(Warning, this has a ton of spoilers for the film)

I didn’t really know what to expect from this film.  I hadn’t read any reviews, I hadn’t watched any trailers, and I think I’d only seen one poster advertisement.  I had no idea what the film was about, and the gamble paid off as I left the cinema feeling damn good.  Trailers ruin films for me anyway.

I remember ‘Love and Other Drugs’, a film I was looking forward to because Edward Zwick was directing.  But then I saw the trailer which basically spelled the entire film out for me, so I figured rather than waste money at the cinema I’d pirate it off a website instead.  I still haven’t seen it so I haven’t done anything illegal yet, but I don’t understand why these trailers have to reveal so much!

So anyway me and Mirel went to the 630pm viewing, which being so close to clocking out of work proved to be quite a rush to get to.  After some speedy driving we made it 15 minutes late.  Mirel then wanted an ice-cream, but seeing as we were already late I didn’t want to miss the beginning of the film, and insisted we went straight to the screen.  Thankfully the adverts were still on, but I was quite annoyed at some rude large woman sitting in our allocated seats.  Mirel told her to move and thankfully she did.  The adverts went on for quite a while, so I guess Mirel could have had her ice cream, but then again its always good to be healthy, so she has me to thank for that.  I just hope the rude large woman never got any ice-cream, her hips were very wide.

Anyway onto Limitless, and to give a quick synopsis, the film is about Eddie Morra, played by the great Bradley Cooper.  Eddie is a lazy writer who’s struggling with writer’s block, but that’s until he comes across a drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain.  This of course enables him to become incredibly smart and focused, but the drug has side effects, and during the course of the film he comes across a few dark characters on the way.

Even though it seemed to go on for a long time, I thought Limitless was a very entertaining film.  It throws so much at you that you’ll never get bored or check your watch.   The director made a good job of almost making the audience feel as high as Eddie, with a few trippy sequences where the camera would zoom in through various streets.

Bradley Cooper was absolutely perfect for this film, I must say that strictly as a straight man, I love this guy.  When his character is sober, he’s a shy nobody who’s going nowhere in life, but when he takes the drug he isn’t just a guy using long words to make himself sound smart, he actually came across as highly intelligent and confident.  

I haven’t seen many Bradley Cooper films, but I remember he was great in the Hangover.  Not many actors can play a good-looking confident guy and still seem likable.  He can also play a good-looking guy who gets laid and somehow he won’t seem arrogant about it.  Unlike Hayden Christensen, who in Jumper and Awake, came across as both arrogant and a little smarmy.   

There was one dodgy part of Limitless that I didn’t like, where Eddie’s girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) was being chased by some man in a coat (Tomas Arana) in Central Park.  She found a suitable hiding place near a rock, which I thought seemed perfectly safe.  But when she decided to pant for her life on the phone to Eddie I just couldn’t believe how downhill her acting went.

Not only that but the guy chasing her decided to wait around the rock for what seemed like an eternity.  This was one of the largest parks in the world, she could have ran anywhere, but he decided to stick around that same spot near the rock?

Then something happened that completely ruined the scene for me.  After she took the pill for the first time, her mind zoomed in on various people in the park, and it all got a bit cheesy, like a cheap TV show.  Then I had to endure an awful running scene through an ice skating rink.  Thankfully after that the film picked up again.

This is the first time I’ve seen a film with Abbie Cornish, and at the beginning of the film I really liked her, she had a bit of the Theron about her.  But then that scene by the rock happened and it didn’t do her any favours.  Maybe I should just blame the script?

Oh yeah Anna Friel had a part in the film, though I couldn’t make out her accent.  It was either American, Irish American, sloppy English, or a bit of all three.

Actually another thing that I couldn’t understand was that for all the girls Eddie slept with, none of them came back for more.   Did this mean he had a small penis? or was it that he just wasn’t very good in bed?  I mean the landlord’s wife at the beginning, I guess she lived in the same block of apartments so he could have had her whenever he wanted.  He also had a failed marriage that produced no children, and a girlfriend that only got back with him when he became successful.  I think there might be a secret message in this film that says confidence is mightier than a mans pogo-stick, or maybe I’m just reading too much into it.

The Eastern European gangster Gennady, played by Andrew Howard (I had no idea he’d be Welsh) provided alot of the comic relief, and whilst it was a bit strange at first seeing Robert De Niro as a heavyweight in the corporate world (I was also surprised to see his name in the starting credits) I quickly got used to him.

Anyway I thought it was a great movie and I highly recommend it to anybody looking for a fast paced film with a couple of little twists and a few bits of comic relief.  I also hope this means Bradley Cooper will get more starring roles as he carried this off with ease. 

Now I’m wondering to myself which film shall I watch next hmm…