer ending.
Add it all up, including the nifty twist at the end, and what we have here is a fun Hollywood flick with a good head on its shoulders.
Relationships are shortchanged and this brisk, fantastical tale fails to find any emotional traction.
While it does have some entertaining moments and other moments where possibilities rear their heads, it never quite lives up to the premise.
An enjoyable film that tries to move beyond the standard thriller.
For a movie about hyper-intelligent human beings, Limitless is surprisingly sloppy and ultimately rather brainless.
Despite some snazzy camera angles and showoff-y technique, Limitless dashes any hopes of originality when it ends up being nothing more than a cautionary tale about drug addiction
just a cool film to watch, but a cool film to see
Bradley Cooper is his usual innocuous but personality-free, walking wallpaper self and hence not up to the challenge.
To see the two leads face off verbally is a treat...
There are highs, and it may be fun for a while, but in the end it's a thudding, relentless road to nowhere.
Burger plunges into the material at such a headlong pace and with sufficient adrenalized style as to propel this essentially trashy thriller and distract from the abundant loose ends. [Blu-ray]
While it's not that the film-makers do an amazingly stunning job with the idea, it's perhaps more that they don't fumble it at all.
It's not the science that's important, it's the momentum, the conceptual journey, the dynamism of the head games and chemically-enhanced battle of wits...
One complaint you cannot level at Limitless is that it is unoriginal or uncreative. In an upcoming summer of senseless sequels and repugnant remakes, Limitless-warts and all-is at least something we've never seen before.
Begins like an update of Roger Corman's 'X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes' but abandons its probe of the soul-sucking price of power addiction to pander to the idea that audiences demand slick fantasy-role-model heroes and happy endings.
Dubious values and undercooked philosophy aside, Limitless is an engaging and often good-humoured trip that moves at quite a lick and benefits from being directed with some flair.
Audience Reviews for Limitless
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Eddie Morra: I was blind but now I see.
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- Eddie Morra: [voice over] All my fear? All my shyness? Gone!
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- Eddie Morra: I wasn't high. I wasn't wired. Just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it.
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- Carl Van Loon: You know, Eddie, when you're playing at this level and you are hit by a car, you don't even die.
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- Eddie Morra: [parting ways with Carl] You should really be glad about this, because you know, me working for you, you'd end up being my bitch.
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- Eddie Morra: A tablet a day and I was limitless.
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Limitless
August 2, 2011:
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July 20, 2011:
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March 25, 2011:
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Foreign Titles
- Ohne Limit (DE)
- Sin límites (ES)
Although there is no doubting that Limitless is more outgoing than your typical thriller I still think amidst the intrigue of it's premise and the wonderfully charismatic performance of Bradley Cooper, that it suffers, contained in a way that prevents it's plot from living up to the title. Neil Burger has always produced some interesting experimental films but he makes a key tonal shift about halfway through when Robert De Niro's character appears on screen, at which point the intriguing and insightful character study into the mind of Cooper's lead gets thrown out the window never to be seen again. It's annoyingly unoriginal, in the sense it tells the story of how a down on himself yet likable character seeks to makes fortune, and eventually rises to fame after taking some form of illegal drugs. The thrills don't come often and are stretched out along generic dialogue and many needless scenes. However it has a wonderful neon lit visual style and at no point was I completely tired of it's company, but that was only due to my firm belief that Burger would get back on track instead of indulgently attempting to be more clever than was necessary. I seriously recommend the filmmakers try those revolutionary drugs, maybe they would realise what potential this truly had to offer.