Limitless
Drug movies may not always be the most cheery but they do deliver some brilliant and unforgettable characters and moments.
This week Bradley Cooper is under the influence in his new movie Limitless, which is an adaptation of novel The Dark Fields.
Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra's (Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to MDT, a designer pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive.
Now on an MDT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him.
As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions.
But brutal side effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent. With a dwindling stash and hit men who will eliminate him to get the MDT, Eddie must stay wired long enough to elude capture and fulfil his destiny.
Trainspotting put Danny Boyle on the filmmaking map back in 1996, yes it really was fifteen years ago as he brought Irvine Welsh's novel to the big screen.
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.
Trainspotting burst onto the scene in the mid-nineties shocking everyone at it's brutal honesty and open depiction of the harrowing effects of heroin and is perhaps the greatest anti-drugs movie ever made.
But instead of delivering an open damning message the movie merely observes the downward spiral the characters find themselves in without passing comment or judgement as well as being witty, funny, dirty and depressing.
2. Scarface
Tony Montana is one of actor Al Pacino's most famous roles as he rises from Cuban deportee to the top of Miami's cocaine business.
After years of diplomatic silence between the United States and Cuba, Castro opens the port of Mariel Harbour, Cuba, to thousands emigrating to the United States in search of the American dream.
But Montana's reign at the top is brief as his desire for power becomes his downfall.
Pacino's drug-crazed performance is the best of his career and the character of Tony Montana has become an icon of cinema.
Scarface is ultra violent and yet ultra stylish as Brian De Palma delivers a great and powerful movie that ends with the message - everything that goes up must come down.
3. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas cannot be ignored when discussing drug fuelled movies with the amount of illegal substances, pot, coke, acid, mescaline, ether, that are consumed by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro throughout the film.
Journalist Raoul Duke and his lawyer Dr Gonzo drive from LA to Las Vegas on a drugs binge. While covering news stories, including a convention on drug abuse, but also sink deeper into a frightening psychedelic otherworld.
Granted Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas may not be to everyone's taste but the movie really is a bizarre masterpiece from Terry Gilliam.
The central performances from Depp and Del Toro really are superb - but I will admit that you have to be in the right mood to enjoy.
4. Pineapple Express
But drugs movies don't have to all be depressing as Pineapple Express shows - it really is laugh out loud funny.
A process server and his marijuana dealer wind up on the run from hitmen and a corrupt police officer after he witness his dealer's boss murder a competitor while trying to serve papers on him
All right, all right so the plot is as thin as a Rizla but Rogen and Franco together are pure comedy gold, just two grown men acting the goat. The highs, pardon the pun, are so funny that the lows that do exist in the film can be overlooked.
There is a powerful rapport between Rogen and Franco that is not only charming but it does carry the film, which is at it's funniest when they are together.
5. Requiem For A Dream
Darren Aronofsky has never been afraid of making rather odd movies - has anyone seen Black Swan? And Requiem For A Dream back in 2000 saw him set out his stall as a rather off the wall, and yet talented, director.
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island individuals are shattered when their addictions become stronger.
Visually Requiem For A Dream is a stunning movie - it really is unlike anything else that you will ever see.
And while these characters teeter dangerously on the edge you can't help but feel sympathy for the situation in which they find themselves.
Sure this is a difficult watch as Aronofsky successfully depicts the perils of addiction in this uncompromising movie.
Limitless is released 25th March.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Trainspotting