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.