Tag: Bradley Cooper

Limitless (preview screening)

Courtesy of Cineworld and Momentum Pictures, I managed to blag a free preview ticket to see Limitless this evening. A shame I couldn’t find anyone to join me as I had two tickets!

Limitless

“It’s FDA approved.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell – Down and out author starts taking mind improvement drugs and rockets in popularity… but with consequences.

You know a studio is confident about  film when they offer advance tickets to the buying public, in much the same way that you know a film’s going to stink more than one of my farts if they don’t even have a press screening in time for reviews to get out before the release date. Momentum have every right to be happy with Limitless. It’s very enjoyable indeed.

Bradley Cooper plays Eddie Morra (thankfully Shia LaBeouf had to drop out as he injured himself – a small price to pay to have him replaced), a struggling writer who’s view of deadlines is somewhat lackadaisical. Out wandering the streets one day, he bumps into his ex-wife’s brother (Johnny Whitworth) who used to deal drugs. He’s now on the straight and narrow, and offers Eddie a taster of a new “smart drug” which allows a person to harness every synapse in their brain.

Morra very quickly becomes quite a success with his new discovery, and seeks out more of the drug. However, the bro-in-law wasn’t quite as above-board as he claimed and our hero finds himself in quite a troubling situation… while at the same time riding high in the world of finance.

His boss in the office is played wonderfully by class-act Robert De Niro, while the girlfriend rôle is handled well by the rather pretty Abbie Cornish. Cooper himself is excellent as the alternately smart/snappy then down/knackered central character. The dialogue is quick in places and the story fairly original.

As well as a novel plot, the movie is filmed very well and sequences linking scenes are imaginatively done with some funky special effects that genuinely add to the experience. It’s also got a wonderful dark streak of humour running through it. One scene near the end had the woman next to me chewing her knuckles and very close to covering her eyes!

I can also say that this is the first film I’ve seen in a long time where I was disappointed when the credits rolled. Not because it was pants, but the exact opposite – I’d love to see what happened next. It ends well, but there was scope for the story to continue. It’s very rare for a movie to achieve what Limitless did. Leave the audience wanting more.

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A-Team review

The A-Team
The A-Team

Big, brash and silly this is a great update of a classic bit of TV trash.

The A-Team

“He’s trying to fly that tank”

Remakes and updates are dangerous territory. There’s the risk of destroying fond memories or of throwing money at a project that simply doesn’t match up to the original. A-Team manages to be a great modern version of something which, when I went back to watch it recently, was really rather crap.

With the special effects being done by WETA and several other houses, you know this is going to be just chock full of graphics, stunts and over-the-top silliness. It certainly doesn’t disappoint. Any of you who care about the laws of physics would be well recommended to take a “suspend belief” pill before settling into your seat.

The film very much acts as a “how it all began” story, sticking fairly well to the original premise. One major difference, though, is that people do get shot and killed – something that never seemed to happen in the TV series. Hannibal (Liam Neeson) is the head honcho with all the ideas, Quinton Jackson is a huge, mohawked BA Baracus, Bradley Cooper woos the ladies as Faceman and Sharlto Copley is a suitably bonkers “howling mad” Murdock.

Jackson, in honesty, is a little clunky and hard to understand at the start of the film. I’m guessing he’s an ex-wrestler or something and making a break into films due to his bulk. The rest of the cast are pretty much spot on. The banter between them is also sharp and got quite a few laughs from the Vietnamese crowd (and myself).

For some reason it still felt a little over-long and segmented, but perhaps that was down to me being ridiculously tired when I watched it. It’s definitely over-the-top, has some utterly stupid stunts (even moreso than The Losers, which is saying something) and almost certainly will lead to a sequel.

Dare I hope for as good an update for Airwolf?

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The Hangover

The Hangover
The Hangover

So far I’ve not read or heard a bad review of this film, and having seen it I’m not surprised. One thing I would recommend is to avoid the trailer if you can. There are loads of laughs in here, and it takes the edge off if you’ve seen them before.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Four guys go for a stag night in Las Vegas. And then wake up the next morning without the husband-to-be…

The Hangover has a great script, starting at the beginning, jumping a few hours and leaving you guessing as much as the main characters as to what’s happened. Each bizarre thing they did the night before is revealed perfectly and nothing is so outlandish that you can’t believe it could happen. In fact I’m sure most of them have happened to someone at some point and probably reported in the little funny stories in the newspapers.

We don’t see too much of the groom in the film (well, the fact he goes missing is central to the plot), but the three main protagonists are a very good mixed bunch. Different from each other without going off the deep end of believability.

We have a somewhat mad but somehow gifted child in a man’s body. A suave ladies’ man. A geek with an overbearing girlfriend. They play off each other so well and the scenes see them go through every emotion you can conceive without once seeming unrealistic.

And there’s a key word: believability. That’s what’s key about this film. As much as insane things happen (or happened), as bonkers as it all may seem, it doesn’t quite let go of the fact that this could maybe, perhaps, just happen.

Is this “the comedy of the year”? I don’t know – it’s only June and I’m not some tosser who writes for The Sun and proclaims anything that makes him chortle the funniest thing in the world. However, it is very funny and also a great story. Don’t miss it.

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