Patman

Bradley Cooper, in a leading man starring turn, plays Eddie, a down-and-out author-to-be, his life crumbling around him, and he just can't seem to get it together. Eddie comes away with a mind-enhancing clear pill after a chance encounter with his former brother-in-law whose past featured drug dealing. Armed with such pills, Eddie's brain power manifests itself in many positive ways, and Eddie is the best version of Eddie while on the pills. In an effort to drum up cash, he uses his new brain power to play the stocks and goes on an impressive run, but it's not enough, so he also takes out a loan from a loan shark, who would end up showing up at the most inopportune times for Eddie.

Eddie's meteoric rise at trading stock attracts the attention of an energy tycoon, Carl (Robert De Niro), and Eddie's ever-watchful business eye impresses Carl andEddie becomes an inside player in Carl's business.

There are quite a few subplots that run throughout the film to provide obstacles and roadblocks for Eddie's ascension into successville. Some of them are just dumb, and some do provide some tension throughout the film. Not quite sure if film wraps up in a satisfactory way, it was oddly anticlimactic in many ways.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

RichC2

I enjoyed the movie but it got sloppier as it went -- which is a shame, it started off with a good bit of promise. The ending was a little anticlimatic but not horrible.

PopcornTreeCt

I think it's funny how some movies will be number #1 at the box office and they won't have a single thread devoted to them until Patman creates it.

Ketamine

Loved this movie.

big whoppa

I just got back from seeing it. Thought it was good because I don't usually watch thrillers as they are called. There was some laughter in the audience and some queasy moments too.

Questions I have:

sauce07

I thought for sure this movie would have more discussion. I saw it today and loved every minute of it. The movie was inventive, fun and thrilling. Some of the shots in the movie are great, I especially loved the opening credits and the couple other times they did shots like that. This was the best super hero movie i've seen in a long time.

As for some of the above questions, here's my take

RichC2

Good that Neil Burger finally got something of a hit on his hands (Illusionist stopped shy of $40m, which wasn't bad either for its budget). Maybe this will be the rebirth of the moderately budgeted thriller, I'd be okay with that.

d2cheer

I liked it, it sort of borrowed from several films but only in a different way. Charly comes to mind. The fight scene reminded me a lot of the scene in Old Boy when the guy escapes and wonders also if he know how to fight.

E. Honda

I found it a bit hackneyed and convoluted in places, but overall it was rather satisfying. I gave it *** out of 5.

FuQ

I was actually shocked that I enjoyed it. I went in with low expectation and it exceeded them by leaps and bounds. Not great mind you but solidly in the good category.

superdeluxe

Interesting concept and liked the 'thriller' aspects of the movie. Solid 3/4 from me.

RocShemp

I enjoyed it as well. It was lots of fun and I liked how it ended.

Goat3001

I thought the premise was great and the first two acts of the movie were pulled off very well. It was one of those things where you're watching it and thinking "man if I had that same drug I would be doing the exact same thing."

I just thought the 3rd act was bad and killed the film. I could have easily given off about 10 different ideas for the third act that were better than the way they went.

Mabuse

It was alright, but I kept expecting Deniro to do more. There wasn't anything special about his part. I kept waiting for the plot to reveal something that made the character essential, but it never happened. He could have just as easily been played by any random character actor.

I didn't like the ending.

Mike86

I have to say this movie has been one of the biggest surprises this year for me. A friend and I went to it when it was in theaters one day and I really didn't expect much. We were just bored and wanted to see a movie and this was the best thing playing we hadn't seen. I really liked it a lot though and would put it up as one of my favorites of the year so far. Not perfect by any means, but a fun thriller and I really enjoyed Bradley Cooper in it.

Wolf359

I really enjoyed this one too. That ending though....

riley_dude

I enjoyed it as well. My partner did not enjoy it.

onebyone

I really enjoyed this movie. It was smart without being full of itself and action packed without being tedious. Plus, it had some really interesting directing. I wasn't that impressed with the trailer, but was intrigued by the concept and its leggy run at the box office so i gave it a chance and am glad I did.

I kind of thought Cooper's career was solely due to having buckets and buckets of charisma to burn, but apparently he does have some acting chops.

Of course, it is entirely possible that after watching Sucker Punch last night, any reasonably put together movie would look great to me.

Goldberg74

Got this from the redbox today and watched it with a big group.

We all liked it except for the blood slurping scene. Everybody collectively contracted with ughs and yucks in anticipation of him actually drinking it.

I thought that the directing was good and that Cooper did a good job. Deniro was a scene chewer as always... and I can't understand why he always sucks on SNL.

A solid B for me. But I doubt I'll ever watch it again. It doesn't screen "repeat viewing."

Quake1028

Saw this last night from Redbox as well. Obviously well worth my buck, but put me in the crowd that hated the ending. Other than that, the film was good, and Abbie Cornish is a super cutie.

islandclaws

I went into this with mild expectations, and they were basically met. I thought it had an intriguing premise, though the promise of it wasn't fully realized. I think better writing could've made it more first-rate, but it was solid for a mid-level thriller. De Niro didn't need to be here at all. I'm glad Shia Le Beouf didn't star as was originally planned. Cooper gave a good performance. I liked that not every loose end was tied up.

Rob V

I liked this movie a lot... but I agree with you, that would have been the FIRST thing I did.

hapgilmore

Why didn't Eddie pay back the mobster first thing? Giant plot hole.

bluetoast

I agree with that, if he was so smart, he would have done that immediately.

SuckaMC

I thought about him going to a lab long before he did in the movie. But I also remember that his ex bro-in-law said that NZT works better if you are already smart, which Cooper's character was arguably not.