Intriguing advertising campaign, dull movie

Rating: 4/10 (8 March 2012)

Eddie Morra is an unsuccessful writer who suffers from never-ending misfortunes. One day, he meets a drug dealer who sells him a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities. And he is soon to find out that "with the power comes great responsibility"
This movie made a buzz in 2011 when it launched provocative and smart advertising campaign, which featured a guy hacking into the screens on the Time Square in New York. That was brilliant move, fresh and interesting, and it is probably the only thing which is good about this movie.
It should have been called Brainless. Yes, to hope that this movie would be smart and brainpower-demanding would have been completely unreasonable. After all, from the first frames of the trailer you could guess that this is yet another pop-corn action about difficult life of people with superpowers. However, even these low expectations did not save me from brutal truth: you have to turn your brains off to watch this movie.
The whole topic of the super-drug and super-powers is so over-used, that to come up with something new is virtually impossible – probably this is the reason why authors took the book "The Dark Fields" as their inspiration. I can only hope that the book is better than this boring, dull and silly movie. There is no intrigue; all the turns of the plots are easily foreseen. Authors try to include more characters, but this starts to look like a plaster on the gaping hole when you realise how underdeveloped and, again, brainless all the other characters are. The tricks with the camera are fun the first time you see them, but start to really annoy for the fourth-fifth time. The trick when the whole world gains colors when the characters take the pills is old as the movies about pills, but still nicely done and pleasure to watch. This, however, cannot be said about camera riding through the streets and tilting sideways from time to time.
Most of the actors look like they don't understand what is going on in the movie. Abbie Cornish, who plays Lindy, looks lost all the time. It seems like actors saw the screenplay only on the film set, and were asked to improvise. I have to say though that Robert De Niro as Carl Van Loon is absolutely organic and convincing. He is not trying to impress us with his acting abilities, but he is just doing his job, calmly and impressively.
It seems to me that this movie was designed for insecure people, non-achievers, humble dreamers who just want to see what the life could turn into when you get the super-pill and superpower to make your dreams come true. It is brainless popcorn movie like the third Transformers, but without Transformers and with drugs and sex. Given the fact that 2011 was rich with fantastic movie titles, I would not recommend wasting one's time on the Limitless.
VERDICT: Dull and boring movie with nice advertising campaign WATCH: anything else
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