I consider myself to be blessed. I was blessed to be born in the position I was. I have been blessed with professors who give generous late submission deadlines. And I have been blessed in my collection of friends, one of whom has parents that pay for a Max | The One To Watch (née HBO Max) subscription. Thanks to these Magi-esque blessings, I was able to watch “Limitless” (2011) and “Lucy” (2014) on back to back nights as I gorged on Beef Pad Thai, sticky rice, and “Diet Cokes.”
To be clear, neither movie is a masterpiece, or even particularly good. But here I am writing about them anyways.
“Limitless” shines as a turn-your-brain-off thriller, ironic considering its conceit. Starring Bradley Cooper as a lame writer unable to finish his book, we witness his experience with NZT-48, a drug that unlocks your brain, depicted in the movie as giving you a perfect memory, incredible analytical ability, the ability to read people, perfect environmental awareness, fighting skills, etc… This is the power of your brain at 100% efficiency. Obviously this is stupid, but it’s compelling stupidity. “Limitless” is incredibly entertaining, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it good. With an under two-hour runtime that would make us consider it short nowadays, it is simultaneously bloated in the middle and undercooks its premise. It may be the most early 2010s American movie ever. Bradley Cooper is a big chiller who actually is mad swaggy once you get to know him. He uses his incredible intelligence to become a businessman. It’s directed by Neil BURGER.
The soundtrack has a great electronic sound, though the variations on the main theme start to get samey. This music, along with the extremely strange camerawork, are vital in adding a punch to the scenes where characters get on NZT-48. Though speaking of the camerawork, there is one specific shot they do a few times, apparently known as a fractal zoom, that legitimately made me nauseous every time I saw it. Imagine watching a zoom in for three minutes straight, but the camera is zooming forwards, so objects are getting closer but also staying the same size.
I love the “Limitless scene” (first result on Google), and think it should have been used as a blueprint for the rest of the kinographic experience, but when taken as a whole, we are left with a vapid feel-good film (the most enjoyable kind), a “Flowers for Algernon” if Charlie Gordon never got re-dumbified and Algernon the mouse ran for president, dying at the age of seven (114 in mouse years). I’m an unabashed “Ocean’s Eleven” through “Thirteen” + 8 fan, so I appreciate feel-good stupidity masquerading as intelligence.
As @jackinthebox1993 said two years ago:
“When I was in high school I used to think taking this pill would get any woman to sleep with me. Now I watch it and realize it simply opened his eyes and let him know he had the tools to sleep with her all along.”
“Lucy” is about a drug mule who gets punched so hard she unlocks 100% of her brain and becomes a USB charger. “Lucy” is an incredibly stupid movie. And most of all, “Lucy” is way too French. I can appreciate it first and foremost as a perspective shift. As an American, it can be difficult to understand how others perceive the American cultural hegemony, where everything is made for Americans, and all the aliens land on the East Coast. Lucy is an American student in Taiwan who gets involved with the Korean mob, yet almost half of the film takes place in Paris with a generic French-looking French cop doing French things. What a bore. The extended absurdities that “Lucy” goes to are laughable, but the movie isn’t entertaining enough to fully laugh at. It’s no “La Machine à découdre.” All tension is deflated once Lucy gets her superpowers 30 minutes in, and we are left waiting out the clock as pointless scenes and also a compilation of animals having sex are shown on screen.
As @varunsahk1123 said one year ago:
“’Lucy’ is basically on the concept of Hinduism and Bhagavad Gita how to open the potential of human mind and finally reach the state of enlightenment when u become one with the universe.”
So if you’re held at gunpoint, and forced to watch a ’10s movie about using drugs to unlock your full brain potential, and you aren’t allowed to kill yourself, then I’d recommend swiftly grabbing the gun while dodging the shot, turning it against your captor, and saying a cool one-liner like “looks like I just ‘uncapped’ your brain.” But if you aren’t built as differently as myself, just watch “Limitless.”
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