 | |
List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 171262
Released: May 21, 2002 |
| Our Price: $15.75 |
| Used Price: $15.98 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 01/22/2008
Description of Memento & Dogma:
Memento
Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix) shine in this absolute stunner of a movie. Memento combines a bold, mind-bending script with compelling action and virtuoso performances. Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, hunting down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The problem is that "the incident" that robbed Leonard of his wife also stole his ability to make new memories. Unable to retain a location, a face, or a new clue on his own, Leonard continues his search with the help of notes, Polaroids, and even homemade tattoos for vital information. Because of his condition, Leonard essentially lives his life in short, present-tense segments, with no clear idea of what's just happened to him. That's where Memento gets really interesting; the story begins at the end, and the movie jumps backward in 10-minute segments. The suspense of the movie lies not in discovering what happens, but in finding out why it happened. Amazingly, the movie achieves edge-of-your-seat excitement even as it moves backward in time, and it keeps the mind hopping as cause and effect are pieced together. Pearce captures Leonard perfectly, conveying both the tragic romance of his quest and his wry humor in dealing with his condition. He is bolstered by several excellent supporting players, and the movie is all but stolen from him by Pantoliano, who delivers an amazing performance as Teddy, the guy who may or may not be on his side. Memento has an intriguing structure and even meditations on the nature of perception and meaning of life if you go looking for them, but it also functions just as well as a completely absorbing thriller. It's rare to find a movie this exciting with so much intelligence behind it. --Ali Davis
Dogma
Kevin Smith is a conundrum of a filmmaker: he's a writer with brilliant, clever ideas who can't set up a simple shot to save his life. It was fine back when Smith was making low-budget films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, both of which had an amiable, grungy feel to them, but now that he's a rising director who's attracting top talent and tackling bigger themes, it might behoove him to polish his filmmaking. That's the main problem with Dogma--it's an ambitious, funny, aggressively intelligent film about modern-day religion, but while Smith's writing has matured significantly (anyone who thinks he's not topnotch should take a look at Chasing Amy), his direction hasn't. It's too bad, because Dogma is ripe for near-classic status in its theological satire, which is hardly as blasphemous as the protests that greeted the movie would lead you to believe. Two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) have discovered a loophole that would allow them back into heaven; problem is, they'd destroy civilization in the process by proving God fallible. It's up to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic, to save the day, with some help from two so-called prophets (Smith and Jason Mewes, as their perennial characters Jay and Silent Bob), the heretofore unknown 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and a sexy, heavenly muse (the sublime Salma Hayek, who almost single-handedly steals the film). In some ways Dogma is a shaggy dog of a road movie--which hits a comic peak when Affleck and Fiorentino banter drunkenly on a train to New Jersey, not realizing they're mortal enemies--and segues into a comedy-action flick as the vengeful angels (who have a taste for blood) try to make their way into heaven. Smith's cast is exceptional--with Fiorentino lending a sardonic gravity to the proceedings, and Jason Lee smirking evilly as the horned devil Azrael--and the film shuffles good-naturedly to its climax (featuring Alanis Morissette as a beatifically silent God), but it just looks so unrelentingly... subpar. Credit Smith with being a daring writer but a less-than-stellar director. --Mark Englehart
Memento & Dogma Reviews:
Double feature that should be sold cheap. 
2006-06-24 - I think its better if you get these two movies seperate where you could find both these movies for a lower price, both these films are brilliant by the way however I'm not sure what the special features are since I have these films on VHS which I ordered from Amazon back in 2001. Momento is about a guy named Leonard (Guy Pearce) who is suffering from severe short term memory loss after an attack which left his wife raped and murdered. Now he wants to know why his wife was killed and hes out for revenge, the film has a reverse narrative thats very original and I would describe the film as a noir style thriller where the lead character has to follow clues by having tatoos all over his body or leaving little notes. The film also stars Carrie Ann Moss and Joe Pantaliano who were both in the Matrix and the script was excellent and was very complex it will deffinetely screw with your head, its one of my favorites directed by Christopher Nolan 5/5.
Dogma is a very wierd but funny comedy about Catholic mythology and religion done by Kevin Smith, it has the typical yet hilarious dialogue that only Kevin Smith could write. The film is about two fallen angels Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as Bartleby and Loki they have been banned from heaven and now they plan to sneak back into heaven and they do evil things like killing people and stuff but this plan will also result in the destruction of the universe so its up to Bethany played by Linda Fiorentino and Jay and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes) to stop them before its to late. The film also has Alan Rickman and Chris Rock as the 13th disciple who was written out of the bible cause hes black, there were many laugh out loud scenes in this film and you shouldn't take this film to seriously you might end up enjoying this afterall atleast it was better than that awful jersey girl 4/5. Overall this double feature is good but the price is to high from Amazon.....
Jarring and Terrific! 
2003-07-06 - I went from horrified to enthralled to completely hooked on this off-the-wall religious satire. The cast is marvelous, the storyline inventive, and the entire idea brain-breaking in the extreme for those of us who grew up in a strictly religious household. I LOVED it!
memento/dogma
2002-04-25 - if you are a true kevin smith fan you have got to get this
