Limitless reaches its halfway through.

Rating: 5/10 (22 March 2011)

Turn on, tune in, conquer the world seems to be the mantra in this Leary fairy tale about a guy with writer's block that gets his hands on the ultimate hallucinogenic that will open every door that Huxley puts in front of you. The film itself mimics a drug experiences with an early rush of intense energy and giddiness followed by fatigue and the drag of coming down and it turns out to be more pink elephant than white rabbit.
Eddie Morra is on the skids. He can't get past the first page of his book and his girlfriend and meal ticket has just walked out on him. He runs into a shady of character former brother in law on the street who turns him on to a super brain steroid. The initial results are more than promising as he writes 40 pages of his book and screws his landlady. Clearly he has to have more of this stuff. He locates the ex- brother in law but more importantly inherits his stash. Eddie is soon wheeling and dealing ten to twenty steps ahead of his competitors and a hot property to land in the world of big business. He is dogged however by some pretty tough cookies who want in on the miracle drug.
Narrated in the first person of the protagonist Eddie (Bradley Cooper) at first is a benign though self destructive Lubowski type who morphs into a smug Wall St. wizard creep before circumstance overtakes him and blood begins to flow and the film's minimal credulity flies out the window. Cooper does a fine job of carrying the film convincingly moving from Jekyl to Hyde as he trips his brain fantastic but director Burger is intent on making him an unrepentant super hero and the sublime early visuals soon become absurd posturing on a parallel planet, Eddie's World, which like this film is as barren as the moon.