IMDB Rating: 7.4
Willhelm Scream:
Genre: Mystery / Sci-fi / Thriller
The basics of this film are fairly simple. Man takes drug. Drug makes man smart. Smart man has knowledge. Knowledge is power. Power is not control. Man loses control. Bradley Coopers plays said man, a writer, or at least he wants to be one. He's almost the definitive nice guy. His girlfriend breaks up with him and he's still happy for her getting a promotion, still loves her, the whole nine yard. He meets an old acquaintance who gives him a pill, something new he's been working on, nudge nudge, wink wink, "totally FDA approved". The old ones are always the best.
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So the pill gives him access to more of his brain, he writes, it's amazing. He invests, they all turn to gold. Turns out other people want this too when they start to figure it out, and typically this ends badly. Miracles can't be shared people,
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It's a good premise for a film, that wonder drug you've always wanted to make all the problems go away. It's pretty well done all told, there are some neat special effects, which for something lacking war, space or anything of that nature it pretty hard to shoehorn in.
There are quite a few people who I've got a lot of time for, Cooper isn't one of those who immediately pique my interest. However, this has been on my watch list for a long time on the basis DeNiro was in it (although he's had misses) and it was an interesting premise. It's far from a massive role, which is surprising for the high billing, but he plays it exactly how you'd expect from him.
Mystery is a pretty rough genre for this, it's probably more Thriller than Sci-fi, given the usual assumption of that is space, future or something similar. Unlike a few of the last films I've watched this has slightly less of the traditional score a but more in the way of impact music. Not hugely successful pop music, more more modern than your traditional score.
Overall its a good film, it never feels boring and a good deal of the assumptions you might make aren't exactly how you'd expect. Which is impressive considering how some modern thrillers manage to do that (at least to me). There's one moment which genuinely defies belief and really broke the flow (it's not hard to spot).
VFX:
7/10 - For this type of film, they did some really nice stuff, and they did it well. But that bloom...
Plot:
7/10 - For what could be formulaic, it has enough elements to keep it interesting.
Acting:
8/10 - Solid performances all round, shame there wasn't more of some people.
Score:
8/10 - The score works really well, no particularly big tracks, just well put together.
Cinematography:
7/10 - It's filmed nicely, but the overexposure-for-effect is a bit much in place, although understandable.
Overall
7/10 (37/50) Good, fanciful thriller.
