Memory

While in Salvador, Brazil, in a medical congress, the researcher of Alzheimer Dr. Taylor Briggs (Billy Zane) and his colleague and friend Dr. Deepra Chang (Terry Chen) are invited to visit a local hospital. They find a patient from Amazon with a unique case of tumors in the memory cells, and while examining him, the glove of Taylor ruptures and his finger touches a strange powder. Taylor has visions from 1971, and once back to Boston, he finds that he has genetically stored memories of a serial killer of little girls activated by the powder.

"Memory" is a messy and absurd thriller. I was attracted by the cast, with Dennis Hopper, Ann-Margret and Billy Zane, but I in the end I was absolutely disappointed with the coincidences and the insane and totally unbelievable story. For Brazilians, it is hilariously ridiculous the geographic confusion of the screenplay, with a sick patient coming from Amazon to Salvador (why?); Taylor and Deepra are in a congress in Salvador (there is a footage of the city), they go to a bar and the director uses footage of the front of "Barril 1800", in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro instead of a local bar; the interior of the bar is probably in a studio. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Alucinações" ("Hallucinations")

I don't know why this is going round as a horror movie, it's not even close. Memory is a thriller and a passable one at that.

Billy Zane, Dennis Hopper, Tricia Helfer and Ann-Margret star in this clever though ultimately flawed little tale of a man recieving premonitions and his efforts to decipher them.

This is evidence once again that Billy Zane is one of Hollywoods most underrated, underutilised and underappreciated actors. The man can do it all yet gets stuck with wall to wall b-movies.

Memory has some nice ideas but fails to present them very well, it's one of those films that could have been great if handled by the right people but alas wasn't.

Decent enough effort but should have been better.

The Good:

Cast deliver

Some nice ideas

The Bad:

Generic delivery

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Billy Zane needs more appreciation

Dennis Hopper CAN do roles without coming across as weird and/or disturbing

The plot of "Memory" goes like that:When Dr.Taylor Briggs is exposed to a mysterious drug while lecturing in Brazil,he is forced to relive the dark,twisted memories of a killer. Embarking upon a lone journey to unlock the mystery of a past that is not his own,Taylor must find a killer whose horrifying work may not be over...First of all I really don't understand the rave reviews this film has on IMDb.I found "Mem-o-re" disappointing,frustrating and dull.Billy Zane does his professional best with what he is given and Ann-Margret is always interesting to watch.The story itself is silly and the film lacks suspense and gore.By the thing lurches to its woefully obvious finale,you'll be knee-deep into snoozeville.I suggest avoiding this one.5 out of 10.

The cast members explained in interviews that the main theme of Bennett Davlin's "Memory" is the idea of seeing something through someone else's eyes, as the main character (Billy Zane) does: an otherwise benevolent person suddenly has memories of committing horrible acts. This is not a slasher movie or home invasion movie. There's the issue of what has been hidden. Parts of the movie did trick me a little bit, and I found it to be a pretty clever flick. It's not frightening or anything, but I liked how they laid everything out.

OK, so we could be cynical and say that this is a totally improbable story. So what? The movie is understood to be improbable. I still say that it's a very clever plot. Above all, it's great to see Dennis Hopper (RIP) and Ann-Margret still playing such interesting roles. Worth seeing.

(2007) Memory MYSTERY THRILLER

Despite the happy ending, it's hard to recommend a movie for being incomplete. There's a reason why authors shouldn't be allowed to adapt their own books into movies for this is a prime example about what can happened to a premise that could've been interesting. The movie stars Billy Zane as Taylor Briggs who has just infected himself with some red powder, but it's really red sand. And he's also an expert on Alzheimer's because of his mother since he figures that it's hereditary. As a result of touching some red sand, he starts to somehow relive on a hallucination involving an abduction of a little girl during the year he was born which was back in 1971. And as a result of frequent dreams like it, he then asks his friend who's a neurologist for his help since he suspects that theirs a connection. Now, the revelations as well as the ideas are intriguing but the payoff is bland leaving viewers with more questions than it gets any answers such as how much involvement is the Dennis Hopper character. And what about the Billy Zane's character's health since it's labelled as toxic., like since when do hospitals discard toxic sand into regular garbage cans! You know, if this film was remade again, I would go and watch it since all it needs is a lot of patching up, but for now we are stuck with this mediocre effort.