This week I'm going to review Limitless.
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Out of the four of of watching it, two (the dudes) really liked it and the other two (the chicks) were like...meh. She just thought it was boring. I had issues with the plot. And not the "there's no way that would happen" issues, like I usually do. The main character was extremely unlikable. The guys disagreed with me on that point.
Oh - SPOILER ALERT.
So he starts out as an "author" who is basically just a failure at life. He has a contract, but hasn't written a word of the novel. His girlfriend dumps him because she's tired of taking care of his sorry butt. Then he runs into his ex-wife's brother who was a low-class drug dealer back when he knew him. Dude gives him this random pill, but swears he's no longer a dealer, this is a legit drug that's approved by the FDA. So he's like...la la la...okay, I'll take it! And of course goes all voodoo magic with the smarts it gives you, or whatever.
He gets all productive and has sex with a married woman then writes part of his book. The publisher or whoever loves it. Then he panics because the drug wore off and he's back to being a useless human being. So he goes to get more from the ex-brother-in-law and after Dude makes him run some errands he comes back to find him dead. So of course he steals his stash of magic pills. Starts taking them like crazy. Then he has a weird blackout where he can't account for something like 20 hours. And a woman turns up dead.
This man's stalking him, blah blah blah. He gets back with his girlfriend because she thinks he's turned his life around. Ah - but that happened before the blackout night with the murdering and such. So he's cheated on his girlfriend now. He becomes an amazing stock broker. Doesn't care that he's taking mysterious, illegal, and stolen drugs that someone is probably looking for and might notice his amazing nobody-to-somebody story that has amazing timing. (Hint - they are, and they do)
He tries to get off the drug because of the weird blackout thing and starts getting really sick. That's when he finds out if you get off it you die. So he's got this limited supply and he'll die when he runs out. Also, his girlfriend leaves him (again) because he's not really a better person. Some more stuff happens, blah blah blah...
Now it's a few years later and he's running for Senate or something. This man who used to be his boss shows up and is all "Dude, I know how you did this, and I've closed down all your suppliers - you have to obey everything I tell you or I'll cut you off and you die." And then he's all "Dude - I'm freaking brilliant and figured out how to get off the pill and stay this brilliant (and - most importantly - not die)!! I don't need your stupid drugs, so gtfo." And the dude's like "...oh. Well, bye then!" And he goes to eat lunch with *drumroll* the girlfriend.
He never learns a lesson. He never does anything good or helpful, like save a life or stop global warming or something....he just benefits himself. There are no repercussions back on him. Sure his girlfriend left him (twice) - but she came back! (twice) A couple of bodyguards died, but they were just hired goons - who cares?? His ex-wife is basically mentally and physically crippled because of the drug and as far as the movie shows he's done nothing to help her.
AND - you see the teal/orange that is the movie poster? That goes on throughout the entire movie. That is my biggest pet peeve in movies, thanks to the linked article.
I've changed my mind.... 2/5 stars.
Blue and Orange! BLUE AND ORANGE! Lol, good times.
ReplyDeleteIT'S EVERYWHERE!
DeleteYou could not be more WRONG. Loved that movie, loved the main character. What was he supposed to do to help the ex wife? That's like saying he should have tried to regrow her amputated limb, she already had permanent brain damage. And I think the point of the ending scene was that he was running for the senate so he could do good things. That was the part where he "changed" because he was no longer in it for the money, he was trying to make a difference. Also, the girlfriend? Left he because he couldn't get his life together, and when he did, that's why she came back (both times). I don't think she ever thought he was a bad guy... just lazy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I totally respect your right to be WRONG about this movie. ;P
He's brilliant now - he can do anything! And even if he can't "fix" her - he's rich. She's got two kids and is barely functioning. At least give her money for college funds or something. And in the end, when he's running for office, they're talking about how much money he's made for his campaign! It's all about money!
DeleteIt's my blog - I win. ;)
I agree with you mysterious CK Dub...I loved it...but I have a slight crush on Bradley Cooper (grr baby!) So, I might be slightly biased ;D
ReplyDeleteHe is attractive...and he kind of looked better as a grungy author than a rich genius.
DeleteI do have a hard time disliking anything Bradley Cooper... BUT! He looked so crappy with that hair... I love him with a close cut :)
DeleteWhat you consider so pointless is the very point of the movie.
ReplyDeleteThink - does the ending make sense? Do stories about drugs go downhill, downhill, downhill, and after a violent bloodbath, become PERFECT? Is his miraculous improvement at the end consistent with the rest of the film? No, and no.
Drug movies end badly, VERY badly. This one ended with a violent bloodbath - a classic ending to an almost Shakespearean tragedy. What we saw afterward was illusory, either the last fleeting fantasies of a man whose eyes have rolled back into his head on his apartment floor, or the director's intentional satire.
The ending, if taken at face value, contradicts several pieces of the story. For one, the drug is the only thing that causes those super-human intellectual powers. No explanation is given as to how he retains them. Also, the other banker threatened to cut off the main character's supply. Mr. Banker says he shut down the laboratory in which the drug was synthesized. If there was no laboratory, the main character would have said so. If there was one, then obviously he would still have been on the drug.
Finally, just think of how entirely absurd his way of getting the drug in the end was - licking up a guy's blood. The concentration would be laughably low - entirely ineffectual.
So this was a tragedy about... about drugs, about class differences, about the inherent limitations of being human. In the end, we saw a big joke - the antitheses of the director's ideas all satirized.
Interesting.
DeleteHis explanation was ambiguous as to how he retained his abilities, a vague reference to research that allowed him to figure out how to leave the new pathways permanently mapped. It's not a completely outrageous leap either, drugs, among other things, do permanently alter brain chemistry. It's why their addictive even after kicking the habit, your brain has literally been reprogrammed to require them to function by repeated use.
DeleteThat said, it's a movie, and movies are rarely completely plausible. They often can't be to tell the story they set out to tell. Writers and directors have to make up explanations for completely fictional concepts, so naturally the explanations are also fictional. Like the thing about the drug allowed you to access the other 90% of your brain. The idea that we only use 10% is ridiculously incorrect to begin with, so if we're starting from a BS premise, any plot following is bound to contain a certain amount of BS.
Regardless of the totally unrealistic story line, for my part, it was an enjoyable couple of hours :)