The movie starts out strong, showing us Bradley Cooper as uninspired slacker Eddie Morra failing to make ends meet as a writer and as a boyfriend. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance lands him in possession of a mysterious new drug called LZT, which boosts his brainpower and sets him on the fast track to financial and personal success. That is until things go wrong Cooper shows some impressive acting talent, and the change he displays over the course of the movie is a believable one. However, I'd cut down on the number of shots of him just walking down the street looking confident. They don't show us anything we don't already know.
Abby Cornish is cute but forgettable as the love interest. She plays her part well but isn't given much to say or do. De Niro gives one of his better late career performances as business magnate and mentor Carl Van Loon, and the relationship between him and Cooper's character remains interesting all the way through the movie.
Unfortunately the film's premise begins to wear thin in the second half. The villain, a Russian mobster with bigger aspirations, isn't as intimidating as he should be, though he provides some good laughs from time to time. Aside from one excellent fight scene, most of the action is daytime TV quality. Certain side plots are brought up and dismissed to quickly to really have any impact. But what really keeps Limitless from excelling in the second half is that for a guy who's supposedly brilliant enough to learn countless languages and conquer the stock market, he makes some decisions that are just bafflingly stupid. In other words, for a thriller, it's just not as thrilling as it should be. If that seems harsh, it's only because the first half sets up something great but delivers a final product that's merely good.
In short, Limitless won't disappoint, but don't raise your expectations too high either. Behind a few errors in concept and execution there's a lot that works.
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