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Reviews26
barrwell's rating
It seems there are fewer watchable movies made every year, and the good ones usually don't get much hype. I had to stumble over 'Limitless' on the internet and didn't know it existed until a few months ago. The premise instantly intrigued me, but I was leery of a serious film starring Bradley Cooper, someone I had only seen in a few comedies (Wedding crashers, The hangover). It only took a couple minutes of watching to realize he was going to be fine, in fact he was very good in the role that required him switching from 'on' to 'off' the drug. Limitless is an exhilarating thrill ride of a movie that has everything the modern (or classic)movie viewer could want; a fascinating premise, outstanding visuals and cinematography, solid acting and plenty of action. This is great entertainment, and though you might not want to think too much about the plot, it doesn't matter because you won't have time anyway because it moves too fast.
Eddie Morra (Cooper) is burned-out writer, a slob and a loser, who just got dumped by his girl when he runs into an old acquaintance who claims to be working in the pharmaceutical industry (though he is a former drug dealer) and has an experimental drug that Eddie ends up sampling. Eddie finds that while on the drug he can remember everything he has ever seen or read and immediately he start finding ways to profit from it as it seems he not only has amazing abilities of recall, he also has super-human energy. His whole personality is transformed and he begins making powerful new friends and uses his skill for huge gains on the financial markets to the point it draws the attention of market kingpin Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro)and soon Eddie is Van Loon's secret weapon in a massive upcoming merger...but things start getting twisted.
Director Neil Burger does a tremendous job with all the interconnected story threads, and there are many: Eddie has only a limited amount of the drug and keeping himself 'on' is paramount, there are side-effects that may be fatal, there are other people using the drug and they will literally kill to supply themselves, the drug can cause blackouts and Eddie may have committed heinous crimes he doesn't remember, Eddie's new personality draws his old girlfriend back to him and she too ends up caught up in this web. Through all this Eddie also has too produce results for Van Loon and keep himself supplied with the drug.
The rest you have to watch for yourself as there is so much going on in this film and it absolutely flies by, as I said, don't think about it too much -it's just a movie, and the ending seems a little tacked-on, but you can supply the deeper meaning and morals yourself, but give it a try...I don't recommend many contemporary films, but 'Limitless' is so absorbing and wildly entertaining I feel I can't hardly miss by saying CATCH THIS ONE! -and like me maybe your only problem will be how this gem slipped through the cracks with so little publicity...while films like 'Django Unchained' receive unwarranted Oscar attention, all 'Limitless' does is entertain!
Eddie Morra (Cooper) is burned-out writer, a slob and a loser, who just got dumped by his girl when he runs into an old acquaintance who claims to be working in the pharmaceutical industry (though he is a former drug dealer) and has an experimental drug that Eddie ends up sampling. Eddie finds that while on the drug he can remember everything he has ever seen or read and immediately he start finding ways to profit from it as it seems he not only has amazing abilities of recall, he also has super-human energy. His whole personality is transformed and he begins making powerful new friends and uses his skill for huge gains on the financial markets to the point it draws the attention of market kingpin Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro)and soon Eddie is Van Loon's secret weapon in a massive upcoming merger...but things start getting twisted.
Director Neil Burger does a tremendous job with all the interconnected story threads, and there are many: Eddie has only a limited amount of the drug and keeping himself 'on' is paramount, there are side-effects that may be fatal, there are other people using the drug and they will literally kill to supply themselves, the drug can cause blackouts and Eddie may have committed heinous crimes he doesn't remember, Eddie's new personality draws his old girlfriend back to him and she too ends up caught up in this web. Through all this Eddie also has too produce results for Van Loon and keep himself supplied with the drug.
The rest you have to watch for yourself as there is so much going on in this film and it absolutely flies by, as I said, don't think about it too much -it's just a movie, and the ending seems a little tacked-on, but you can supply the deeper meaning and morals yourself, but give it a try...I don't recommend many contemporary films, but 'Limitless' is so absorbing and wildly entertaining I feel I can't hardly miss by saying CATCH THIS ONE! -and like me maybe your only problem will be how this gem slipped through the cracks with so little publicity...while films like 'Django Unchained' receive unwarranted Oscar attention, all 'Limitless' does is entertain!
I found "attack" online and vaguely remembered seeing it back in the 90s on AMC (yes, they used to show commercial-free older films). I remembered it was a good psychological war movie that I needed to see it again and I'm glad I did. This movie is riveting from the first shot, it has an action sequence before the opening credits even roll that sets up the story. Every scene matters in this crackerjack of a film that has a master at the helm in Robert Aldrich and features knockout performances by Jack Palance as heroic Lt. Joe Costa and Eddie Albert as cowardly captain Cooney. The rest of the cast is great too,Lee Marvin, Buddy Ebsen as the reliable platoon sergeant, Robert Strauss and Richard Jeackel add some comic relief.
