Limitless
23 March 2011. Location: Cinema
The plot: Bradley Cooper gets some magic pills that make him all brainy and want to take his shirt off. Well, alright, only once. But I suspect that's in his contract...
The cast:, Limitless sees Cooper as his charming self, even as the slobby Eddie Morra, a struggling writer who stumbles across a colourless narcotic that enhances everything about his mind. Abbie Cornish plays his on/off girlfriend Lindy, who's pretty good for the scenes she's in, but sadly most of the film doesn't require her to be there. Robert De Niro appears to be stuck in Meet-The-Parents-mode as Carl Van Loon (because there's a name you can take seriously), with all the restrained aggression of 'Jack Byrnes' but little of the humour. The rest of the cast do a fine job in making this a pleasantly tense ride. Oh, and Anna Friel stars as Eddie's ex, Melissa and looks fucking terrifying. Seriously good make-up and acting in her major scene.
The film: This is quite another ride from the one hinted at in the trailer. Nowhere near as many laughs (not that I was expecting a comedy), but way more thrills. It doesn't exactly deal with the subject of addiction, but it's certainly addressed here. A very slick action thriller, highly stylised (almost bordering on 'Scott Pilgrim' levels) for the first hour, and nicely accessible. A couple of loose ends at the finalé, but my mind wasn't on those as the film didn't pan out the way I was expecting. That's a good thing, I hasten to add, it just caught me off-guard when the end-credits started to roll.
The rest: Nice soundtrack and score, camerawork fits in seamlessly with the stylisation, smooth script. I found very little to fault (…like I'm some kind of professional). Any glitches there are, are more than compensated for by the rest of the movie.
The verdict: If you like Bradley Cooper, you'll enjoy this greatly. He's not acting too far outside of his established range, but he hasn't quite outstayed his welcome yet (with me at least). It'd be nice to see him take on something a little heavier, and this movie hints that he could pull it off well. This is very enjoyable, even if the ending seemed a little incomplete (not that there's any room for, or hint of, a sequel).
A very solid 6. Catch it in the cinema if you can, the opening titles and general feel of this look great on a screen that size.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
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