Bradley Cooper, you have a new fan. In the first blockbuster movie of your career that you were asked to carry, you knocked Limitless out of the park. So no longer will I reference you as “one of the guys from The Hangover.” After looking at your filmography, I’ll be the first to tell you that you’ve made terrible career choices, but maybe you were getting your feet wet. Maybe at the ripe age of 34, after eight years of meaningless roles in some of the awful movies of the last decade, including Failure to Launch, Valentine’s Day,  Yes Man, Case 39, The A-Team, He’s Just Not That Into You, and, perhaps the cream of the crop, All About Steve, you’ll finally be recognized for what you potentially could bring to a movie. When I first saw the trailer for Limitless, I thought there would be no chance I would see it. But after reading some reviews about it, I added it to my Netflix queue and slowly watched it work to the top of my list.

Now, there have been dozens upon dozens of Netflix movies that, when I open the envelope, I ask myself, “Why did I add this?” Or worse, “What is this? I’ve never even heard of this movie” (that happens when you keep clicking add on the movies that Netflix recommends you based on a selection you made). I’ve suffered through many films over the past years that I would never have seen had it not been for Netflix. I’m often a mere ten minutes into a movie when I realize I’ve made a terrible decision. I continue to play the movie but hop on my computer to do something else. The film meanders its way toward some conclusion that I could care less about. Based on my string of luck with the movies on my Netflix queue, I expected Limitless to be disappointing. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be a vast understatement.

Limitless is the story of a wonder drug, one that I’m sure isn’t THAT far off from some drug traveling through the underground markets of the world and quietly trying to be hauled in by federal drug enforcement agencies. Eddie is a loser without much of a promise for the future. He doesn’t have a job, and while he’s secured a book contract with a publishing company, he has yet to put a single word on paper. He’s got the worst form of writer’s block. Writer’s block is bad when you jot stuff down on paper but hate everything you see. It’s worse when you can’t even put a single word on a sheet of paper. He’s living in a frivolous world where he can’t even afford to pay his rent because he doesn’t have the motivation to go out and get a real job.

He runs into his former brother-in-law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth – 3:10 to Yuma, The Rainmaker), who invites him for a drink so that they can catch up. Vernon is a drug dealer who says he has left that career and has moved on to bigger and better things. Specifically, he has come in contact with some manufacturers of a new wonder drug. Vernon tells Eddie that we can only unlock 20% of our minds at any moment. Vernon explains that there is a little pill that people are killing each other over that allows you to access 100% of your mind at any given moment. Eddie naively believes his brother when he says the pill, with the street name NZT-48 and a street value price of $800 a pop, is FDA approved. Despite his reservations, Vernon insists he takes the pill as a freebie.

Eddie doesn’t go more than a couple of hours before curiosity overwhelms him. The newfound sensation kicks in within 30 seconds of intake, and he sees the world entirely differently. He remembers every little detail from his past, despite whether that event triggered his memory to record the event in the first place. His writer’s block completely vanishes, and he writes his entire book in four days. He learns to play the piano in less than a week. He learns Italian, Chinese, and a host of other world languages. He knows how to defend himself physically just by watching old Bruce Lee movies. Because NZT-48 is so powerful and thirsty, men would do anything to get their hands on the drug. Eddie sees firsthand precisely what these people are capable of.

In addition to his newfound musical and language skills, Eddie tries to figure out how to make enough money to secure him for life in a limited period. While the drug doesn’t limit his brain’s potential, he has just a limited supply of the medication and knows that even if he takes one pill a day, his days as a super-genius will end one day. So he decides to do some stock investing, but to do so, he needs to have some initial capital. That is where he meets the seedy Gennady (Andrew Howard – Below, The Hangover Part II), who gives him a loan with the promise that he will break Eddie’s legs if he doesn’t pay the loan back with interest. Eddie is not worried, though, since he knows his super skills will net him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wall Street tycoon Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro – The Godfather, Heat) takes an interest in Eddie and his capabilities and soon hires him as an assistant to help secure a big-time merger. Eddie wows Carl with his array but, like everyone, wants to know his secret. How can Eddie see things that everyone else fails to see? As Eddie’s fame grows, so does everyone’s interest in him. Eddie’s biggest dilemma is trying to ween himself off of NZT-48. Not only does he lose the ability to unlock his mind when he is off the drug, but he also gets physically sick. Soon he relies on the pill to stay healthy as much as he does to unlock his mind’s potential. As his supply begins to run out, Eddie starts doing things he never imagined he would do. And as others discover what the wonder drug can do, there isn’t much they won’t do to get their hands on it.

Cooper carries this film (though De Niro is no slouch. How could he be?). Cooper’s Eddie is great as the loser turned genius turned the sufferer of withdrawal symptoms. He’s great because he remains essentially the same person. He treats people the same. He finds himself in better situations than he found himself in before. So naturally, he wants to take advantage of his new capabilities, but who wouldn’t? What Cooper does so well is that he stays true to his character despite how bad or how good his situation is. You like him the same as simple, down-in-the-dumps Eddie as you do ultra-successful Eddie. He’s a character you can root for, and that’s a testament to Bradley Cooper more than anything else.

Plot 9/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing  9/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10 (sure, it’s science fiction/fantasy, but as I mentioned above, I’m not sure how far from reality something like this is)
86%

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