Limitless

If you could take a pill that would make you so smart and prescient that you could predict and plan complex events far into the future, would you take it?

Of course you would. What are you, An idiot?

Limitless is the latest entry in the underserved human-given-super-intellect genre of films and it breaks from the tradition in some refreshing ways. The basic premise is that Eddie (Bradley Cooper of The Hangover and Case 39) a sort of a loser in life, due to his inability to focus on anything—unrealistically, he's not being distracted by the Internet—when he runs into his ex-brother-in-law, a shifty "pharmaceutical salesman" and his magic pills. He slips our hero a free sample of a pill which he claims will turn things around for our hero.  


It's not too long before Eddie's hit the skids, and takes the pill out of desperation. Lo and behold, the pill works as advertised. Suddenly Eddie can write his long languishing novel, figure out his landlady and come up with some money-making schemes. Obviously, it's very addictive. 


Predictably, there are side-effects.


What sets this film apart from others in the genre is that most such films dwell heavily on the amazing-ness of super-intellect (Charley, Phenomenon) and what it means for humanity, for being human, Limitless is a thriller, and mostly centers around the magic pills as a MacGuffin. 


This leads to some huge cheats and paradoxes, but the resultant soup is fun and sometimes clever. 


I enjoyed it; it's a good summer flick in ... what month was it? February? March? 


The Boy said he completely disengaged his brain and had a good time, though he literally could remember nothing from the film subsequently. I was poking over pot-holes, and he was sort of acting like he hadn't seen any of the scenes I had talked to. He really disengaged his brain.


But he didn't seem too unhappy about it.