There’s a big dose of NZT on the menu tonight.
I bet that prior to getting his miracle drug hook up, everyday was like a Wednesday for Bradley Cooper’s character in Limitless. It’s the day when the monotonous groove of work sinks in, apathy levels reach an all-time high, and the weekend seems a mile away. It’s that time of the week where you can easily find yourself scrolling Netflix for ages trying to find something to watch, with nothing grabbing you at all… until now.
We’ve made an executive decision: tonight you’ll be watching Neil Burger’s 2011 film, based on Alan Glynn’s 2001 novel, Limitless. Grossing over $US161 million at the box office, from a $US27 million budget, the move made every man, woman and their dog fiend for those clear little pills, capable of unlocking all the potential of the human brain.
It’s kind of a rags-to-riches story combined with a psycho-thriller, but it incorporates elements that films like Blow or Wolf of Wall Street use to make drugs seem fun and empowering. Well, that’s until things start to spiral out of control for Eddie Morra (Cooper) and the side effects of the drugs start to mess with him. *Insert weird zooming shots here*
Still need convincing? Or do you need some points to sell your partner/housemates/dog and get them keen? Check ‘em out below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d1Uc68wt3c
It’s the birth of Bradley Cooper the movie star.
Back in 2011, Bradley Cooper wasn’t the celebrated actor, writer and director that we know him as today. By the time this came out he’d been a supporting actor in a handful of roms and coms, and had just broken through with a major performance in The Hangover, but he was yet to have that star-making credit next to his name. Limitless gave him that central role and plenty of screen time to flex the acting chops that were at times hard to make out beneath his Chad-like good looks. One example of a piece of shit he was in before this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgKyhyNcm4
Time to escape.
The two questions that burn in the mind of every person who watches this film is “what would I do if I was super fucking smart?” Followed closely by “where can I get me some of that NZT?” It’s nice to put yourself in that fantastical state of mind and imagine all your problems floating away, even if it’s only for an hour. And, FYI, I have googled and there isn’t anything as powerful out there in real life.
It’s got our Abs
Don’t you bloody love seeing an Aussie in a huge Hollywood production every now and then? Well, struth, even if her accent is a little choppy, Hunter Valley-born actress Abbie Cornish still provides one of the best on-screen sprints that we’ve seen in a film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTizFcDl7S0
The start of a run of Cooper/De Niro gold.
This was the beginning of a beautiful working relationship between Robert De Niro, who plays finance tycoon Carl Van Loon, and Bradley Cooper. De Niro has now appeared in nearly as many films with Cooper as he has with Joe Pesci, including American Hustle, Joy, Silver Linings Playbook. If you told that stat to the young Bradley Cooper in the video below – the one where he creams his jeans while quizzing Sean Penn about acting – he probably wouldn’t have believed you.
Fractal zooming.
I had to look it up. That weird zoom upon zoom effect that they use in this film is called fractal zooming. Watching it back it’s not as impressive as it was 10 years ago, but it’s definitely a cool way of expressing the hyper-speer warping of Eddie’s mind when under the effect of NZT. Gimme some of that zoom!
