Not as good as I'd hoped.

Rating: 3/10 (13 October 2002)

I'd heard a lot of great things about this film before going out to rent it. But once I did, I must say I was not extremely thrilled with it as the rest of the world seems to be.
It is a brilliant and creative idea of how to make a movie (backward revealing of pieces of the story with every new scene) but unless I missed something, I believe that this is all this film had to offer. The acting was good, the story was good, the movie was good... but I do not believe it should be rated the number 1 best indie film and number 10 best film of all time. (As it is on IMDB while I write this review)
I think it simply receives a lot of praise because it is a movie made in a way that no one has ever seen before. A friend even told me that he thought it was an amazing movie--though he didn't quite totally understand it. Maybe it is appealing because it is confusing and people view it as a "smart" film because they can't quite follow totally what it going on and they have to watch it over and over again. Either way, I believe it has received much more acclaim than it deserves. It has certainly won many awards for great editing and original screenplays, etc--which it has. But a movie of the year--or of all time as some IMDB users are rating it--I totally disagree.
Finally, It is indeed totally original in the way a story is told and presented, but it is certainly not the greatest movie of all time. I was disappointed overall with this film. I do not believe it is a must-see.
I could film an entire movie by attaching a camera to a dogs back and having him film the action, then playing it on the big screen mirrored and upside-down during some scenes. That would certainly be an original idea never seen by movie-goers before, but that doesn't mean it should be voted into a group with The Godfather or Citizen Kane.
I'm not saying Memento is like watching an upside-down film from a dog's point of view... But I'm saying it's up there with the Godfather for reasons that it should NOT be.