Cooper has no Limit

Rating: 6/10 (17 March 2011)

Limitless, directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist) and adapted from a novel by Alan Glyn, is a story of a 30 something failed writer played by the annoyingly handsome Bradley Cooper (A-Team). Going nowhere fast with his life, dumped by his longtime girlfriend, happens to bump into an old friend who introduces him to a drug that can unlock the brains full potential. Unfortunately for our hero all this power comes with a price, without the drug you are back worse than where you were when you started. Tracked by a group of killers Cooper's character must find out more of this drugs shadowy origin.
We start with Cooper on a sky scraper (I have a theme here). He is about to jump off. End it all, and in true Hollywood fashion we are then thrown back to where it all began.
If I was to sum the movie up in a comparison, it is like Crank meets Wall Street meets the smack my b**ch up video (Prodigy). It was very silly in parts which I quite enjoy in films. We can't always see things that make us ponder the essence of our existence. One scene where desperate for the drug Cooper sucks up the blood of a dead villain just made me groan with despair. In fact the final twenty minutes were pointless and didn't really need to be in the final cut.
Bradley Cooper I generally like but some of his natural charm he showed in The Hangover and A Team didn't seem to be apparent here. Robert De Niro's role in this movie almost felt like a cameo, apart from one good classic De Niro monologue he didn't have a great impact on the show. The directors use an infinite zoom type shot which was very clever, I haven't seen that done very much before and did give a sense of despair when Coopers character is starting to lose time on the drug. Unfortunately this clever shot is used far too often and ended up making me feel sick and have to turn away from the screen.
All in all Limitless is fun. Nothing special, but fun. A nice concept that makes you wonder how many high fliers are using such an enhancement to achieve almost non human goals. It is never going to win an Oscar, but hey, who cares fun is good sometimes!!