thoughts on Limitless (spoilers)

This movie is pretty dumb, you guys.

I might as well come out and say right off the bat that I don't particularly care for Bradley Cooper. I hated his character on Alias and I haven't been overly impressed with anything he's done since. I mean, The Hangover was pretty funny, I guess, but not really because of him, you know? And though I enjoyed that movie when I saw it in the theater, I haven't ever really felt the urge to watch it again. I'd probably try to catch it if I heard it was going to be on cable, or something. That said, I don't dislike Bradley Cooper so much that I will actively avoid movies he's in; like, if he's in something that looks good, I'll see it.

Limitless looked good. The idea of a drug that allows you to access your entire brain is a pretty cool idea for a movie. Unfortunately, this movie is about 80% less interesting than a movie with that concept at its core should have been. Like, if the movie actually explored the possibilities that that would open up and how it would change you, that would be interesting. Instead, the plot of Limitless is basically, "guy who isn't particularly interesting or likeable uses the increased brainpower he gets from a drug to make a lot of money, which makes him a target for some unsavory types."

Not only is that not that interesting, but the way this drug works is pretty suspicious. When Bradley Cooper's character runs out of the drug, he starts getting sick, and he learns that other people have actually died from quitting the drug cold turkey. His ex-wife-- whose life pretty much fell apart after she stopped taking the drug-- advises him that your brain can't keep working that fast or hard for very long without some pretty serious consequences, but that he shouldn't stop taking the drug all at once; he should slowly wean himself off of it. Like...I'm no expert or anything, but has any drug in the history of drugs worked like that? Like, the message here is basically, "If you abuse this drug, it's bad, and if you stop taking it all at once, it's bad, but if you use it in moderation, it's awesome, and you will eventually be able to be almost as awesome even without it." Isn't that kind of a socially irresponsible message to be sending about any drug, even a fictional one? And the ex-wife's warning that your brain can't work that fast or hard for long without consequences apparently only applies if you use too much of the drug at once, or use the drug for too long, which really doesn't make any sense.

And then there's the fact that Bradley Cooper's character basically comes out on top of the world while everyone else either dies, loses a lot of money, has their life ruined, or falls in love with him. That's right: he basically outsmarts everyone else in the whole movie and gets all of the positive effects of the drug with very few of the negative consequences. Not only is this ridiculous, but Bradley Cooper is just not the kind of guy you want to see win that big. So, basically, in a nutshell, this movie: 1) squanders a very interesting concept; 2) is almost wholly unplausible in a very uninteresting way; 3) would have been much better with an actor who would actually make you want to root for this character; and 4) is at least borderline socially irresponsible. In other words...yeah, I hated it quite a bit.

thoughts on Glee: "Original Song"

DEFINITELY the best competition episode since first season sectionals. They earned it this time. My problem with last year's regionals episode is that it was completely ridiculous that they came in dead last-- like, not only were they clearly the best of the three performances we saw, but since we know Sue gave them first place, the only way they could have come in dead last was if every other judge placed them last; we know, based on the judges' conversation, that it was unlikely that that happened. In other words: stupid. The results of the competitions should reflect how the competitions actually go, not just how the plot needs them to go. Along those same lines, while I like Kurt, Blaine, and the Warblers, there is no way they tied New Directions in this season's sectionals episode. Brittany and Mike brought it with the dancing. So-- yeah. This season's regionals episode was not only good because they won, but because they clearly earned that win and the show didn't try to convince us otherwise.

I also liked that Rachel got to have her moment. I know that she can be annoying and needs to learn to be a team player and all that, but she is also both the most talented member of the group and the one with the most heart, so it's nice that they acknowledge that once in awhile.

In other news: man, that Blaine kid has some charisma. I have thought that many times before, but I've just got to go ahead and say it. It's so much fun to watch him sing and...well...do pretty much anything. And jeez, how hot was his and Kurt's kiss? That was, like, a real kiss. I don't know if I was expecting it to happen quite yet, but: awesome. Also, I think Kurt did his best singing to date in his duet with Blaine. Like I said before, New Directions definitely won, but the Warblers definitely put on a good show. I've gotta say, while you all know I've liked the last few episodes quite a bit, particularly "Blame it on the Alcohol," this one was wall-to-wall entertainment in a way that this show hasn't been in awhile. Sure, both Santana and Rachel are going through some painful stuff, but there was also a lot of sheer happiness this episode. You could practically feel the joy in the last song they performed.

Best lines this episode-- from Sue: "Well, well. If it isn't Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Fake Boobs." And from the lady who announced the competition results: "My husband is verbally abusive and I have been drinking since noon." Okay, so that doesn't look funny out of context. Trust me, it was in the actual episode.

thoughts on Glee: "Sexy"

Hmm. This was surprisingly well-done, especially considering how skeptical I was during the first ten minutes or so. Like, first you have Emma, preaching abstinence and celibacy and revealing that she is still a virgin even after four months of marriage, and then you have Holly, teaching the kids how to use condoms and telling Rachel and Quinn that they're naive and possibly frigid for wanting to be celibate. And I'm sitting there kind of irritated with both of them, wondering what Emma's deal is and thinking Holly is being way too casual about the whole thing. And then, of course, Burt Hummel comes in and saves the day, telling Kurt that he shouldn't avoid sex just because he's afraid of it, but that he should take it seriously and that it should be meaningful. The perfect thing, balancing out both extremes.

