Limitless
The premise: main character takes drug which allows him to access all of his brain power at once, as opposed to the mere 20% that the rest of us mere mortals can manage.
Main character realizes this is pretty spiff. Unfortunately, the Bad Guys™ realize the same thing. Cue some chase scenes and narrow escapes. Main character realizes that Drugs Are Bad, but not, of course, until he has conveniently reaped all the benefits of taking said drug.
Pretty much mindless and meaningless, with more than a few plot holes. There's a pretty cool trucking shot of a NYC street during the opening credits. That's about the only thing going for it.
Sucker Punch
The premise: Main character's evil stepfather arranges for her to be institutionalized and then lobotomized so that he will inherit her fortune. Main character retreats into highly stylized fantasy worlds to cope with the dreariness of reality.
This one is probably the definition of style-over-substance.
The plot, which involves various virtual realities taking place in the main character's head, is actually fairly straightforward and certainly nothing new, at least structurally. But the visuals are gorgeous; the juxtaposition of medieval castle + dragon + B-25 bomber + automatic weapons is certainly striking. And Sucker Punch doesn't have the lazy moral inconsistency that plagues Limitless... though, admittedly, its supposed message of "female empowerment" is probably undermined just a little by having the girls wear preposterous midriff-baring plate-armor-and-fishnet ensembles while they wreak havoc.










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