Spoilers after OP. A writer discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human mental abilities. Whatcha think?
Saw Limitless tonight. AWESOME film. Better than I was expecting. A couple of brilliant/wtf scenes (ice skating and blood puddle). Really cool ‘tunnel vision’ effect. Intriguing premise and execution. And whenever I had the thought “that’s stupid, they should–”, they would address that exact point later on - you realize the writer had the exact same thoughts (for example, the France and Portugal foreshadowing). Highly recommend.
One quibble I wish they had not included learning to play piano in 3 days. He may learn the theory and principles but will only acquire 3 days of muscle memory. Other than that I thought they had a lot of ways to stuff up the whole premise but cleverly avoided most of them.
Good fun film. I really liked the camera work in the opening scene. Bradley Cooper was a pleasant lead and really held his own in the final scene he had with DeNiro.
Only one thing that bugged me:
The blood drinking to get the injected drug seemed cheesy. I like to believe he only got a little boost. Enough to get up and out.
One question for the thread
Do you believe Cooper’s character was REALLY off the drug at the end? I think he was lying. I LOVED the confrontation with DeNiro, but if he was really off it why was the lab still going that DeNiro shut down?
With all the positive buzz, I’m hoping to see it today, but for whatever reason it’s not in a wide release around here. The nearest theater showing it is 20 miles away. However, crap like the adjustment bureau and beastly are in their second weeks.
He did seem not quite up to his usual standards of brilliantness. It seemed like he was still struggling, and barely made it out alive. o that fits with the potential dosage.
I’m happy with it either way. It only makes sense that he would use his smarts to improve the source of his smarts. Having multiple labs as a decoy from his real strategy is a smart thing to do, but his story is also plausible, as evidenced by the fact that he’s back with his girlfriend. She wouldn’t be back with him if his situation was still precarious.
I wondered the same thing at the end about the pill. Also really enjoyed the opening scene while the opening credits played.
That long opening tunnel scene was awesome!
I saw this film today and loved it. I liked that it avoided cliches such as the recurring problems he had with the police detective. He was smart about hiring a great lawyer, keeping his mouth shut, and not trying to perform heroics to get out of trouble, and get noticed for it. The sign of a great movie to me is if I can’t predict what’s going to happen next and that’s what happened to me with this film. This doesn’t happen too often, but I wouldn’t mind seeing this again if my sister will agree to see this with me.
I also liked it more than I expected. I believe he was telling the truth at the end but that made me wonder why someone else on the drug had not done the same thing before him.
I was wondering–was the blonde socialite’s murder ever resolved? I don’t remember anything after the police lineup that was inconclusive.
Not explicitly. I got the impression that it had been part of the set up by the lawyer to get at the pills, but I don’t know there were any definitive clues. It might take a freeze framing session of his black out flashes to be sure.
The movie was much smarter than I thought it would be, and I greatly enjoyed it.
My only complaint is that the very ending seemed tacked-on. I thought a more effective ending would be to end just after he and DeNiro talk in his campaign office, before they talk in front of the limo.
I like the idea that he is now “addicted” to a drug, and DeNiro is his dealer. He has enormous powers of perception and intellect, but is still very limited in that way. It also doesn’t make much sense to say both that he has other labs and also that he doesn’t need the drug anymore anyway. Does anyone know if this was a “test audiences didn’t like the original ending”-ending?
It was much better than I expected it to be. As others have said, the long tunnel shots were great. I also really liked the imagery used to show the effects of the pill, especially the words falling and the stock ticker ceiling.
Bradley Cooper had his work cut out for him in the film, as he is in ~90% of the scenes, but he pulled it off. Plus, he’s got gorgeous blue eyes! 
This was part of the original script. This interview explains the choice to change the novel’s cautionary ending to one that is more uplifting.
I thought he did a really good job of alternating between '‘schlub’ and ‘genius’. Although this could have easily been 50% makeup/haircut.
Paired with that killer smile of his, he’s irresistable! At times however, I was wondering if his eyes were enhanced by special effects. Anyone else get this feeling?
You aren’t alone. There were definitely moments when his eyes were almost electric blue. I figured it was colored contacts. But, he really does have pretty blue eyes, just maybe not that blue.
We finally got around to seeing this yesterday.
Very good film.
If I understood the ending correctly, he was indeed still using a newer, better variation of the pill that was produced in several location and no longer a danger to the system.
One thing that would have been fun would be to have his girlfriend/wife at the end make a slight correction to his pronunciation as he ordered in Chinese.
Just saw it tonight, and thought it was a very, very good film - much better than I expected. I liked that I could never quite figure out where it was going.
Great camera work; several intriguing levels of sneakiness, deception and power; some very well-timed reveals. Cooper and DeNiro are both quite good.
I, too, thought the blonde in the hotel room had been killed by the guy who was later scarred on the skating rink.
jackdavinci, what was the “the France and Portugal foreshadowing”?
The final confrontation with DeNiro fit the movie’s arc perfectly, I thought. I actually did a little fist-pump when Cooper walked away from the cab, with DeNiro sitting there looking stunned and defeated.
I was a little disappointed not to hear Kanye West’s song “Power” anywhere in the soundtrack, since it was so prominently used in the trailers. I like that song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE
DMark, I like your suggestion very much (although I enjoyed Cooper’s “What?” last line of dialogue). My son and I speculated as to whether or not the girlfriend was also on the “safe” drug by the end. I suspect Cooper is still on the drug, but that it’s been refined, and he’s just bluffing DeNiro.
They might even have left the door open for a sequel: Cooper is busy with his White House campaign, 'way ahead in the polls (who wouldn’t want a President with those kind of amazingly keen insights and game-theory skills?), and DeNiro comes back, having taken the drug himself and figured out a new form of leverage.
But… nah. Probably better to leave well enough alone.
As usual, the trailer also has some very brief sequences that didn’t make it into the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THE_hhk1Gzc