Movie: Limitless (3/5 stars) (2011)

Limitless is a soft sci-fi/action/thriller movie starring Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, an aspiring writer who is, to be blunt, a complete loser. He happens across an old acquaintance who happens to be a drug dealer dealing in the perfect drug. NZT doesn't get you high, just focuses the mind, clears your thoughts and gives you all the motivation you need to get things done.


I've been following Bradley Cooper since his Alias days, and thought that he was perfect for this role - he looked like a loser and cleaned up into a believable winner with all the answers and the confidence and charisma to win anyone over. Along with Cooper, there were supporting roles by the lovely Abby Cornish playing Eddie's girlfriend and veteran Robert De Niro playing a rich and powerful boss. Both did solid jobs with their roles.

This is a fun movie, and covers one of my own fantasies... what would you do if you were the smartest person on earth ("A 4 digit IQ") and could figure out any problem? It appeals to me for that reason and the does a decent job at tackling that question - super-intelligence and the world being against you. However, it suffers from the lack of a real, challenging opponent for Cooper's character as well as a plot hole you could drive a truck through that I will leave as an exercise for the reader.

I now feel like re-watching Phenomenon with John Travoltra.

Movie: Apocalypto (4/5 stars) 2006

I almost always start with mentioning the actors who were in a movie. With this film, 99% of everyone in it only have Apocalypto as a credit, so mentioning actors isn't much use.

The film focuses on Jaguar's Paw, a Mayan native living in the jungles of Central America around 1500 or so. His tribe is attacked and mostly captured and brought to a city nearby.

I don't know how accurate this portrays Mayan civilization, but taken as an action movie, there is little to fault it.

This is a high adrenalin movie and as with most Mel Gibson movies, there is no shying away from the brutal life of the time.

I liked it and recommended it to lots of my friends. It is worth the price of the ticket and a real roller coaster ride of a movie.

Movie: Inside Man (3/5 stars)

This is one of those "the villain is smarter than everyone else" movies. Denzel Washington plays a detective, while Clive Owen plays a very smart bank robber.

Thrown into the mix are Jodie Foster playing an ultra-competant someone who does "special jobs" for big bucks and Christopher Plummer playing an ultra-rich mogul with a big secret he wants to stay secret.

A day into this bank robbery, Denzel Washington realizes that something is up and starts to take unusual measures to see if he's right. Owen's character is always in control and knows exactly what he's doing the entire time.

While the movie is clever, and there is lots interesting going on, in the end, I found that there were mixed messages, and criminals end up being glorified a little too much for my tastes. Also, the movie makers try to put a moral message in the movie with Christopher Plumber's character, but they never really get to it.

Still, worth watching, and quite fun. It gives you a few ideas on how you might rob a bank too, just in case you were interested. The big message for bank robbers - you have to be really, really smart, smarter than any of the cops. And, for God's sake, do your research, and you'll come out just fine.

Movie: Mission Impossible 3 (MI3) (4/5 stars)

I didn't want to rent this one and I deliberately avoided it in the theater, since I didn't like the first two. They were full of plot holes and stupid ideas that were constantly jolting me out of any kind of suspension of disbelief that I might have had going into them.

As before, Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, the agent who goes out and takes on impossible missions (thus the title). In this movie, he's retired, and one of the students he has trained is in trouble and he rushes off to rescue her.

This is just a good, solid action movie. I liked it far more than I expected to.

It's worth your time, especially if you were avoiding it like I was. Lots of fun.