Slick, fun, fast-moving, light-weight Science Fiction

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2020)

Almost everyone nowadays knows that the fundamental conceit of "Limitless", that we only use a small proportion of our brain, is well-proven scientific nonsense--the brain is the most energy-intensive organ in the body, and we don't carry around any more of it than we need; however, it's also apparent due to advances in technology and biology that we're likely moving in the direction of being able to enhance the average natural cognitive abilities of human beings, possibly even dramatically. Therefore, the premise of this movie is not completely out-and-out pseudoscience. Frankly, I'd be the first to admit that Google has significantly affected the way I actually think. Today, I try to simply remember that particular problems have well-known solutions, rather than to devoting much time to memorizing details I can quickly access.
Thus, if you can forgive this movie it's one big scientifically ridiculous "MacGuffin", specifically that a mere small pill can temporarily massively "supercharge" any human brain, then this fast-paced thriller works extremely well and hardly ever slackens up. Nobody is ever going to mistake "Limitless" for "deep" science fiction, in which really difficult philosophical problems are tackled, but it's still a healthy step up from being just popcorn entertainment.
I personally would like to see the central idea of this film, the consequences of human enhancement" pushed an awful lot further, but that doesn't detract from the fun of watching this slick, fun, and well-acted production. We'll have to wait for some other movie (far from my original thought) to thoroughly explore the idea of very different classes of "enhanced" human beings living together in a single society (or competing societies, for that matter). While we're waiting for that movie, you can watch this one.