Apologies to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2011)

Unfortunately, Hollywood's original ideas ran out before the 2nd millennium did and so we are assaulted with remakes of "The Dukes of Hazard" and "The Smurfs". With this Bradley Cooper star vehicle at least Hollywood is cribbing from a 16th century classic producing a better-living-through-chemistry retelling of the legend of Faust. In this version Satan is Big Pharma who have, for reasons only understandable to the writers, have produced a miracle smartypants drug that they are withholding from the public. Our loser protagonist gets hold of it and all hell breaks loose. On the drug, he does all manner of immoral acts: seducing his landlady, leading a business merger, playing the stock market and running for New York state Senator. Along the way, he wears some nice suits and gets to mistreat Robert DeNiro who deserves so much better than the film. The film raises some serious ethical concerns, primarily, is Eddie Morra supposed to be the good guy of the piece? Is he any less guilty than those presented as antagonists? If you can get around your moral qualms, the film presents some enjoyable effortless genius fantasies although some make absolute no sense – how does having a "four digit IQ" make you able to do a lot of sit-ups and win fistfights? Some attractive characters and funky camera work do help to distract if not genuinely entertain. In short, pick a film that will make you smarter.