I also liked that the show acknowledged how ridiculous it was that everyone, including Carl, was going to Holly, the substitute health teacher, for sex advice like she was some kind of expert; loved when Carl was all, "Thank you, Doctor," and she was just like, "Yeah, not a doctor." Also, I gasped out loud when Holly asked Emma if she was still in love with Will. I like that Holly actually figured out the reason Emma was hesitant about sleeping with Carl instead of just being all, "Just do it and get it over with" (though she did get a funny line in when she told Emma, "My lips are sealed...JUST LIKE YOUR THIGHS!") I was kind of bummed at the end when Holly told Will she was being sent to sub at a different school, because I think having her be the sex ed teacher at the school and having her pop up every few episodes or so would actually be pretty funny. I guess she'll be around more, anyway, though, if she and Will are going to date.

So, the verdict: I started out skeptical, but it won me over by the end. Oh, and I was impressed by both Matt Morrison and Gwyneth Paltrow's singing on "Kiss."

thoughts on The Adjustment Bureau (spoilers)

A politician named David Norris(Matt Damon) who has just found out that he has lost a Senate race goes to the men's room to collect himself and prepare his concession speech. There, he meets a young woman named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), who is hiding from security after crashing a wedding in the same building. The two share an instant connection, and her comments on his political career lead him to give an energized, straight-from-the-hip speech that, months later, has pundits calling him a contender for future Senate races. Unfortunately, because he has to rush off to give this speech and she is being pursued by security, they have to part abruptly, and he assumes that he will never see her again.

He is never supposed to. We later learn that while the Adjustment Bureau (a group of mysterious men in suits and fedoras who make sure that everyone's lives go according to plan) want the two of them to meet so that he will be motivated to give the speech, they never intend for Elise and David to meet again. In fact, after they do (on a bus that David would have missed had the Adjustment Bureau agent following him not dozed off on the job), and after David witnesses members of the bureau making "adjustments," he is let in on the secret that he is to avoid Elise. Oh, and if he tells anyone else about them, the Bureau will "reset" his brain, erasing his memories and personality and leaving his friends and loved ones to think he's gone crazy. Nevertheless, he and Elise cross paths again, and as David continues to pursue a relationship with her, the Bureau must reveal more and more information about themselves-- as well as about David and Elise's intended and possible futures-- to David.

I liked this movie a lot, everyone. Though I left the theater asking myself a few questions about the plot, I found that the movie had answered all of the ones that *could* be answered definitively-- that is, there were no holes, and it seemed, in retrospect, that the plot almost *had* to unfold exactly as it did. This kind of blew my mind. Ultimately, the movie seems to be making two arguments:

1)There is a "plan" for everything that happens in our lives. However, because human beings ultimately *do* have free will, there is no guarantee that everything will go according to that plan. We might have to be nudged/prompted to do the "right" thing; adjustments might have to be made; and, though we might have to fight with every fiber of our being, take enormous risks, and make huge sacrifices to do so, we *can* determine our own fate.

2)Finding and keeping the love of your life requires an almost overwhelming combination of chance; divine intervention; risk; sacrifice; and hard work.

That the movie is able to communicate the second of those two arguments with two characters who have spent an extremely short amount of time together is a huge credit to both the script and the actors. David and Elise hit it off immediately in a way that rarely happens (thought I think many of us hope that it can, and will for us), and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt absolutely sell us that the two have fallen in love and will fight to be together. Of course, for much of the movie, he is the only one who realizes they have to fight; thought I kept wishing she could be let in on the secret sooner than she ultimately is, the script perfectly explains why she can't. David won't tell her unless absolutely necessary because he doesn't want his mind to be erased. The Adjustment Bureau won't tell her unless absolutely necessary because they want as few people as possible to know that they exist. While this was frustrating to me because for much of the movie it seems that she has even less choice in her own fate than David does, the movie seems to be asking the question, how much choice does *anyone* really have?

Ultimately, I really liked the way the movie conceptualized the nature of fate vs. free will. My own thoughts on this are, well, for lack of a better word, complicated. I am past the point where I believe that any one choice determines the course of one's life; I have been at points in my own life where I've felt like I've been off track and managed to "right" myself, and the fact that "righting" myself has been possible seems to indicate that one bad decision or wrong turn isn't going to ruin your life unless you let it. I have also found myself in enough similar situations, making similar decisions over and over again, that I tend to believe that though we may have choices, there are just certain ones we are most likely to make in given situations. To me, this indicates that it's often silly to wonder what life would have been like if you'd done things differently; you probably wouldn't have done things differently. And yet. There have been so many things in my life that have had to line up *just perfectly* to happen in a certain way that it's hard to believe that it's all just random. Who knows? What I do know is that if I leave the theater thinking about the questions that a movie poses rather than being critical of the movie itself, it was a good movie.