In the dystopian future of 2000, fatal hit-and-runs are no longer a crime, but the national spectator sport. Frankenstein (David Carradine) is the fan-favorite and is joined by his new navigator, Annie (Simone Griffeth). Frankenstein's arch nemesis, Joe "Machine Gun" Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone) will stop at nothing to win this year's race. Along with three other teams of racers, the two battle it out in the cross-country race, all the while trying to run-down any innocent people to score the most points.

• Release Year: 1975
• Genre: Wildcard
• Starring: David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, and Simone Griffeth.
• Trailer
• Summary: In a dystopian future, a cross country automobile race requires contestants to run down innocent pedestrians to gain points that are tallied based on each kill's brutality.

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In 1996 Los Angeles, psychopathic criminal Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) has taken 30 hostages inside an abandoned building and it is up to police sergeant John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) to save the day. But before Spartan can get his man, Phoenix detonates the building, presumably killing the hostages. Phoenix is captured, but at the same time, Spartan is charged with manslaughter. Both are sentenced to an experimental new form of rehabilitation: cryogenically frozen while being exposed to subliminal messages.

Decades later, with help from an unknown source, Phoenix is unthawed, breaks out of prison, and begins to run amok. The newly formed city, now known as San Angeles, is strikingly different and is a society in which pacifism and docility is strictly enforced, so much so that the police now have zero experience with violent criminals. The San Angeles police chief approves the unthawing of John Spartan with the orders to stop Phoenix once and for all.

Demolition Man isn't a great, or even good movie, but the script contains some eliminates of thought with its social commentary. Snipes' outlandishly played Phoenix character is a scene stealer. The film isn't all kicks and punches, though, as its witty one-liners have its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

• Release Year: 1993
• Genre: Action
• Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Sandra Bullock.
• Trailer
• Summary: A police officer is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis who is loose in a non-violent future society.

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Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro) and Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) have been friends since they were little kids. For as long as Marty can remember, Bobby has picked on him; punching him, ordering him around, making him do things he doesn't want to do. The two meet Ali (Bijou Phillips) and Lisa (Rachel Minder). Marty and Lisa fall in love, but Bobby eventually rapes both of the girls, which proves to be the last straw of Bobby's bullying. With the help of several other friends, the trio decide that killing Bobby would be the best way to enact their revenge.

Bully is based off the book "Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge" by Jim Schutze, which in itself, is based off the real-life events in 1993 of the teens who lived in Hollywood, Florida. The events depicted are raw and edgy because the film stays very close to the source material. The murder scene is arguably the best scene in the movie as it shows how kids, unacquainted with this sort of action, would react when trying to knock someone off. Murder is hard, messy work, and the teens immediately devolve into arguments and finger-pointing.

• Release Year: 2001
• Genre: Crime
• Starring: Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, and Bijou Phillips.
• Trailer
• Summary: A pack of naïve teenagers conspire to murder a mutual friend, whose aggressive demeanor has proved too much.

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When baby Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is born to her loving parents, so are her emotion: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). The emotions live and work at Headquarters, the part of Riley's brain that experiences feelings and makes memories. The quintet helps Riley grow up to 11-years-old, but everything changes when Riley's father gets a new job and the family are forced to move to San Francisco. As Riley tries to cope with a new house, new school, and her parents' increased stress, so too do her emotions. Riley's feelings about her situation create catastrophic events in her mind. Can Joy and the other emotions get a grip and help keep Riley from falling to pieces?

Inside Out is a creative and refreshing animated film that is targeted toward children but has the heart and enough emotional string-pulling for adults of all ages. It avoids a lot of cliched visuals and storytelling beats that make even the best Pixar movies feel too alike one another.

It is the first (and maybe only) Pixar film to not have an antagonistic character. The script initially seems as if it's favoring Joy's choices in Riley's life, but we soon realize Sadness has just as much value to contribute. The filmmakers do a great job with how they present depression: so subtly but unmistakably that it never has to label it as depression.

• Release Year: 2015
• Genre: Animation
• Starring: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, and Lewis Black.
• Trailer
• Summary: After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.

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In The Patriot, America is on the cusp of the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is a widowed, peaceful farmer who is left to care for his seven children. He is hesitant to go to war with Britain because of his own past life as a soldier, but also for the safety of his children. Benjamin's 18-year-old son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), sees his father's hesitancy as an act of cowardice and joins the war effort against his father's wishes. The war wages closer to the Martin household, where British Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) shoots and kills Benjamin's second eldest son, Thomas. What follows is a revenge story for the ages.

