LIMITLESS review

What if you could take a pill that would fix all your problems in life? This new Bradley Cooper starring thriller is now in cinemas. Watch the trailer and read my review, after the jump...

Living his life like a reclusive bum, failing wannabe writer Edward Morra (Bradley Cooper) bumps into an old friend on the street who offers him a way to solve all his problems. He simply has to take a pill that will unlock his brains true potential, allowing him to achieve all the things he's always wanted. Soon Eddie is rich and successful with his life on the right track, but when he starts to suffer from blackouts and some shadowy figures try to take his stash of pills, he realises he may be in over his head.


Like the Jack Black starring TV show Heat Vision and Jack (where he travels too close to the Sun and suddenly knows everything), Limitless is a wish fulfillment joyride we all hope we could be on. With the help of the easy-fix pill that Eddie gets a hold of, he's able to transform his life from Average Joe to International Playboy within days. Eddie may be using his brain to its full potential, but he still does some pretty stupid things; cheating on his girlfriend, getting mixed up with some Russian gangsters and just being so blatantly obvious about the secret of his success.


Limitless is a star vehicle for The Hangover's Bradley Cooper, and he proves himself to be a bonafide Hollywood superstar in the making. He may be in virtually every frame of the movie but I never got tired of his presence, even when his character was acting like a bit of a dick. As his character states in the film "I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have a recipe for grandeur". You've got to be one charming bastard to get away with lines like that. His character Eddie Morra is not dissimilar to Wall Street's Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), exuding a confidence that's going to get him in trouble sooner or later.


Hoping to express the feeling of taking the pill, the film uses plenty of camera tricks to show Eddie's trippy consciousness, the highlight being a series of effective eye level zooms like using Google StreetView whilst on acid. It's an effective technique that looks great and momentarily distracts you from the film's many flaws.


There's some gaping plot holes that they never attempt to fill (the bad guys have no qualms about murdering Eddie's dealer friend, but won't just walk up to Eddie in the street to get the pills from him), and under the influence of the drug his character displays some dubious moral values (I'm pretty sure at one point he murders a woman for no reason). The story's many twists and turns don't hold up to any close scrutiny, but if you're willing to open your mind and let go, there's still a lot of fun to be had. The presence of Robert De Niro and Abby Cornish is fairly inconsequential, as their characters don't do an awful lot or have much bearing on what Bradley Cooper chooses to do. Ditto Anna Friel, whose brief cameo promises much but adds little to the film.


The film's main problem is that whilst it's got a fairly interesting concept, it really doesn't know where to go with it. There's no real lessons about drug dependence or exercising humility learnt, and the film peters out with a whimper rather than ending with a grand finale. The only thing Limitless does state with any real conviction is that Bradley Cooper's a talent to watch, but this is merely a brief glimpse of his star power before we all experience the grand realisation.


Verdict