Rating: 
Summary: The best movie of 2001 and will not win the oscar.
Review: This by far was the best fiolm of last year. It had great acting, creepy drecting, and one of the best plots in the last 5 years. Guy Pearce was awesome in this movie. He's powerful, convincing, and touching. Carrie ann-Moss wasn't really given much to do, but she does what she got well. Joey Pantoliano is so funny, he's like a little teddy bear (I find him that way all the time). I don't want to say anything about the plot, but I recommend this to everyone who liked movies like the 6th sense and unbreakable. Awesome stuff.
Rating:
Summary: We Create Our Own Realities
Review: This is one of the most innovative films I've seen in such a long time. It is certainly worthy of the Oscar nod for best Scrrenplay. The films story and pacing may be unusual, but they are necessary to tell the story from the protagonist's point of view. And that is what life is all about. Point of view. We create our own realities.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Mind-Twisting movie!
Review: This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. If you enjoy a movie that keeps you guessing, you'll love this. It's a lot like Pulp Fiction, or Vanilla Sky in that the sense of time is off. In fact this movie starts at the end and ends at the beginning!?? The main charecter Leonard has a disability that renders his short-term memory useless. He can only remember about the last ten minutes, anything before that is a blank. The movie was made so that you actually feel what it is like to be in Leonard's had. You have no clue what happened leading up to the scene that you are currently watching. This gives the watcher a real sense of confusion and disorientation. Packed with twists and turns and an ending (beginning?) which leaves you utterly surprised, this movie is a must see. You'll want to watch it all over again immediately just to see what you missed the first time.
Rating:
Summary: memento
Review: Memento is an excellently crafted work of art. I enjoyed the film immensley. I sat through it once and would have sat through it the rest of the night, had I not had school in the morning. I reccommend it highly to fans of anything from director M.Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) and any future work from writer/director Christopher Nolan. Bye.
Rating:
Summary: A highly intelligent thriller
Review: One might be tempted to dismiss the premise and structure of this film as a gimmick--but what a gimmick! And so well done! Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) has lost the ability to form new long-term memories, but that doesn't stop him from going after the man responsible for both his condition and a brutal attack on his wife. The story unfolds in reverse so that the viewer is able to share Leonard's dilemma; he constantly finds himself in situations that he does not understand with no idea of what preceded. It is fascinating to see the events leading to scenes that we have already witnessed. It all culminates in a shattering revelation which Leonard, unfortunately, is doomed to forget...Joe Pantoliano and Carrie Ann Moss deliver excellent supporting performances.
Rating: 
Summary: an enigma inside an anomaly
Review: solidly crafted, comparatively thoughtful exploration of the problems of loss and memory disguised as a crime thriller--kind of like a lighter, less surrealistic version of "last year at marienbad."
the narrative backmasking, cinéma vérité techniques and soft peddling of its melodramatic aspects didn't grab too much box office (or academy award nominations), but the film has managed to gain a wider audience based on it's artistic merits: some subtler reflections on the nature of the detective as icon and genre, the contradictions of the filmatic urban avenger and some engaging acting performances--the enigmatic, chameleon-like guy pearce, a suitably sullen carrie-anne moss and a cheerfully perverse joe pantoliano.
actually watching it provides the kind of jolting calm effect akin to last year's other under-rated, alienation-effect piece, "the man who wasn't there."
the movie doesn't go for cheap shocks or pat answers and hence, requires a modicum of intellectual engagement--quite a change from being beaten over the head with grand mal digital explosions and third-grade fart jokes. "memento" is the kind of patient, emotionally mature film you don't see too much of anymore (at least at your local gigaplex).
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie- Poor DVD
Review: Not to take away ANYTHING that has been said about this movie- it's a truly remarkable piece of film. But, perhaps us consumers who pay so high a price for something that costs distributors and manufacturers a tiny fraction of what we shell out are spoiled by DVD "extras," but i must say that there are slim pickings (or pique-ings) amongst the extras on this DVD. If you're not interested in paying 20 bucks for something that costs less than a video to produce but costs you more to buy...than this is for you. Otherwise stick with the widescreen VHS version or eagerly await a "Special Edition."
