Limitless Review

What would you do if you could take a pill that allowed you access to your entire brain all at the same time?  Would you take it?  And what if it had serious, life threatening side effects?  Would you still try it?  What would you do with all that knowledge and power?  These are the questions the film Limitless asks us.  It’s an intriguing concept, but a few of the films missteps keep it from fully reaching its full potential.

Our main character (played by Bradley Cooper) is a struggling writer who has lost all respect from the people who know him.  Never published and living off his current girlfriend until she dumps him, life is just not looking good.  So many ideas and no drive to accomplish them.

That is until he’s offered a unique opportunity to try out an unreleased super drug that enables the use of his entire brain.  When things get as low as they can go, he takes the pill and that’s when it all changes.  Everything becomes clearer and he starts getting lucky with the women, finishes a book in three days and eventually decides he can make money in the financial business. Lots of money.  Life is good. He has everything he could ever want, but it never satisfies.  One could see this as a presentation of our own corporate America.  Striving to gain, putting all our time and resources into taking what we believe we are due.  The embodiment of selfishness.  But things don’t stay perfect for long as some very dark figures are out to get the pills as well.  Soon, he finds himself juggling to stay in control of all he has gained by working with one of the most successful and deadly businessmen around and trying to stay alive as a few others want to kill him for the pills and all that they offer.

The performances are all outstanding throughout the film and the shift in color spectrum of deluded colors when he’s off the pills and the vibrant world that appears when he takes the pills.  It’s a dramatic shift that works really well to visually describe what the character feels.  What doesn’t work, however are the many monologue’s that occur throughout the film.  I realize they are meant to help us get into the head of the character, but I found them to be very distracting to the rest of the film.  I would have preferred to see the characters actions and interactions with others to really help us understand his motives and thoughts.  Also, the use of the cool zooming visual effect that occurs a few times during the film is somewhat tacky and really doesn’t serve any purpose.

Despite a few flaws, it’s still an enjoyable film that keeps you guessing on what will happen next and it’s certainly worth a watch.

7/10

Cowboys and Aliens Review

Every once in a while a movie comes along that makes you re-think your life, question your ideals.  A film that questions our conventional thinking.

This isn’t that movie.

It is however a fantastic action film with plenty of character and enough humor to entertain even the stuffiest of viewers.  And in the end isn’t that what a movie is all about?  The fusion of two genres is never easy.  Especially two genre that are so stark in contrast.  The old west and sci-fi.  There have been attempts at this in the past (The exceptional TV show Firefly) have been mixed. Some good, some pretty horrible.  Luckily, Director Jon Favreau already has proven himself strong at making action films that are well rounded in every aspect, his last two films being Iron Man 1 and 2.

The story begins with a stranger with no memory of who he is, only a picture of a woman and a strange device attached to his wrist.  It’s not long before he finds town, if you can call it that.  Things haven’t been so good for the town since the gold dried up.  The only thing keeping it together is a ruthless cattle owner played by Harrison Ford.  And when the cattle are…well…blown up, things go from bad to worst.   Aliens attack the town using ships and abduct people in a very visually exciting way, including the cattle owners’ son.  Our hero is pulled along as he has the only device capable of taking down one of those ships and so our adventure begins.

I would like to point out that this could be one of Harrison Ford’s best roles since Indiana Jones.  He puts his all into the character, starting out as a dirty, ruthless ex-general turned dirty, ruthless owner into a somewhat softer would-be good guy thanks to great character interaction between him and a young child who somewhat reminds him of himself as a kid.  Daniel Craig did an equally good job as the stories amnesia induced hero.  The weakest point in the film was the inclusion of the Indian’s, the characters themselves were fine but they were introduced far too sudden that it just didn’t feel natural or convincing.  Despite that, it was pretty easy to get pulled into the film with the great cast and highly impressive action sequences that exceed even that of the Directors previous works.  It’s got great humor, solid characters and enough energy without going overboard to make this a perfectly balanced film that offers up something more unique from the norm.

9/10