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Critics Consensus: Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs Limitless with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star.
Critic Consensus: Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs Limitless with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star.
All Critics (193) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (133) | Rotten (60) | DVD (8)
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.
It'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.
It's hard to believe you'd be squinting at your watch in the dark while two of the most charismatic actors in Hollywood are on the screen in front of you.
Limitless unfolds into an incongruent mess, and like its protagonist, has severely depleted serotonin levels by the time the credits roll.
Once that buzz starts to wear thin, things become exhausting.
Lots to think about. And I think it's a pretty good movie.
The thriller structure of 'Limitless' and its turns that will mark out the course of action, lack the much needed quality of surprise. [Full review in Spanish]
Let's describe Neil Burger's latest as director "Abraham Polonsky's 'The Matrix.'" It's a hyper-local amped-up Manhattan melodrama that pulses through one man's mind, one user's bloodstream.
An entertaining movie that you easily forget after seeing and whose curious premise runs out of steam too quickly, but this is compensated at least by a charming and charismatic Bradley Cooper who keeps you interested long after you had stopped caring about the story.
Super Reviewer
Retooling Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of better living through chemistry ("The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde"), this nothing-but-a-star-vehicle is a cheerful enough time passer despite being an all out hollywood style endorsement and glamorization of drug use (i don't understand how it even got made!) and despite terribly underusing Robert friggen De Niro ("Bobby's on the set ... let's NOT use him, okay!")!?!?! Some interesting camera effects spice up a piece whose underlying message ("use drugs ... it's cool!") is nonetheless disturbing, if redeemable due to the fact that the work, with little to achieve with its premise other than a pleasant buzzing sensation, is very forgettable.
Yeah so, kinda fun. A man takes an experimental pill that enhances his natural abilities and makes him super efficient - at cleaning his apartment, at writing the next great American novel, at remembering pointless trivia to impress saucy co-eds, and at day trading with ferocious international businessmen. Naturally. The pacing is hip and bracing, and the introduction of the side effects with Anna Friel's made-under performance is piteous and daunting. The end (or beginning, depending on how you look at it) is, of course, rather absurd with the vampirism thing and Eddie not having to face the "Flowers for Algernon" consequences of attempting to rise above his station. His meteoric climb to the top makes good use of Bradley Cooper's natural fast-talking cockiness, but even I'm a little over that trick.
An interesting concept about a guy taking a drug that enables him to use 100% of his brain at all times. Nice idea which isn't really brought across fully in my opinion as the film just seems to lack a kick. The story seems to wander across a few sub plots which don't really get explained too well and I found myself asking how did that happen? when did that happen? where did he get that? and why did he do that? Too many little moments like that happen throughout. Of course the whole idea about humans not using 100% of their brains is complete nonsense. Over the course of a day we apparently use virtually all of our brain power, not all at once of course but spread out, as one section fires up another cools down like any machine. So this fantasy is just that...a nice fantasy but a cool one. Yes the whole plot is quite neat but made in an unoriginal way. The guy starts off as a nobody but after taking the drug he is able to cheat life and get lots of money, girls, material things and a certain amount of power. Its a basic concept that has been done before, not entirely in this way of course but its a simple rags to riches tale really, very predictable. The acting from the main cast is stellar as you would expect which in turn really makes you believe what's going down, its definitely a thrilling ride. As the film progresses it does get quite tense as Cooper runs out of drugs, he has the mob after him for more whilst De Niro wants his big money deal sorted. It does get your palms sweaty for sure, you feel the tension. There is some interesting camera work showing the effect of the drug, from a virtually dull black and white existence before to an almost bluray sharp pixel perfect colour burst once the drug is taken. A glorious visual feast that gives you an explosive sense of being high or alive for the first time. You can feel the characters sense of invigoration and liberation upon taking the drug, when it hits. What I didn't like was as the film progresses the people that take the drug go from being sort of super intelligent to also being a little super human too. When the effects start to weaken or they need the drug in a dangerous situation they just pop a pill and bingo! they're kinda super human again. They seem to be able to fight, run, leap, practically anything really which kinda spoils to idea, it goes overboard a bit. The ending spoils the film too as Morra (Cooper) ingests the drug in a rather stupid and unrealistic way by lapping infected blood up off the floor from a recently dispatched baddie. That really seems like a rather dodgy thing to do surely, you could pick up anything young man! Plus there are more odd questionable moments along the way with a weak finale that again leaves you thinking wut?! What does spring to mind is if this drug is so good and controllable, why doesn't everyone, mainly Van Loon (De Niro) just take the drugs themselves instead of relying on Morra for results. Too many questions for me.
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