If there was a mysterious drug that allowed you to instantly access all parts of your brain, enabling you to recall every detail from every experience you had ever encountered, become a sponge for knowledge and in turn a happier, more confident and richer person; you’d at least be tempted to knock one back before anyone had a chance to utter the words ‘Talk to Frank’, wouldn’t you?

Neil Burger’s Limitless (based on Alan Glyn’s cult novel, The Dark Fields) presents this very situation to the film’s main protagonist, Eddie Morra, a recently girlfriend-less, down-and-out writer suffering from a major case of blockage. He learns of the new drug, takes it and becomes Limitless.

Remarkably, life gets better for Eddie. He bashes out a whole book in a matter of days, starts trading with Wall Street in sight as Carl van Loon’s (Robert De Niro) right-hand man and can even be bothered to go out for a haircut. He is the perfect man. Meanwhile, we’re all sitting in the cinema, rolling our eyes and shaking out heads because - forget that some old friend told you this pill is FDA approved, Eddie - DRUGS ARE BAD.

Inevitably, things do start going tits up for the luckiest drugee stock broker in town and Eddie finds himself in the centre of a lot of danger.

Limitless is a cautionary sci-fi thriller about addiction and power. You can look even more closely at the moral issues of the story but you needn’t bother because this is meant to be pure, darkly comic fun.

Leslie Dixon’s snappy adaptation keeps the energy pumping while inspired visual surprises grab you by the scruff of your neck and drag you into the moment like a woozy simulator ride you just can’t draw your eyes away from.

It doesn’t even matter that De Niro is a little lack lustre or that Abbie Cornish is entirely forgettable because Cooper gets it just right, placing Eddie on the cusp of annoyingly smug and confidently charming. And to think this film nearly happened with Shia LaBoeuf in the lead role...

Limitless does fall a bit slack in the middle where it might have been enjoyable to see the film dig a bit deeper, rather than repeating the same old highs and lows of Eddie’s addiction. While it’s easy to get seduced by the stylistic decisions throughout, viewers are likely to be divided by the decision to barely scratch the surface of the issue at hand.

Frankly though, we were thoroughly entertained by the smart, tongue-in-cheek approach. Big fat, daft fun.