Review of Lucy (2014) by Mason G — 26 May 2015

Ridiculously, aggressively stupid. "Lucy" can't decide whether it wants to be "2001: A Space Odyssey or "Crank 2: High Voltage", and instead just says "screw it" and tries to split the difference. ScarJo is the titular character, an American expat party girl in Taiwan. She falls in with the wrong crowd and gets forced to smuggle an experimental drug into the US. After an accidental OD, she realizes that the drug allows her to use... wait for it... 100 PERCENT OF HER BRAIN.

As the movie processes and the drug takes hold, titles on the screen count up from 10%, to 50%, up to 100%. All the while Lucy acquires increasingly improbable powers, starting with super-intelligence and winding up with telekinesis, time travel, and other wacky stuff. All of this is "explained" by Morgan Freeman, phoning it in as the Professor / wise old man he's played a zillion other times. This is a highly riff-able movie, with its ridiculous pseudo-scientific premise delivered deadpan by actors who clearly know this is shlock. Other than that, it has the "bones" of your standard R-rated action flick, so I guess one could just enjoy it on that level. But plan on turning off *at least* 95% of your brain capacity.