the thread isn't specifically about horror films.

There are a lot of genres being represented in here.

Only for those who choose to let it.

Whoops I forgot to put "also" in fron't of "I" and behind find I've got about 16 convo's going on at once, That's why I get a bit ratty on the forums

So I took the time to watch both Memento and The Prestige and now say with confidence that I'm not a big Chris Nolan fan.

Memento: I think the idea was bigger than the execution. This movie would have worked better had it been shorter with fewer characters and sub-plots. When the Dodd character was introduced I sighed in frustration because now there was a whole new piece of the story we had to unwind. Dealing with the idea of a character constantly losing his memory can get real complex real fast and lead to numerous plot holes and inconsistencies. I had quite a few "Why can he remember this fact but not that one" moments during the film and a few more came to me afterwards during the closing credits. The only way it really made sense was if Leonard didn't have the condition he claimed but instead was purposely forgetting/ignoring things due to his psychological trauma. It wouldn't have explained everything but there would have been fewer contradictions. Though something tells me that Nolan would have made a plot twist like that more evident if it were intentional.

Cutting some of the extraneous story elements out and tightening up the main story could have mitigated many of these loose ends.

On the plus side there were a lot of elements I did enjoy. I liked the contrast represented by the black & white vs color scenes. The way they handled the transition to represent the chronological mid point was pretty clever. The scenes where Natalie gets Leonard to go after Dodd for beating her was a fantastic example of how to play with the idea of memory loss. Guy Pierce was pretty funny at times, the line "OK, so what am I doing? Oh, I'm chasing this guy. No, he's chasing me." Had me laughing out loud. Adding bits of humor to a nior film has to be done in a specific way to really work, and here it did. I was even half way expecting to hear Just Dropped In by Kenny Rogers when the end credits played, in fact I was a little disappointed when it didn't happen.

Overall the movie is okay. It's not perfect but it's good for what it is. It took some big risks which mostly paid off.

The Prestige: I was enjoying this one a lot more, but it all sort of fell apart at the end. The tonal shift from period drama to sci-fi was a bit jarring. I was really into the story of obsession and rivalry but then the Tesla Machine gets introduced and it feels like something out of an old episode of Star Trek TOS. I get that it was to show just how far Angier was willing to go, it just felt really out place to me. There was also the "big reveal" about the Alfred character, which was entirely lost on me because I had picked up on the secret pretty early on. The scene where Alfred first meets Sarah, she is with her nephew who is never seen again as he has already pointed out Chekhov's Canary so his moment has passed. This is followed by Alfred going to Sarah's apartment and offering to make tea. At the shot of him holding the tea kettle I thought "oh, I know what's going on here". All throughout the rest of the movie the secret is so painfully obvious that I keep wondering how much longer before the plot necessitates the reveal, or should I say prestige, of that little trick. During the scene with Sarah yelling at him "I know what you are and I can't live like this anymore." I was sure that, in the sanctity and safety of his own home and for the love of his wife that if he didn't reveal it then he was an irredeemably horrible person who I would cease to care about for the rest of the film. Even Angier's reveal at the end felt a little awkward. The secret of the machine was already revealed and for all the effort to keep it a secret from even his stage hands why have an entire warehouse full of incriminating evidence?

I will say that both Jackman and Bale gave stellar performances, especially Bale because his character needed an extra level a nuance. As an actor this kind of movie is a dream role. Again, I'd rate this film as okay. Better than Memento but credit is due to the performers more than just the director.