File this story under "Ideas, Worst" or "Sh*t I Hope Never Happens." There is actually a group of people who think it is a wise investment of time, money, effort, and talent to remake the film Memento. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, Insomnia) wrote and directed Memento in 2000. The film helped Nolan break onto the scene, showcased a great Guy Pearce performance (as well as Joe Pantaliano!), and was nominated for two Academy Awards. Why is anyone even thinking of remaking this movie?!

Memento was a small film. Relatively quiet, the piece is constructed (edited) around the unreliable memory of its protagonist. The performances are interesting and Guy Pearce's Leonard is truly a tragic character. What is this movie missing? Car chases? Gratuitous sex or violence? A bitchin' soundtrack? Honestly, I do not understand why anyone would look at this film and think "huh, I bet I could do that better."

By contrast, Hollywood and aspiring filmmakers the world round churn out dozens of crappy films each year - several of them with a kernel of decent idea in there. Some of these films deserve to be remade, to have a do-over. Some of them had a chance and started out well and then turned to crap. They just didn't make the grade. Memento is not on that list. For the record, neither is The Fugitive, or Big Trouble in Little China but both are scheduled to be remade.

If anyone is so anxious to do a remake, how about taking another shot at terrible movies such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Van Helsing? Both of these are actually in the pipeline to be remade and, I think, they prove the point. The original films had decent inspiration, starred talented people, and had millions of dollars spent making and marketing them. And they both sucked. Hard. So, if the foundation is sound, why not try again? But taking a successful piece of cinema like Memento and needlessly wasting money trying to reproduce it is just a colossal waste.