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately disappointing
Review: While many will rave about the process of this movie, the sad fact is that the end/beginning is sorely lacking. It is hopelessly depressing. Anyone who's read the Count of Monte Christo knows how this one ends. But you cannot deny the process is brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I have seen a lot of movies and almost always I know what the director is doing. I know what the actors want to achieve. I know what the aims of the producers are. It's all transparent, but once in a while there is a work of pure genius that makes me think I really don't know anything at all. Memento is such a work. Looking at the premise of this movie, I recall that it can really happen. Neurologist Oliver Sacks, in his wonderful book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), recounts the story of a man who could only hold the memory of the last thirty seconds or so. Leonard's condition in this movie is better. Apparently he can hold in his mind what has happened over the last few minutes. Also he has the ability to follow a kind of learned routine in which he is able to function by continually writing himself notes. In the case recalled by Dr. Sacks, the man could not do that. He could not even remember enough to finish a short conversation. The idea of taking notes to "remember" is something that some Alzheimer's patients are able to do in the early stages of the disease (which may be where Jonathan Nolan got the idea for his short story on which the film is based.) Sacks recalls such a case in his An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (1995). The notes act as the man's memory, just as the notes and photos do for Leonard in this movie. The next question might be, could someone with Leonard's "condition" actually function well enough to get by without being institutionalized or having somebody take care of him on a minute to minute basis? Leonard says, "Habit and routine...conditioning make my life possible." He "remembers" to look in his jacket pocket to see where he is living. Presumably he also does this when he is in his car and has forgotten where he is going and doesn't know where he is. Presumably he has many notes that we don't see him refer to. How does he find his way back to his car after going somewhere? He identifies his car from a photo, but where is it parked? In the scene where he wakes up next to Natalie, he gets up and goes to his jacket and finds her picture so he knows who she is. He also finds a picture of her and Dodd. He somehow "remembers" the significance and writes on the back of her photo, "...she lost someone too. She will help you out of pity." How does he remember these things? Perhaps they are examples of "implicit learning" that "Sammy" was not able to accomplish, what Leonard calls "conditioning." In implicit learning as opposed to "explicit," we learn to do something without knowing we learned it. Regardless of these questions, this is a brilliantly conceived and plotted thriller, and the acting by the three principals is superb. Guy Pearce, plays Leonard in a most immediate and affecting manner so that we are forced us to identify with him and his predicament. Carrie-Anne Moss, whom you may recall from The Matrix (1999), is mesmerizing with her sexy, mysterious eyes as the hard-edged and haunting Natalie. Joe Pantoliano is first rate as Teddy, the wisecracking, cynical and rather annoying undercover cop. But what really makes this a stunning movie is the way it is constructed. The scenes are presented in reverse chronological order, so that we know the latest action first, and at the end of the movie find out the earlier action. This seems an extraordinary way to tell a story, but it works. Incidentally, there's a Seinfeld episode told this way, the one where they go to India for a wedding; and to some extent this technique was employed in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). What makes it particularly effective here is the material. Leonard, as Teddy points out, is not the same person he was before his wife's death and his injury. For him the arrow of time has lost its meaning. Earlier events are just the same as later ones. Director Christopher Nolan (Jonathan's brother), who also wrote the screenplay, was able to dovetail the action scene by scene as we move backward in time so that what seems true in the beginning becomes different than what is true in the end. And indeed, like Leonard, our experience of the story doesn't depend on time's arrow. Viewing this the second time (and you may feel a compulsion to do just that) some of the lines that were not funny initially become very funny. The voice-over in the chase scene with Dodd is an example. Leonard finds himself running and he says, "So what am I doing?...I'm chasing him....No, he's chasing me!" Or when Teddy asks about the gun, Leonard says, "Must be his. I don't think they'd let somebody like me carry a gun." Or Teddy's line to Leonard, "I've had more rewarding friendships than this--but I get to keep telling the same jokes." The key to the powerful psychological "ending" of the film, where we realize what will eventually happen, occurs when Natalie tells Leonard that revenge is useless because he won't remember it. He replies, "It doesn't matter whether I remember or not...." Indeed we see that he really doesn't remember his revenge and that implies that he will... But you really need to see the movie to appreciate the stunning implication. On another level this is a movie about what makes us human. What would life be like if we lived in an eternal present without reference to the past? We could be easily exploited by those with knowledge of the past, as Leonard is, but there is a deeper question being asked. Does life have any real meaning for a person without memory?
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This movie is amazing. The editing style alone gives it 5 stars but also, the unique story and wonderful script make this film one of the best in the year 2001. The non-linear delivery of the story was well-done and Guy Pierce does a great job playing the lead character. Don't miss this film. I highly recommend!
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