Film Review: Bradley Cooper’s ‘Limitless’ Unlocks 100% of Hollywood’s Ridiculousness

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CHICAGO – If you’re not easily susceptible to vertigo and can survive the intro cut scene, “Limitless” proceeds to treat you to one part thrill ride and one part exercise in ridiculousness. While we often go to the movies to escape, “Limitless” manipulatively exploits our deepest and darkest desires for wealth, power and Google-like global conquests.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

The film’s frustrations start and end with its story, which was written for the screen by Leslie Dixon based on the novel by Alan Glynn. Dixon, who has come a long way from “Mrs. Doubtfire” with this immediate-gratification film that goes out one ear just as fast as it enters the other, bases her premise on an experimental, non-FDA-approved drug with no street name.

Predictable with every try at a twist or turn, even if your brain got extracted from your head you’d still be able to channel from it the obviousness of exactly how this film’s going to go down. Mysterious pill with shadowy origins yields super power that comes at great cost and high-octane peril. While so many films have already taken us down that rabbit hole, “Limitless” will be remembered for forgetting to make us care we’ve fallen down it the second we leave the theater.

StarRead Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Limitless”.

Once you get past what might for a few minutes be wildly entertaining to become that intelligent, charismatic, rich and powerful, “Limitless” leaves you feeling limited. Even if you’re left craving to “have what he’s having,” that story line is much better left a subplot in films like “When Harry Met Sally” rather than its entire underlying theme.

Director Neil Burger, who’s only done four films in nine years, appears to be working under the snoozed influence of his on hallucinogenic drug. With “Limitless,” he’s subpar at best when compared to his mastery with the 2006 Edward Norton film “The Illusionist”. While Robert De Niro can always be counted on for solid screen time, here he’s weakly scripted as an omnipotent man you’re supposed to fear but end up just wondering if he’s impotent.

“Limitless” stars Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth, Tomas Arana, Robert John Burke, Darren Goldstein, Ned Eisenberg, T.V. Carpio, Richard Bekins, Patricia Kalember, Cindy Katz and Brian Anthony Wilson from director Neil Burger and writer Leslie Dixon based on the novel by Alan Glynn. The film, which has a running time of 105 minutes and opened on March 18, 2011, is rated “PG-13” for thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language.

StarContinue for Adam Fendelman’s full “Limitless” review.

Bradley Cooper in Limitless
Bradley Cooper in “Limitless”.
Image credit: John Baer, Dark Fields Production

StarContinue for Adam Fendelman’s full “Limitless” review.

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