Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 7/10 (9 March 2011)

I realize the full release for this film is 2 days away, so this review can't go into any specifics or great detail (don't want to give anything away). Walking into the theater, I didn't have any lofty expectations. There's a delicate balance with adding futuristic technology and/or sci-fi to a modern day setting. Many movies take it to a level so unrealistic it just gets silly and ruins the plot (e.g. Eagle Eye). However, Limitless focuses more on the characters and theme to carry the film. Bradley Cooper is very convincing in the beginning as the "before" version of himself, and you find yourself routing for him in an old fashioned good vs evil way, without him being the perfect prince charming type. Each character has the "everday person" layers which keeps the movie grounded enough to watch it as if it was really possible to be in those situations. In the end, you'll be asking yourself just that, "What would I do in that situation?" There's a couple holes left open in the theory of "the pill" and with what could/would really happen if it was real life, but I guess that would be expected in a movie about a fictional technology.
Overall, Recommended - A good 7 out of 10.