Gladiator

I have a history of not liking Ridley Scott movies, and there's nothing in Gladiator for me. The time period reminded me of Titus (the Anthony Hopkins movie, not the comedian). I’d recommend watching that instead.

Gladiator came out the same year as Snatch. I guess I'm on an old movie kick. Like Snatch, I saw Gladiator back then, but I had completely forgotten all of it, and for some reason, I never saw the ending of Gladiator. It's widely regarded as a good movie, I guess. One of the people I was watching it with kept saying "this is such a good movie" during it, but I didn't share that sentiment. I think I'm pretty safe in saying I just don't like Ridley Scott's movies.

The opening fight scene reminded me of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. I guess Gladiator came out first, so it should be the other way around. It's not a very feminist movie. There's not really anything for women to identify with or like.

Her

"Her" kind of gets more interesting when you reflect on it. The relationship stuff is slightly profound, although it does mostly just make you think again about things you already knew or realized. It's cool to see an imagining of the near future and the evolution of AI, though.

I'm a bit late to the game on "Her," but I wasn't really interested in it. Everyone kept saying it was good, though, so I checked it out. I do like Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure what everyone's doing with the Chester mustache and the super high pants in this movie. I guess it makes sense – the wardrobe as a whole is kind of futuristic and at the same time reminiscent of the past, and fashion always references the past.

There are a lot of good quotes in the movie. Although I couldn't hear half of it, so I'd probably have a better feel for it if I had been able to. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves" is a good one. It is true. Nothing's objective; you never really know what other people's feelings or motives were. I read something once that said every time you remember something, you're actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, so the memories you think of the most are actually the least accurate.

And specifically Samantha was referring to how something Theodore said about her made her feel, which means she was actually talking about "our perceptions of ourselves are a story we tell ourselves," which is also true. I've always thought that you create your own reality, though.

Inherent Vice

 Inherent Vice is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Josh Brolin, Joaquin, and Benicio all give standout performances. It's definitely confusing, it does drag on a bit, and the ending isn't completely perfect, but the humor is so refreshing and spot-on that I'm giving it 4.5/5.
Inherent Vice looked interesting from the trailer. I don't remember what Roeper said about it, but he gave it a B, so I guess he didn't hate it. I think Chris liked it more after thinking about it than he did right after he saw it. All that put together, and I still wanted to give it a shot, but I went in prepared to just enjoy the ride and not have everything wrapped up at the end.

I was surprised by how funny it was. It's subtle humor; they don't beat you over the head with it, but it's good. I'd say it's the funniest movie I've seen in a year, so that should count for something. I love that they shot it on actual film. It looks amazing; it has character without looking dated - although since it is set in the 70s, you could probably allow some dated-ness leeway. I liked how most of the women didn't look like they were wearing makeup. They all looked clean and natural. I'm sure they were wearing some makeup, but it just wasn't over-the-top like usual.

The Village

I would've liked to've seen this without knowing the ending ahead of time.

Walk the Line