Mike Dunn's Film Reviews: Remembering Sammy Jankis

Today I learnt news that confused and annoyed me more than anything to come out of the Hollywood in the past few years; AMBI Pictures, a small Italian-based company that seems to have sprung up from nowhere, have announced today that they plan on remaking a film that I hold quite close to my heart, and one I consider to be one of the greatest ever made:

Christopher Nolan's amnesiac-thriller, Memento.

Thought by many to be one of the greatest films made of all-time, let alone of the last 15 years, Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard, a man with no short-term memory who is trying to avenge the death of his wife, killed on the same night he suffered his brain injury.

The film is told in reverse order, starting with the end and working backwards as we piece together how Leonard lives his life and deals with his 'condition' since 'The Incident'. As every new memory fades, Leonard has to trust the tattoos that he gets upon his body, including unshakeable clues he has discovered to the identity of his wife's murderer, "John G".

We see how Leonard interacts with people such as the mysterious friend Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and the seemingly-helpful Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), both of whom appear to be manipulating Leonard for their own reasons and how he copes with never being able to grieve for his wife as he cannot feel the passing of time.

I love this film so much. Truly, it is one of my personal favourites and I have yet to tire of watching it; the mark of a fantastic film. Every time it is like it is a brand new story. I can't help but get sucked into Guy Pearce's unmistakeable charisma and his pitifully lonely situation. The character of Leonard is so intriguing and unique that he feels like a real person, and one with which I deeply sympathise.

Twin that with understandably superb direction and script from Christopher Nolan, the idea of which came from a short story from his brother Jonathan (who would go on to write the scripts for Interstellar, The Prestige and The Dark Knight), and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack from David Julyan, it is such a complete masterpiece from beginning to end (or end to beginning) that I truly wish more people would watch it.

Now that I got all that love out of my system, I understand that some films get remade and I know why that it is sometimes a positive thing.

Sometimes films with wasted potential get a second chance at being awesome again, other directors may want their own personal stab at it, or maybe the film needs retelling to an new generation. Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, John Carpenter's The Thing, and the Coen Brothers' True Grit are all fantastic examples of when a remake has improved on the original and I'm the first to admit that.

However, through the years there are too many examples of failed remakes to even mention! The ones that personally hurt me however were Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho, Tim Burton's twisted version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Spike Lee's pointless American remake of Oldboy. All of them unnecessary re-tellings of already-fantastic films.

In my opinion, these three films accurately represent the greedy and unnecessary way Hollywood prey upon nostalgia and treasured icons from our past.

Speaking of which, Andrea Iervoline, an anchor investor in AMBI Pictures, which purchased the remake rights to Memento back in September when they acquired the Exclusive Media Group's film library, has been quoted as saying...

"Memento has been consistently ranked as one of the best films of its decade. People who've seen 'Memento' 10 times still feel they need to see it one more time. This is a quality that we feel really supports and justifies a remake."

No, this simply shows how much people love Christopher Nolan's version. You are clearly stating that you know how well-received and well-loved this film is, and yet you are willing to pointlessly remake it, just so you make headlines.

Let's think about this logically...

Are you going to hire a director that is equally as ground-breaking and such a dedicated student of the industry as Christopher Nolan?

Unlikely.

Are you going to get some composer to score the film better than David Julyan, whose simplistic, mournful and heartbreaking hymns (of which I'm listening to as I write this) surround the film in an ethereal and melancholic aura?

Very doubtful.

Are you going to just cast some no-name, big, buff, bland actor rather than the wirey every-man that Leonard is supposed to be?

More than likely. Step forward Kellan Lutz, Sam Worthington, Jai....fucking....Courtenay.

Honest to God, the results for AMBI Pictures on Google Images

Let's be honest AMBI. You're trying to make a name for yourself because all the films you are making currently producing will fail to make back their budgets, despite the impressive casts you have assembled and you don't care which pieces of art you step on to do it.

Don't shit on my memories and thank me for the privilege. Don't act like you're doing this for all the Memento fans out there, because we would rather be forced into an insulin-induced coma than watch your version than the one we know and love.