"Limitless" (2011) and "The Hit List" (2011)
I'm supposed to be working on my syllabi. The Shakespearean Comedies one isn't changing anything but dates, and the Irish Lit is only changing dates and a few books. (I'm switching out two of the books from last term's visiting author for this term's visiting author and switching out another because I ended up hating the book. I'm contemplating putting in The Dubliners because I've never read any Joyce. Has anyone on the flist read it?) However, I'm also doing the honours section of Freshman Composition because there weren't enough grad students considered worthy of teaching Freshman Comp. So I'm worried about the state of the grad school *and* I'm trying to create a syllabus from scratch for a course I didn't even take as an undergrad (because I tested out) whilst trying to make it easy enough for first term freshman and challenging enough for honours students *and* following the university-mandated things that have to be included.
So I'm procrastinating.
Limitless is about a man who takes a special drug that opens up 100 percent of his brain. His life turns around completely, and he gets a high paying job because of it. Unfortunately, the drug has side effects, and a former associate is using him as a connection to get the drug as well.
I was really looking forward to Limitless. The trailers made it seem really good, and when Robert de Niro is an antagonist, he brings it. Except he isn't the antagonist. The trailers lie. The scene of him and Bradley Cooper yelling at each other from all the trailers is the last scene in the movie. They're not best friends, but de Niro spends a large portion of the movie as Cooper's mentor. He does yell at him, but it's simply the sort of yelling a Wall Street guy does at his protage who has messed up.
The ending really ruined this movie for me. The message throughout the whole film was people can't be hyperaware because they'll burn out. Everyone who was on the drug became sick and died due to using it, except for one woman who went off it and was still messed up as a result. Even Bradley Cooper begins to get sick. And then at the end, he's suddenly fine. He found the one way a person could keep taking it without suffering any ill side effects. Even his girlfriend, who left him at the beginning of the film and threatened to leave him again if he continued to take the drug, is happy and with Cooper at the end of the movie. It takes away the message and completely ignores everything that came before in favour of a happy ending. I don't know if this happened in the novel because it's another Irish novel I've not read.
I had actually quite liked the movie up to this point. Everybody I know who has seen the movie says the ending is the worst part.
The Hit List was a much more enjoyable film. Allan's having a bad day so he goes the bar. Whilst drunk, he and Cuba Gooding Jr. start talking. Gooding tells him he's a contract killer and tells Allan to write out a list of five people and he'll kill them, starting at the bottom and working his way up to the most important. Allan's drunk and thinks Gooding is giving him a hypothetical. (he thinks Gooding is a psychiatrist. It makes sense in context.) Except Gooding actually is a contract killer, and nobody believes Allan when he tells them what's going on.
It's silly and cliched. From the beginning, it's obvious where the story is going to go. And then they spell it out just to make sure the audience gets it. However, it's still enjoyable. The plot moves along and is interesting enough to keep me invested. The thriller moments are good. The ending showdown between Gooding and Allan is everything I'd been expecting. The acting is good as well. The police chief is the cliche police chief we all know and love, too.
Gooding is brilliant. He's genuinely creepy, and his mannerisms are unlike in his other films. He even manages to walk differently as this character. I can't even begin to explain how difficult that is to do. It's worth watching just to see him do that really.
I still haven't managed to see All the President's Men. It's like the *universe* is against me watching that film. And because I'm too lazy to cross-post properly: my favourite horror films with write-ups.
Now to go back to ignoring my syllabi.
So I'm procrastinating.
Limitless is about a man who takes a special drug that opens up 100 percent of his brain. His life turns around completely, and he gets a high paying job because of it. Unfortunately, the drug has side effects, and a former associate is using him as a connection to get the drug as well.
I was really looking forward to Limitless. The trailers made it seem really good, and when Robert de Niro is an antagonist, he brings it. Except he isn't the antagonist. The trailers lie. The scene of him and Bradley Cooper yelling at each other from all the trailers is the last scene in the movie. They're not best friends, but de Niro spends a large portion of the movie as Cooper's mentor. He does yell at him, but it's simply the sort of yelling a Wall Street guy does at his protage who has messed up.
The ending really ruined this movie for me. The message throughout the whole film was people can't be hyperaware because they'll burn out. Everyone who was on the drug became sick and died due to using it, except for one woman who went off it and was still messed up as a result. Even Bradley Cooper begins to get sick. And then at the end, he's suddenly fine. He found the one way a person could keep taking it without suffering any ill side effects. Even his girlfriend, who left him at the beginning of the film and threatened to leave him again if he continued to take the drug, is happy and with Cooper at the end of the movie. It takes away the message and completely ignores everything that came before in favour of a happy ending. I don't know if this happened in the novel because it's another Irish novel I've not read.
I had actually quite liked the movie up to this point. Everybody I know who has seen the movie says the ending is the worst part.
The Hit List was a much more enjoyable film. Allan's having a bad day so he goes the bar. Whilst drunk, he and Cuba Gooding Jr. start talking. Gooding tells him he's a contract killer and tells Allan to write out a list of five people and he'll kill them, starting at the bottom and working his way up to the most important. Allan's drunk and thinks Gooding is giving him a hypothetical. (he thinks Gooding is a psychiatrist. It makes sense in context.) Except Gooding actually is a contract killer, and nobody believes Allan when he tells them what's going on.
It's silly and cliched. From the beginning, it's obvious where the story is going to go. And then they spell it out just to make sure the audience gets it. However, it's still enjoyable. The plot moves along and is interesting enough to keep me invested. The thriller moments are good. The ending showdown between Gooding and Allan is everything I'd been expecting. The acting is good as well. The police chief is the cliche police chief we all know and love, too.
Gooding is brilliant. He's genuinely creepy, and his mannerisms are unlike in his other films. He even manages to walk differently as this character. I can't even begin to explain how difficult that is to do. It's worth watching just to see him do that really.
I still haven't managed to see All the President's Men. It's like the *universe* is against me watching that film. And because I'm too lazy to cross-post properly: my favourite horror films with write-ups.
Now to go back to ignoring my syllabi.