A pretty good action/thriller

Rating: 7/10 (10 March 2011)

Limitless seems like an attempt to push Bradley Cooper out of his Romance/Comedy safe zone and into the role of future possible action star. He's built right for it too, sort of more likable Matthew McConaughey with his chiseled looks and piercing blue eyes. Limitless attempts to do for Cooper what The Bourne Identity did for Matt Damon; remake him from a pretty boy romantic lead into a gritty dark hero.
It works too, for the most part. Limitless is a fun ride all the way through and it's visually striking to boot. It opens with a steady camera zooming through Manhatten, through streets and taxi cab windows, it sets a good tone for the rest of the film.
The story centres around the myth that humans are only using a tiny portion of our brains at once. Cooper plays Edward Morra, a writer with a book contract but a terrible case of writers block. Within the first few minutes he's dumped by his girlfriend for lack of motivation in his life and runs into his ex brother-in-law, from a very brief marriage right after college. Vernon, the ex-brother-in-law is never given a last name because he's only there to introduce the main plot of the movie. He gives Morra a clear pill that he claims will give him the focus he needs to finish his book, along with his business card just in case. Being in a desperate state Morra takes the pill while being shouted at by his landlords wife for being behind on the rent. Within thirty seconds he's deducing everything around him and naturally, beds the wife and does her law school paper that she was stressing over. He then writes a massive chunk of the novel and falls asleep. The next morning he's lost his newfound mental abilities but he does have enough of a novel to hand in to his publisher along with a fantastically clean apartment, being that a side effect of the drug is OCD, apparently.
He stops by Vernons apartment to see about getting some more, but this is where things go wrong. The plot unfolds around Morra using his stash of the drug to advance quickly through the world of high finance, attracting the attention of Robert De Niro, playing a sinister Warren Beatey-type of stock market broker, while avoiding sinister figures who are after every pill they can find and are killing everyone connected to it. Also, it turns out that the drug has serious side effects if you take it regularly but will also kill you if you stop.
It's best if you don't think about the movie and just enjoy the story and stunning visual effects. There are plot holes big enough to throw Matthew McConaughey's ego through, but considering the movie is built upon a faulty premise, picking it apart defeats the purpose. It's just a fun thriller that gives you a couple hours of entertainment. It's well made, well acted and is paced about right.
There is one scene where he licks blood off the floor (because it's laced with the drug) that will absolutely kill any romantic comedy hotness Mr Cooper possessed, but I don't think that's anything but a plus. It just means we might see him expand more into action oriented roles, and if Limitless is any indication, he might just be able to swing it.