Rental - Limitless

Limitless

Director: Neil Burger (who directed the 2006 magician movie that wasn't The Prestige)

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert DeNiro

Overall this was an enjoyable movie.  Predictable? Yes.  But still interesting.  Most of the movie was overly stylized with the camera flying through New York and at times into the human body.  Then the stylized stuff stopped for maybe the last 1/3 of the movie.  It could have been a directorial decision but mostly it felt like someone forgot to do the cool camera stuff. I hate that.

What I didn’t hate (and in fact liked) was most of the rest of it. I dig B. Coop and always enjoy his presence, even if it’s in the A-Team (which was better than Conan).  I’ve liked Johnny Whitworth since Empire Records (I think I saw Bye Bye Love after Empire) and am glad he’s getting more work.  However, I would have liked it if he had a bigger role in this.  I’m still not sure how I feel about Abbie Cornish (aka Charlize-lite) but she was fine. DeNiro was his typical self which is usually entertaining.

The story was fine.  It’s your standard cautionary tale that you could see coming from a mile away but was handled well.  I did like that B. Coop’s character had some hills and valleys and wasn’t on top of his game for most of the movie.  I had some complaints that I will keep to myself but basically had to do with some dumb decisions our supposed super-smart protagonist made (if you have the money, you pay the loan-shark).  There was one other thing that was not only gross but also probably unlikely so I’m not even going to go there.

There were a couple of quotes I loved: “Math became useful. And fun.” Then there was the directive B. Coop gave to two guys about not wearing matching suits because, “This isn’t The Matrix.”  Heh.

The other stuff I loved was the music (I need to get the soundtrack) and especially the use of The Black Keys’ song “Howlin For You.”  It’s a great song.  Also they featured one of my favorite artists, Mark Rothko, when at DeNiro’s office.

I don’t always take notes but I did for this movie.  As I had no paper nearby this is what I grabbed:

I did actually write in the white space but the flash washed it out. Those envelopes are surprisingly shiny.