The setting is the battle of the bulge (where's the snow?), but unlike other war films that play like a reenaction of events, the setting is not really relevant as this film explores themes of cowardice and treachery in battle. It could just as easy be set in WW1, or Vietnam. Reminiscent in these themes of Kubricks anti-war 'Paths of Glory', though that film explored cowardice at the lower ranks and treachery at the higher ranks, and 'attack' is somewhat the opposite in that the cowardice is clearly at the top of the company with Cooney, and the treachery seems to be all up and down the ranks. So maybe this too is an anti-war film, and maybe that is why the US military refused to give support in the filming...probably the reason that some of the sets and props lack authenticity, which is the only fault in this film.
Captain Cooney is one of those officers that comes from a powerful family, and he is kept in place by a Colonel (Lee Marvin, solid as usual) who wants to use the connection for post-war political gain. So Cooney is entrenched but Costa has seen enough of Cooney's debacles in battle and is threatening to come back and "stick a grenade down your throat and pull the pin" if he is left twisting in the wind after Cooney's latest order of sending Costas platoon to occupy a farmhouse in a town that may or may not be a Nazi hotbed. Cooneys plan backfires and more men are dead, and when the platoon pulls back Costa ends up missing, but he won't be missing for long, for his searing anger toward Cooney and need for retribution are giving him all his reason for living.
When you consider war movies like Aldrich's later 'The dirty dozen' or 'Saving private Ryan', though they contain many cynical lines and 3/4 of the cast end up killed, the thing that probably makes them acceptable to the US military is that you at least get the impression that the men at the top are noble, caring soldiers. Not so with 'attack', it seems the closer to the top you get the more cynical, cowardly or uncaring they get. Could this have been the problem the military had with this film? -probably. People are people, and this story goes beyond war when it shows the monumental effect of weak leadership on morale and sanity. Costa reaches a point where he has become almost as unglued as Cooney, and Palance's performance here is so powerful and intense that YES, it should have received Oscar attention, but again, it just isn't the message or the type of film on which the system likes to shine a light.
That's a shame, but today it doesn't matter, it's a great film to enjoy and to watch this collection of fabulous actors who all became much better known in the 60s and 70s than they were at the time. I would guess they were all unknown (except maybe Palance, 'Shane','The big knife')to most people in 1956, as was Aldrich, though he had made 'Kiss me deadly' the year before. I think this may be his most engrossing film, it's tight, action-packed, extremely well acted...and it stuck with me afterward, made me think...high praise indeed.
The setting is the battle of the bulge (where's the snow?), but unlike other war films that play like a reenaction of events, the setting is not really relevant as this film explores themes of cowardice and treachery in battle. It could just as easy be set in WW1, or Vietnam. Reminiscent in these themes of Kubricks anti-war 'Paths of Glory', though that film explored cowardice at the lower ranks and treachery at the higher ranks, and 'attack' is somewhat the opposite in that the cowardice is clearly at the top of the company with Cooney, and the treachery seems to be all up and down the ranks. So maybe this too is an anti-war film, and maybe that is why the US military refused to give support in the filming...probably the reason that some of the sets and props lack authenticity, which is the only fault in this film.
Captain Cooney is one of those officers that comes from a powerful family, and he is kept in place by a Colonel (Lee Marvin, solid as usual) who wants to use the connection for post-war political gain. So Cooney is entrenched but Costa has seen enough of Cooney's debacles in battle and is threatening to come back and "stick a grenade down your throat and pull the pin" if he is left twisting in the wind after Cooney's latest order of sending Costas platoon to occupy a farmhouse in a town that may or may not be a Nazi hotbed. Cooneys plan backfires and more men are dead, and when the platoon pulls back Costa ends up missing, but he won't be missing for long, for his searing anger toward Cooney and need for retribution are giving him all his reason for living.
When you consider war movies like Aldrich's later 'The dirty dozen' or 'Saving private Ryan', though they contain many cynical lines and 3/4 of the cast end up killed, the thing that probably makes them acceptable to the US military is that you at least get the impression that the men at the top are noble, caring soldiers. Not so with 'attack', it seems the closer to the top you get the more cynical, cowardly or uncaring they get. Could this have been the problem the military had with this film? -probably. People are people, and this story goes beyond war when it shows the monumental effect of weak leadership on morale and sanity. Costa reaches a point where he has become almost as unglued as Cooney, and Palance's performance here is so powerful and intense that YES, it should have received Oscar attention, but again, it just isn't the message or the type of film on which the system likes to shine a light.
