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“Commencing at the siren, any and all crime — up to and including murder — will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Blessed be our new Founding Fathers and America, a nation reborn.”

You know writer-director James DeMonaco has a killer concept on his hands because the plot for this movie is simultaneously outlandish and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, The Purge ends up being a prime example of when bad movies happen to great ideas.
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“Any of this feeling familiar to you?”

Remember how everybody was really excited to see some of their favorite superheroes — plus Hawkeye (I kid, I kid) — in the same movie last summer? Well, I feel compelled to point out a different group of muscle-bound misfits actually beat The Avengers to the finish line by more than a year. Fast Five, released in April 2011, featured characters from each of the previous four Fast & Furious entries and, not coincidentally, easily became the biggest hit in the action franchise. So getting the gang back together for another round of motor-based mayhem was — much like these movies — a no-brainer.
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I still remember reading “The Great Gatsby” in my high school English class and dissecting its many themes, including the corruption of the American Dream. “One day, someone should make this into a big-budget 3D movie,” said Absolutely No One. When this project was first announced, it seemed more like a commercial parody on Saturday Night Live than a real movie. I mean, what other high school English staple was Hollywood going to co-opt next? Maybe next summer will bring To Kill a Mockingbird: Die Mockingbird Die! (in IMAX 3D, of course).
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It’s easy to forget how important it was for 2008’s Iron Man to be great. After all, the film was only asked to A.) properly introduce a B-list comic hero to the movie-going masses and B.) successfully kick off what turned out to be Phase One of Marvel’s March Toward Global Domination Cinematic Universe. “Good” would’ve been a letdown; Iron Man needed to be great. Fortunately, it delivered in spades; its critical and commercial success paved the way for an unprecedented run of films that culminated with The Avengers last summer. With a release date for the Avengers sequel already on the horizon, Tony Stark and Co. have once again been asked to set the tone.
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People have used a lot of different words to describe Michael Bay and his films: “loud”, “blockbusters”, “mindless”, “soulless”, “Hitler” and, of course, “awesome.” One of the words you don’t normally associate with Bay’s undeniably successful output is “clever.” I daresay Pain & Gain is the most interesting movie the action auteur has ever made; the film is both seriously silly and surprisingly smart in how it presents its stupid characters.
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“You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back — and I’ll give you the guts.”

More than any sport, baseball is all about numbers. Unfortunately, some of those numbers — like 73 (home runs in a single season) and 500 (career homers) — mean a little less in light of the steroid era. Others, like 56 (Joe DiMaggio’s legendary hitting streak), seem destined to live on forever. The most significant number on that shortlist might be 42, worn by Jackie Robinson when he broke Major League Baseball’s color line on April 15, 1947. 42 — the film, not the number — is significant for a somewhat surprising reason.
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