Monday, March 21, 2011

LIMITLESS

Review: Limitless
2.5 stars (out of 5)
By R. Kurt Osenlund

By the time zero-to-hero protag Eddie Morra is seen slurping a dead man's blood off the floor because he's desperate for the performance-enhancer coursing through the stiff's veins, you feel you kinda have to hand it to “Limitless” – no one can accuse this consummately tacky actioner of failing to honor its title. Infectiously and unabashedly gung-ho, it knows scarce few bounds in terms of making the outlandish most of its skyscraping concept, which concerns an illegal wonder drug that allows its user to fire on all cylinders and access every last wrinkle of his or her brain. Directed by Neil Burger (2006's “The Illusionist”) and released through the newly-minted Virgin Produced label, the movie is akin to its leading character: it's driven by pleasure principles and base-level desires, it uses feigned pomp and swagger to effectively woo its audience, and it aggressively burns the candle at both ends. For a film that appears to be in all ways forgettable, it does what it does rather well, and people are going to love it. That, however, is precisely the problem.


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