Memento

Mammoth widescreen and the typical booming Dolby digitalisation is all part of the package with Memento, one of the very best films - not to mention DVDs - of the year.

Don't let the Christopher Nolan interview put you off. It's interesting, but very boring to watch, and is presented in a way that makes you assume it's taking place in some run-down high school. However, writer/director Nolan is informative about the whole thing, and makes up for the lack of behind-the-scenes shots by giving you in depth details about the cast and crew.

The biographies are as they always are, if you have the time to read them. They can be an attraction, but as they are biographies, you're finding out about the actors, not the film. Got a spare 10 mins, whip them on. If not, don't waste your time.

It's a common mistake people make when talking about Memento, that the film was based on a true story. Not so. The story wasn't even published until after the film was made. Jonathan Nolan, the author, is the director's brother, and so Christopher scripted the film from only the beginning of a short story. I spent a good two hours sickening myself, staring at the screen, reading pages of words. It was worth it...mostly. If you care, read it. It'll be difficult to find anywhere else, but words on a screen can do things to you that can't be fixed for days.

I was excited by the thought of the tattoo gallery, but overall it's a disappointment. There are all of the tattoos from the film along with their original drawings and that's it. After checking out this feature, you can't help but feel short-changed.

What is it with all this writing!? The shooting script as well! Mother of God, they might as well make it a novel. The words are microscopic, which is due to the fact the script is presented in the format of a screenplay - ie. tiny. It's hard to say this, but it was still compelling enough to have me staring at the screen again. Warning: read the first two pages and you'll be sucked in for the long haul.

These interactive menus take a lot of sussing out. You have to pick the feature you want before the next one comes up on screen. You are taken into a set of Polaroids, one after the other, and unless you have butter on your fingers you're gonna miss the feature you want.

Website material...words. What more can be said? Made-up articles taken from the Memento website, nothing more.

The special hidden feature? Easy to find logically. As you reach the end of the Polaroids, click on the screen when there are no words up, and you will be taken to a feature which plays the whole film again, but in chronological order. This is the most awesome feature I have ever seen, and yet it is so simplistic. All of the black-and-white hotel room scenes have been collected together at the beginning and you will definitely want to watch it again and again, comparing them to the actual shooting sequence.

This feature alone, combined with reading material, makes this disc well worth the money, and even if there is no Making Of doc, or Out-takes, the extras are so dense that you won't even notice.

Memento, truly, is a modern classic.