No depth, all entertainment

Rating: 7/10 (1 May 2011)

Of all the Twilight Zone-like movies released this year (the other ones being "The Adjustment Bureau" and "Unknown Identity") "Limitless" is probably the best - which doesn't say a lot. The movie has more than its share of problems.
The original premise - a loser type of guy takes a drug that enables him to grow a 4-digit IQ, which makes him successful at first, but gets him into a lot of trouble soon - is kind of intriguing. Neil Burger moves the plot along quickly, Bradley Cooper is well-cast as the guy who turns into a yuppie with a slippery Tom Cruise winner smile. And Robert De Niro plays Robert De Niro.
Storywise things don't make complete sense. For all his newly gained intelligence Cooper's character does oversee some important things and makes lots of stupid mistakes. Some plot strings like a dubious murder or whole characters just seem to get forgotten about entirely, like the movie had undergone some re-writes and re-cuts.
Maybe even more bothersome is the fact, that "Limitless" had the potential of raising some highly philosophical questions, but limits itself (no pun intended) to just a bland story of a guy using his intelligence to make lots of money. The movie's morals are rather questionable that way. It seems like we are supposed to identify with this guy, who's really just power hungry egomaniac.
Somehow, you can ignore all that though, because "Limitless" moves along so quickly that it never falls apart completely, as it would have in the hands of someone like Michael Bay. Sure, if you want depth or at least some kind of cheap popcorn movie moral, even a lackluster film such as "The Devil's Advocate" does a better job. However, if you're only looking for light, but not mind numbing (again, no pun intended) entertainment, "Limitless" does its job perfectly well.