Careful - looks like there are 2 versions of Memento (1 Viewer)

[Don Myles]

Ordered Memento from a R1 retailer in the UK. It arrived this morning and I opened it up to check out the menus before coming to work.
Was surprised to see that there didn't seem to be any extras and I had seen some listed on web sites.
I just checked out a Canadian retailer and there seems to be 2 versions of Memento - a Canadian (Alliance) release and an American (Columbia Tristar) release. The American release contains extras, the Canadian does not it seems.
Anybody else heard anything about this?
Don

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

Oops, thank you for the word of warning! I normally order all of my DVD's from Canada, and it never occured to me that this movies might be licenced to different companies in Canada, even though it should considering this is an independent movie production.
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[Robert Spalding]

does it have the D2R2 designation? ;-)
see that's a joke Tom!
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[Alister Willis]

Hi all,
Just to confirm your suspicions Don, it looks like there are definitely 2 different version of this release.
I just checked at DV-Depot.com (which I believe is based in Canada), and they have both versions listed. As you said, the Canadian version (Alliance) only has Chronological Scene access listed as extras, whereas the American release (Columbia Tri-star) lists a number of extras.
Woody.

 

[Martin Rendall]

I hate that! Art of War was another movie like that. And sadly, the company which mastered the CDN version got it wrong. It will not play on my Toshiba.
Anybody know of a good site for maintaining a list of movies which are different in Canada?
Martin.

 

[Kieran Coghlan]

I heard that the "faulty" dvd, has the story running in reverse order or something.... WEIRD.
So, if you get this movie, and everything seems to be edited backwards, immediately take it back and complain.

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-Kieran
My HT Page

 

[Tom Ryan]

Robert: I think I laughed at that one.....I'm not quite sure though .
-Tom

 

[MichaelPe]

Yep... here are the two different covers:
Link Removed Link Removed
But the Region 2 release seems to be the best one (too bad I can't watch it on my player). It features an English DTS 5.1/DD 5.1 track, as well as a French DD 5.1 track.

 

[Julian Lalor]

The R2 DTS DVD (from Belgium) is in the incorrect aspect ratio (1.85:1 instead of 2.35:1), so whatever benefits a DTS track may provide this film are entirely shot down by the improper framing. At present, the US R1 version appears to be the best version, although extras wise all versions are pretty thin on the ground.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Damn it!!!
I can confirm this.
I bought Momento today. I just popped it into my player about 2 minutes ago and couldn't find a single feature. This struck me as odd, as I read the review for it on dvdfile, and it was supposed to be packed with features.
I'm going to return the disk tomorrow. Looks like I'll have to order this title from the U.S.
Why oh why does Canada get short changed on titles like this?!? Goonies isn't here yet, Momento is featureless, etc. Pisses me off!
No wonder DVDProfiler couldn't find the disc in it's library.
Moe.

 

[MichaelPe]

the Canadian version (Alliance) only has Chronological Scene access listed as extras

Can someone who owns the Canadian version please explain what exactly they mean by "chronological scene access"? Is this similar to the French DVD already out?

 

[Kyle Milligan]

The Chronological Scene access is merely an index where you can watch the film with all the black and white flashbacks first, and then the rest of the movie in the chronological order they actually occur in.
The unfortunate part of this is you have to access each scene individually, with no 'play all' option. Also, it's kind of tricky to find.
Bottom line: if you care at all about features, and you're not French, you get the U.S. version from Columbia Tristar. For those with more patience than money, I heard somewhere that Christopher Nolan has intention (which means only that, nothing confirmed) of revisiting "Memento" for an audio commentary sometime in the far off distant future. In the meantime, I quite like the CTHE version. Sure, an audio commentary would've been nice, but with a small budget film like this, they can't always make a documentary, and what else is there. They did a real nice job of the menus too.
Here's an extract from our site on the Cdn. version:
Canadian fans of the indie hit “Memento” may feel their special features have been forgotten when they pop in the Alliance Atlantis edition of the DVD.
The Columbia Tristar version (distributed in the U.S.) contains an IFC interview with director Christopher Nolan, “Memento Mori” story by Jonathan Nolan and his website archived on the DVD, plus a tattoo gallery, TV Spot, and trailers. To say nothing of the superb thematic and animated menus which are far better than the ones featured on this edition.
What this versions DOES contain that the other does not, is an additional French language track and a chronological scene index (which can be accessed via the main page, if you highlight the scribbled out text in the bottom right-hand corner) that includes the black and white ‘flashbacks’ at the beginning, followed by the actual narrative, forwards instead of backwards. This is a neat feature, but is hampered by the fact that you must select each chapter individually, without any ‘Play All’ option. The American version has fewer chapter divisions than this one, so it’s not even an option to do that manually, but it’s not much to offer in the way of compensation. Francophones and those interested in the film alone should still enjoy what most critics are hailing as “the best” of the year so far. Those with a yearning for those extras may be a little disappointed.
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Cdn. Version
U.S. Version
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Kyle
www.toldyouso.net
[Edited last by Kyle Milligan on September 01, 2001 at 12:24 AM]

 

[Tom-G]

I don't understand why anyone would want to watch it in chronological order. One of the elements that added to the experience of Memento was the fact that it was told in a non-linear fashion so that the viewer never really got ahead of the protagonist. Oh well. To each his own.
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