No limit

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Movie
German title No limit
Original title Limitless
Limitless Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Neil Burger
script Leslie Dixon
production Ryan Kavanaugh
Leslie Dixon
Scott Kroopf
music Paul Leonard-Morgan
camera Jo Willems
cut Tracy Adams
Naomi Geraghty
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Limitless

Without Limit (English original title: Limitless ) is an American film from 2011, which is based on the novel Stoff (English: The Dark Fields ) by Alan Glynn . The production budget was approximately $ 27 million. The film had its official release in the United States on March 8, 2011 and has since generated total revenues of nearly $ 162 million, of which $ 79 million in the United States. Since its German theatrical release on April 14, 2011, the film has been seen by 342,383 moviegoers. The German DVD release was on September 8, 2011.

action

Eddie Morra is an unsuccessful writer living in New York City who is being abandoned by his girlfriend Lindy and whose deadline for his new book, still unwritten, has passed. By chance he meets the drug dealer Vernon Gant, the brother of his ex-wife Melissa, on the street, who gives him a pill of a new synthetic drug called NZT-48. It stimulates the brain and thereby increases intelligence, memory, concentration and perception many times over. With the help of the drug, the writing on his book succeeds with brilliant results. When he wants to ask Vernon for more supplies, he finds this dead in his apartment. The killers appear to have searched for the drug but not found it. Before the police arrive, Eddie finds Vernon's NZT supply himself.

Under the renewed effect of NZT, he rapidly multiplies his wealth through day trading on the stock exchange and can also revive the relationship with Lindy. To speed up the money making, he borrows from the Russian loan shark Gennady 100,000 dollars . The successful businessman Carl van Loon becomes aware of Eddie and wants to hire him. Gradually, however, Eddie begins to experience side effects of the drug such as memory lapses and, if taken too late, severe withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and loss of consciousness. He learns from his ex-wife Melissa, who was also addicted, that withdrawal from NZT will either result in death or permanent damage. Eddie shouldn't stop taking it suddenly, but slowly reduce the dose before it was too late. But the less he takes, the worse he feels. He hires a chemist to analyze and manufacture NZT, but this will take at least half a year.

Eddie sees himself more and more followed by a man in a brown coat. After a breakdown in the office of Lindy due to withdrawal, she goes to her apartment, where Eddie has hidden a supply of NZT. On the way back she is followed by the same man. When she asks two passers-by for help, he stabs them down. Eddie over the phone advises her to take an NZT pill, and this allows her to take a daring move to incapacitate the pursuer and flee. This leads to an argument between Eddie and Lindy the next morning, at the end of which Eddie promises to get off the drug as soon as possible in order to save the relationship with his great love.

After a drug psychosis , he believes he has killed a woman based on news reports and blackouts. On the basis of a testimony, suspicion falls on him, but his lawyer organizes a confrontation , which is inconclusive, so that he remains a free man. Meanwhile, Gennady wants his money back and finds an NZT pill from Eddie. Later, after ingesting it, he wants more, and Eddie can hold it off his neck with a small amount at first.

Eddie works his way up to become the closest advisor and partner to Carl van Loon, who is planning a merger with the company of the equally powerful Atwood. Eddie realizes that Atwood is also addicted to NZT and that both the mysterious pursuer and Eddie's attorney work for Atwood. The attorney had stolen Eddie's NZT supply during the confrontation, but did not deliver it to Atwood, so that Atwood died before the merger agreement with van Loon could be signed.

Gennady breaks into Eddie's apartment with some henchmen to look for NZT. Eddie, on rehab because of the stolen supply, can still overwhelm her. Then he seeks out his pursuer, and since he is now without an assignment, he can convince him to get the pills back from the lawyer.

Twelve months later, Eddie is running for the New York State Senate seat. Van Loon, now owner of the NZT maker, wants to use this position as leverage to secure Eddie's future political influence. Eddie again demonstrates his superior mental abilities and claims to be "clean". He suggests that his scientists have found a permanent way to enhance his skills without pills. In the end, Eddie sits with Lindy in a restaurant and places the order in Chinese .

production

  • As Leslie Dixon, the book The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn read, she knew she wanted to film it, and found out that the rights at Miramax were. She tried hard to get into the selection of the scriptwriters who should implement this piece. She was chosen by Harvey Weinstein because of her low salary requirement. She wrote it for free with the contractual stipulation that all rights should fall to her if no one was interested in the script. Knowing that during the Cannes Film Festival all recipients would be distracted, she submitted it, and since nobody cared about it for a period of time, she obtained the rights to the film and later offered it to Relativity Media .
  • Originally Shia LaBeouf was slated for the role of Eddie Morra, but after he left the contract, it was announced in late 2009 that he would be replaced by Bradley Cooper .
  • For the visual character of the film, films, photographs and YouTube clips formed the basis for packing two different styles into the film, which are influenced by whether Eddie is on drugs or not. Both Kodak and Fujifilm footage were used to capture the film .

