Limitless was a 2011 movie starring Bradley Cooper.\u00a0 The movie is about Eddie Morra, a young man in New York City struggling to write a novel.\u00a0 On the day we meet him, he is dumped by his girlfriend and is trying to fend off his literary agent.\u00a0 Eddie has blown through the advance he was paid for the book but so far hasn\u2019t written a single word of the book.<\/p>\n
By coincidence Eddie meets his former brother in law who used to be a drug dealer but alleges that now he markets a legal pharmaceutical called NZT that alters brain chemistry in a way that turns the user into a super genius for a day.\u00a0 Although reluctant to use it Eddie tries it and it is everything promised.\u00a0 He writes half his novel in a few hours and finds himself able to navigate his real-world problems, like his angry landlady, effortlessly and successfully.<\/p>\n
He goes back to his brother in law to get more of the drug but after going to perform some gopher errands for him Eddie finds his brother in law shot to death in his living room and the apartment ransacked.\u00a0 Eddie calls the police but spends the ensuing arrival time finding and taking the large supply of NZT that the killer had missed.<\/p>\n
Now Eddie harnesses his abilities by becoming a securities trader.\u00a0 But he needs capital to get going so he borrows $100,000 from a frightening Russian mafioso.\u00a0 Eddie quickly makes several million dollars and comes to the attention of a Wall Street giant, Carl Van Loon played by Robert De Niro, who gives him the opportunity to become a major financial player.\u00a0 But now he starts running into the side effects of NZT.\u00a0 Continued use encourages neglect of the body such as forgetting to eat for days and overuse of the pills leads to violent impulsive actions.\u00a0 And as he finds out from his ex-wife withdrawal from the drug can be fatal or at least permanently debilitating.<\/p>\n
The climax of the story combines crises combining the Russian gangster, Eddie\u2019s work with Van Loon and the NYPD.<\/p>\n
The science fiction element of the story is restricted to the unbelievable effects of NZT.\u00a0 In fact, the story reminds me of a decidedly non-science fiction story that I saw long ago.\u00a0 In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Tom Cruise\u2019s first big hit \u201cRisky Business.\u201d\u00a0 We have a man taking a dangerous chance to change his life and dealing with the consequences of that decision.\u00a0 Of course, this story is much darker but the resemblance occurred to me.\u00a0 While I think the story is a little over the top, especially with respect to the Russian gangster portion of the story, I thought it was pretty good.\u00a0 If it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Limitless was a 2011 movie starring Bradley Cooper.\u00a0 The movie is about Eddie Morra, a young man in New York City struggling to write a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237,4,243],"tags":[2223,2224,43,38,1355,44],"class_list":["post-9237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-limitless","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sci-fi"],"yoast_head":"\n