Limitless

Say yes to drugs? Limitless is a decently made, but ordinary, sometimes very stupidly naive fairy tale with a blatantly messed up ending (I really don't think one needs any special finesse to hit another person in the head with a TV, or to put a dish brush in his mouth). But the film thankfully has a likable Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro, although he doesn't have much to do this time and is in the film mainly to be in it. They say the book is better. I'd like to believe it, but I don't want to read it. God knows who wrote it and under what influence. (08/20/2011)

An incredibly inventive and technically-strong camera (those seamless vertigo "falls" through the city are the biggest treat I've seen since Enter The Void), the excellent Bradley Cooper, who shows the breadth of his acting portfolio, and a very interesting premise about a drug that unlocks the hidden potential of your brain. Thriller of the year? I'm afraid not. The script is only interesting until the opening scene is connected with retrospective storytelling, and from that moment on it is stretched, dull and completely devoid of the "dark side of power". If some pharmaceutical company's logo with the slogan "If you don’t take it you are missing out" lit up behind the dull resolution, I wouldn't be surprised. Unfortunately, the endgame messes up the whole thing and explains why Limitless can never step out of the circle and be truly riveting. The film is horribly modified, and instead of slashing into the living, it runs away through the screenwriting to trouble-free ends. I enjoyed it, but in this form, it's one of many... Despite the fact that Burger is undoubtedly a very handy craftsman. [65%] (03/22/2011)

I wouldn't have expected such stylish and inventive entertainment from the author of the schematic The Illusionist. And in the case of Bradley Cooper, all I can say is that he has worked his way up from an extremely unlikable jock in Wedding Crashers to a dependable lead. Charisma combined with acting talent, I have no fear for Bradley’s future. (07/27/2011)

Limitless features an interesting and valuable subject that had great potential for a truly top-notch sci-fi thriller. However, this potential was wasted by an average screenplay that dealt with the subject in the easiest and least risky way for producers, resulting in a technically polished and professionally directed thriller, but one that also amounts to quite an undemanding popcorn movie with logical gaps. It is necessary to ask why the distribution of a commercially extremely interesting drug collapses after the death of the only dealer. How is it possible that the only user manages the correct dosage, and why can users who are pumped by chemicals that greatly enhance cognitive performance not obtain the appropriate substance from the manufacturer given their intelligence quotient? Not to mention that competition between individual geniuses themselves would have much greater potential. However, that would require an extra intelligent screenwriter who would probably have to be on the drugs himself. Many others have mentioned the quality of the cinematography and dynamic direction, and I agree with that and give the film a weaker 4 stars, noting that it could have been significantly better. Overall impression: 70%. (10/18/2011)

A watchable film with entertaining formal tricks, but the script has a lot of problems. I was very annoyed by the main character behaving like an asshole all the time (and even more with the smart pill). Of course that made up drug can work in any way the creators see fit, so it’s pointless to look for any logic in its effect, but it still prevented me from fully enjoying the film. And either I didn’t understand its meaning, or the ending is utterly stupid. (05/21/2011)