That's a shame, but today it doesn't matter, it's a great film to enjoy and to watch this collection of fabulous actors who all became much better known in the 60s and 70s than they were at the time. I would guess they were all unknown (except maybe Palance, 'Shane','The big knife')to most people in 1956, as was Aldrich, though he had made 'Kiss me deadly' the year before. I think this may be his most engrossing film, it's tight, action-packed, extremely well acted...and it stuck with me afterward, made me think...high praise indeed.
I don't agree with the people who get on here and try to tell others not to watch a movie. Most of today's films are just a rehash of some other financially successful similar film, or worst of all -sequels. So many garbage films how can you trust someone who watches a lot of today's movies? I watch few newer films and when I do it is something like 'Winters bone', an original, stark and realistic film shot on location in the Missouri Ozarks.
Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17 year old who is raising her two younger siblings in the absence of her father, and the debilitating mental illness of her mother. The Ozark mountains in recent decades has experienced an epidemic of meth "cooking" and Winters bone takes us inside an extended family that has become deeply immersed in drugs. Ree's father has been running meth-labs and is in deep trouble with the law and has apparently hit the road...at least that is one possibility, and the sheriff now is telling Ree that if he doesn't show up for a court date Ree and her family will lose their home, which dad had used as collateral to a bondsman.
This is the setup for Rees journey to find her father and keep her family together. Her uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes, perfectly cast) warns her to stay away from the family and their business, but Ree is determined and sets out, mostly on foot, deeper into the hidden crevices of this area that time has left behind. She is fearless and defiant, and Lawrence brilliantly captures the aura of a young woman who has grown up being taught the things that children just are not taught in today's America -not just the hard work like chopping wood, but shooting and hunting and gutting a squirrel, and some touching scenes show her teaching some of these things to her much younger brother and sister. At first I thought she may look a little too clean for the part, her skin too clear, but she quickly grew on me in what is a fully convincing performance.
Winter's bone is much more than the story, this is deeply rooted in the location depicted, and people who love location photography and the lay of the land, a part of America that hasn't changed much in 100 years, will appreciate the visual aspects of this film. I was reminded a little of 'Deliverance' or the little known Walter Hill film 'Southern comfort' when watching Winter's bone. To have seen and enjoyed either of those two films is to understand what to expect from this kind of environment. I love unique settings like this, a nice piece of Americana full of local flavor and I think the filmmakers understood this well as several of the actors were Ozark mountain locals and they add to the ardent realism of the film.
What also shines through is the hope, the hope and strength of this incredible 17 year old woman who faces challenges that contemporary women, for all their talk of "having it all" (career, family. etc), could never handle. That's all she knows -how to survive, against all kinds of odds...it's her bread and butter.
..and to those who would say "don't waste your time on this movie", I would say...don't waste your time trying to be a film critic.
Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17 year old who is raising her two younger siblings in the absence of her father, and the debilitating mental illness of her mother. The Ozark mountains in recent decades has experienced an epidemic of meth "cooking" and Winters bone takes us inside an extended family that has become deeply immersed in drugs. Ree's father has been running meth-labs and is in deep trouble with the law and has apparently hit the road...at least that is one possibility, and the sheriff now is telling Ree that if he doesn't show up for a court date Ree and her family will lose their home, which dad had used as collateral to a bondsman.
This is the setup for Rees journey to find her father and keep her family together. Her uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes, perfectly cast) warns her to stay away from the family and their business, but Ree is determined and sets out, mostly on foot, deeper into the hidden crevices of this area that time has left behind. She is fearless and defiant, and Lawrence brilliantly captures the aura of a young woman who has grown up being taught the things that children just are not taught in today's America -not just the hard work like chopping wood, but shooting and hunting and gutting a squirrel, and some touching scenes show her teaching some of these things to her much younger brother and sister. At first I thought she may look a little too clean for the part, her skin too clear, but she quickly grew on me in what is a fully convincing performance.
Winter's bone is much more than the story, this is deeply rooted in the location depicted, and people who love location photography and the lay of the land, a part of America that hasn't changed much in 100 years, will appreciate the visual aspects of this film. I was reminded a little of 'Deliverance' or the little known Walter Hill film 'Southern comfort' when watching Winter's bone. To have seen and enjoyed either of those two films is to understand what to expect from this kind of environment. I love unique settings like this, a nice piece of Americana full of local flavor and I think the filmmakers understood this well as several of the actors were Ozark mountain locals and they add to the ardent realism of the film.
What also shines through is the hope, the hope and strength of this incredible 17 year old woman who faces challenges that contemporary women, for all their talk of "having it all" (career, family. etc), could never handle. That's all she knows -how to survive, against all kinds of odds...it's her bread and butter.
..and to those who would say "don't waste your time on this movie", I would say...don't waste your time trying to be a film critic.