Eddie Morra is a creative, smarter than average guy with some motivation issues. He can't get off his ass and apply his intelligence to his work. Sound familiar at all - my internet slacker friends? I identified with the character after about the first 30 seconds of the film.

I won't give away any of the plot points, but Eddie's answer to his slackitude comes from a new black market pill that lets him write brilliant novels, trade stocks like a pro and speak any language fluently with just a few days of practice. In short, the pill turns him into a mental superman. The science of the drug is glossed over in typical Hollywood style - but it has to do with utilising that "80% of your brain that you don't use". Right. Of course, as this is Hollywood, there is a downside to the drug of the type that Roy Batty discovered in Bladerunner:

The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.

Maybe because I identified with the character, I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoyed this movie a lot - right through until the end credits.

Afterwords I felt a bit uneasy. It seemed like this film could have been financed by Ciba - the manufacturer of Ritalin™ or Wyeth - the makers of Ativan™. The effects of the fictional drug are like a super version of what's already on the market.

If you have the time, have a listen to this Podcast where Merlin Mann (Creator of 43 Folders) talks about medicating his ADD.

I know I'll get some flack for this - but I'm not sure that ADD is a disease so much as a condition or symptom of the world we live in. I'm wondering if pills will be required for all of us (or at least those of us in the IT industry) to keep up with the pace of change.

Limitless is an entertaining, reasonably smart action flick, shot in an interesting visual style (a bit like Pi) - that could be the harbinger of a new age of chemically augmenting your brain.