Limitless OR How the Hollywood machine keeps turning out crap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3U9RsXeJ3w

This trailer actually had me quite excited for about, 20 seconds, it starts off rather good with a scruffy looking Bradley Cooper (The A-Team, The Hangover) explaining how he is a writer who seemingly hit a bit of a rough patch. The beginning is trailer is setting out to be a realistic drama or perhaps a comedy of some sorts as it is accompanied by a realistic colour pallet and arguably slow cuts. Perhaps it is going to be a film about the perils of being a write. But then suddenly my entire perception of it changed, an old friend gives the main character a new drug which is apparently FDA approved and he decides to try it, this is when the trailer suddenly shifts from being slow paced to incorporating a bright and sunny view on the new life of Cooper’s character. Even at this point when he unlocks his ‘’true potential’’ (by the means of medication) it still looks like it could be interesting in exploring cultural avenues; he learns Italian, writes his book in 4 days and gains a ‘’cultural appetite’’.

But then it goes even further downhill, he starts using this ability to make money, The film also features Rober De Niro, what De Niro is doing in this film I do not know as it all seems a bit shit for someone of his greatness but I guess he has been doing some terrible films recently (Fockers etc.) The trailer continues this fast pace and it just gets out of hande as we get taken on a mindnumbingly boring rollercoaster ride of stereotypes. Apparently Cooper needs ‘’a few toys’’ which are quickly provided for by De Niro (among them a private jet). We see Cooper walking in the sun with a group of slutty chicks, he buys a house without pondering and while the soundtrack kicks in (why they chose Kanye West makes no sense at all, but I guess neither does the trailer.) In the last part of the trailer we are just drowned in a seemingly endless amount of fragments which do nothing but make this trailer feel like it has no idea what the film is actually about. But instead of making me feel intrigued it actually makes me repulsed that something that sounds quite intriguing when read in a synopsis can be made so off putting in a trailer.

The reason I keep whining about this trailer is because it is such a good representation of the current state of Hollywood cinema, why and how I will discuss in a later update.