criticism

The film received mostly good reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counted 126 positive reviews of 180 professional reviews, which corresponds to a share of 70%. The film was also received with positive reactions from the general public, as 73% of 81,429 users rated the film positively. This is confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , another platform on which normal users can submit their film reviews. There, 271,267 users gave the film an average of 7.4 out of 10 possible points. (As of January 11, 2014)

Roger Ebert liked Bradley Cooper, who could convince Eddie in both roles, as well as the visual style of Burger, as it shows when Eddie tries to focus on something. ("Bradley Cooper fits well into the two versions of Eddie Morra, and director Neil Burger does inventive visual effects in showing how time telescopes for Eddie and the answers to problems seem to materialize before his eyes.") However, the film was in spite of the interesting premise, not outstandingly good, but with its 15–20% of the employed brain potential it uses more than most films. ("The movie is not terrifically good, but the premise is intriguing; it doesn't really set out to explore what such a pill might really to do a person." Limitless "only uses 15, maybe 20 percent of its brain. Still , that's more than a lot of movies do. ")

On hollywoodreporter.com , Kirk Honeycutt criticized that the film should actually be a lot smarter than it is. (" Limitless should be so much smarter than it is.") He also criticized the thriller plot because it was more logical for an artist not to work on the stock market, but to bring a bestseller onto the market every few months. ("Russian gangsters and Wall Street crooks are so tired by now. Furthermore, why would an artist take such a career detour anyway? A hot-shot author throwing off best-sellers every few months and claiming an ungodly celebrity status would not only have been more interesting but more logical to boot. ”) However, he also praised Cooper's acting, as well as Cornish and Friel's. He also particularly emphasizes the visual style of Jo Willems. ("Cooper does deliver the goods, nonetheless, while Cornish and Friel's solid work goes underappreciated. [...] Cinematographer Jo Willems deserves credit for trying to shake things up with an inventive visual plan.").

“A story with a fantastic touch like this usually arouses desires in Hollywood to heat it up with action and effects and in the finale, after the hero has been purified, to go back to standardized size in a moral way of life. Little of it is visible here. Burger remains comparatively moderate, avoids overkill and hi-tech, relies on intoxicating speed zooms , filter insert and lens changes, supported by a script that instead of the expected say-no-to-drugs campaign offers a solution that does not ignore side effects and dangers, but salvation is made possible by the drug, not by foregoing it. "

- kino.de

“No Limit is a blockbuster that is as entertaining as it is questionable. He fires from all pipes in all directions; how you weight your messages is up to the viewer. The uncomfortably uninhibited gesture is repulsive, but it is also immediate fun. "

- critic.de

"A scratchy mix of thriller and satire, which entertains well with fast-paced montage sequences and a selfish but charming antihero, but all too soon maneuvers itself into a dead end and no longer gains momentum even with absurd twists."

- Lexicon of international film

Television series

The US broadcaster CBS has been producing a series adaptation of the movie under the title Limitless since 2015 , which continues its story directly. Bradley Cooper is executive producer on the series and appears as a guest star in his film character Senator Eddie Morra. Jake McDorman takes on the leading role . It first aired in the United States on September 22, 2015. On May 26, 2016, CBS announced the discontinuation of the series after only one season.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for without limit . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2011 (PDF; test number: 127 283 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Without Limit . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Limitless at boxofficemojo.com , accessed October 17, 2011.
  4. ↑ TOP 100 DEUTSCHLAND 2011 on insidekino.de , accessed on October 17, 2011
  5. ↑ Screenwriter Leslie Dixon Talks 'Limitless' and Beyond! on iconvsicon.com (from March 18, 2011 English ), accessed 19 April 2011
  6. ↑ Tatiana Siegel: Shia LaBeouf visits 'Dark Fields' on variety.com from April 13, 2009 ( English ), accessed on April 19, 2011
  7. ↑ Tatiana Siegel: Bradley Cooper 'Fields' Offer on variety.com of November 5, 2009 ( English ), accessed April 19, 2011
  8. ↑ CJ Perry: Jo Willems: Cinematographer Discusses Creating the Unique Look of 'Limitless' on filmslatemagazine.com ( English ), accessed 4 April 2011
  9. ↑ Mark London Williams: Cinematographer Jo Willems on Limits and Limitless ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on btlnews.com of March 24, 2011 ( English ), accessed April 4, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.btlnews.com
  10. ↑ Limitless. rottentomatoes.com, accessed October 17, 2011 .
  11. ↑ Roger Ebert: Limitless on suntimes.com from March 16, 2011 ( English ), accessed on April 27, 2011
  12. ↑ Kirk Honeycutt: Limitless: Film Review on hollywoodreporter.com of March 15, 2011 ( English ), accessed April 27, 2011
  13. ↑ Without limit on kino.de, accessed on April 27, 2011
  14. ↑ Without Limit on critic.de, accessed on April 27, 2011
  15. ↑ Without limit. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used