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Memento

Memento

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $19.96
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: IT SHOULD HAVE A CHRONOLOGICAL EDIT FEATURE!!
Review: I haven't seen this DVD, but I have seen the movie twice and I love it. So my review of 1 star relates to the DVD only and here is my gripe: the producers of this DVD should have thought to include a special feature whereby the movie could be watched backwards, that is, in chronological order. The format of the movie is such that it would "work" that way as well- sure the scenes would overlap slightly, but that would make it all the more fun. If I am mentioning what others have in other reviews here, my apologies- it seems like such an obvious use of the
opportunities and possibilities of DVD that I am sure I am not the only one who has thought of it (but if so, remember you saw it here first!). I have two theories why this omission was made:
(a), putting the scenes in chronological order may show up plot holes or inconsistencies, or (b)- the theory I HOPE is correct-
there is a "Memento Collector's Edition" DVD planned, in which this option will be included. And that is why I am not buying this DVD! But, hey, the film is fantastic and once again- AUSSIES RULE!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rethink this one
Review: Although it's based on an interesting concept--that of short-term memory loss--I have difficulty understanding why anyone likes this film. It's very violent, plus the nature of the story requires the same scenes to be played over and over. Enough already! We got the point! The same point could be made in a much more interesting fashion. The production was fine, but overall I found this film to be a real downer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: this movie [isn't good]
Review: this movie is based on a cool concept and
you would think it would be really good.
However, it is the most boring movie i have
ever seen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie!!!
Review: Its a great movie!!!!I loved it!!!It is the works of a true genios. I recomend it to anyone with good taste in movies.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It gave ME brain damage!!
Review: What a pretentious mess..
I was forced to watch this tribute to pain by a relative who thinks this film is "so wonderful and innovative". FAH! How can a film be boring and irritating at the same time? The plot revolves around some doofus trying to find his wife's killer, but not like Mannix. He stumbles about in a haze due to the fact that he has no long term memory: "Who are you? Where am I? Oh yeah, I wrote down here somewhere.."

It gets worse, everything is shown backwards, so we see what happens to the goofball in the end, which is the beginning, but it does'nt matter. By the end of the film, which is the beginning, you really don't care about anyone in this forgettable film. I was asking myself the same questions as the main character. And I wanted a drink.

A complete waste of time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Gimmick! Gimmick! Gimmick!
Review: Don't believe the hype. Memento is a stinker of the highest order. I just feel sympathy for the actors.

Guy Pearce, with his smoldering Australian good looks and poofed up dyed blonde hair could have been the perfect neo-noir icon- a smart educated rebel appealing to both indie types and mass audiences. But the film provides him with no edge, when that's clearly what he's screaming for. Leonard, the memory challenged hero of Memento, is simply too nice. "See, I have this condition with my memory..." he says with a semi-eager-to-please puppy dog look in his eyes. And the script has him say this over and over again, sometimes for laughs. Pearce isn't allowed to act a complex character; he's barely even veangeful when his revenge for the death of his wife is what is fueling the movie. The opposite is true for the equally potentially magnetic, Carrie Anne-Moss. She's way too mean. Any amount of decency was abandoned by her character for no reason other than to play out yet another relentlessly gimmicky scene of backwards story telling.

The cinemotography and production values for Memento are also sub-par. The atomsphere for Memento should be dark and smokey with dense, well-lit visuals. Instead, the color scheme is bland and sunny and one scene actually takes place, with no irony, in a Bill Knapps. Bill Knapps! In fact there are only three locales mainly: a bar, a house, and a motel, and each looks like it was shot near a suburban strip mall. I have a suggestion for independent filmmakers- never shoot a movie near Arizona. Ever. The bland and flat cinemotography typical of indies mixed with suburban locales interspersed with a few cacti here and there is about the most depressing combination since Sylvia Plath met an oven.

Despite these stylistic mistakes, Memento's heart is in the wrong place. The characters that are introduced as good who we like and are rooting for for the whole film are actually bad, and the characters that are bad who we hate for almost all of the film turn out to be good. It'd be like the end of Indiana Jones if you found out that the bespectacled Nazi is really the good guy and Indiana is just looking for the arc of the covenant because he has nothing better to do. Of course, Memento isn't even interesting up till the stinkbomb of an end anyway.

footnote: There's so much confusion by fans of this movie as to how to "unlock" the secrets of Memento. Hate to say it folks but this film isn't high-reaching enough to contain anything complex enough that it would confuse. At first the combination of telling a story backwards and a plot about a man with memory problems would lead one to believe that the filmmakers could have paralleled the timeline with Leonard's delayed memory. Disapointingly, Memento's backwards story telling is actually completely irrelevant to Leonard's memory plight and is not an enhancer, but a gimmick. A gimmick!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Unforgettable.
Review: Great exercise for those who like to think about the films they watch. Thanks to director Christopher Nolan whose original screenplay makes the audience feels just like Pearce's character, who knows what is going to happen, but not what happened in the moment before.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Memento delivers
Review: Memento is a great movie. By reading other reviews, you can get the idea of the plot. I watched this expecting unique storytelling and a great climax.

Memento begins with a murder and then works its way back through the eyes of Lenny who has know short term memory. Each scene begins with us not knowing how Lenny got there. This is appropriate (not a gimmick) since Lenny has no idea either.

I paid attention to each scene trying not to miss any details that would confuse the ending. But there really aren't any details to miss. The ending covers all the bases and explains everything, yet there are many unresoved questions, and I think the director Nolan wanted it that way.

While Memento was unique, it was also quite humorous. Guy Pierce did an excellent job of portraying Lenny. Lenny seemed so trusting of everyone and since he had no memory of them, he assumed they were always being honest with him.

So while this movie is dark at its core, it portrays an innocence and lightheartedness that makes it fun to watch.

If you watch this movie and are somewhat confused then check out the movie's website. It gives a lot of good information that may shed light on Lenny's condition.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Movie of the Year!
Review: This is a great movie! Uses film in a creative way to tell a story. Well acted, tightly drawn mystery, told in a spellbinding way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good
Review: Has its flaws, but am giving it top rating for originality and balls. The script should win an Oscar. I have to give kudos to Guy Pearce because I didn't think I'd seen him before, and thought, "He's the new Steve McQueen." Only after I saw the movie did I realize I HAD seen him before...in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL..where he played a nerdy (but heroic) character! He went from nerd to noir-cool with no problem!


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