The Patriot isn't perfect, but it is rousing and very entertaining. The score was created by the legendary John Williams, and if you pay close attention, some "Jurassic Park" seems to come out a little. The cinematography is well done, with beautiful hillside landscapes juxtaposed with war-torn battlefields. However, the theatrical cut of the film comes in at a whopping two- hours and forty-five-minutes long and seems longer than it really is because about a third of it takes place in slow motion. There are far too many shots that are slowed down in post, which causes jittering frame rates, then needs to be.

• Release Year: 2000
• Genre: War
• Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, and Joely Richardson.
• Trailer
• Summary: Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.

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Former lawman, Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), along with his brothers Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliott), decide to retire in the growing town of Tombstone, Arizona. They are greeted by Wyatt's life-long friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), a famous gunslinger slowly dying of tuberculosis. Unbeknownst to them, a band of violent criminals known as The Cowboys start causing trouble and it isn't long before the Earps realize that they must once again take up their guns to keep the peace.

What begins as a simple story of frontier ambition and romance between Wyatt and Josephine, quickly devolves into an action-packed story of justice and revenge.

Tombstone is a an epic, character-driven slow-building outlaw western. The main cast give great performances, especially Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, who not only provides one of the most iconic portrayals of the famous gunman, but also provides some subtle comedic relief. Powers Booth, too, lights up the screen as the charismatic gang leader, Curly Bill.

Tombstone does have its moments of absurdity, though, like the seemingly pointless inclusion of Billy Zane's character, Mr. Fabian, and some of Kurt Russell's more campy lines.

Tombstone is incredibly entertaining, but let's face it, it's Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday that really sets it apart from the rest.

• Release Year: 1993
• Genre: Western
• Starring: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, and Sam Elliott.
• Trailer
• Summary: A successful lawman’s plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.

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After her father's suicide, super-smart archeologist, Scarlett (Perdita Weeks), is trying to pick up where he left off and track down the elusive Philosopher's Stone, a legendary item that can turn ordinary metals into silver or gold. With her life-long friend George (Ben Feldman) and documentarian Benji (Edwin Hodge) in tow, she enlists a group of urban explorers to guide them through Paris' twisting labyrinth of underground tunnels.

"As Above, So Below" is your typical found-footage film written and directed by John Erick Dowdle (Devil, Quarantine). The film has some interesting moments and ideas, but they are clouded by the found-footage genre's predictable jump-scares and nausea-inducing viewing experience. The main character, Scarlett, is as if Indiana Jones and Lara Croft had a baby; she seemingly knows everything about everything in regards to history, ancient cultures, languages, mythology, and much more. Even Indiana Jones had to crack open a book every once in a while.

• Release Year: 2014
• Genre: Horror
• Starring: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, and Edwin Hodge.
• Trailer
• Summary: When a team of explorers ventures into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.

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In 1944, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez) is charged with finding and eliminating a group of rebels in the Spanish forest. He moves in his new wife, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), who is in the late stages of pregnancy with his male heir, and her 11-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero).

Ofelia encounters a faun (Doug Jones) who informs her she is a princess of the underworld and she must complete three tasks to return to her father, the king, and take her rightful place upon the throne.

"Pan's Labyrinth" is a Spanish-speaking film with subtitles, but don't let that deter you, as the film is visually stunning. Writer/director Guillermo del Torro is a master storyteller, which is all too apparent in how he develops the characters and provides them all, big or small, with excellent and believable motivators. With the help of the writing, Lopez is able to create a complex bad guy that you love to hate.

• Release Year: 2006
• Genre: Fantasy
• Starring: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, and Sergi Lopez.
• Trailer
• Summary: In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

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Vincent Hannah (Al Pacino) is a detective that has been tracking Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), a leader of a crew of professional thieves.

The trailers and advertisements leading up to the release of Michael Mann's "Heat" emphasized the fact that this is the first film where Pacino and De Niro would face-off with one another. Both actors were in "The Godfather: Part II," however they were never on screen together as the narrative is told. "Heat" delivers on those trailer promises. The scenes where the two juggernaut actors are face-to-face are tense and electrifying.

The thieves essentially have all the money they need, but a new score arises that is too good to resist. McCauley's own policy is never to get involved in anything the can't drop within 30 seconds flat. But through the course of the movie, he falls in love with Eady (Amy Brenneman). When the police close in, will McCauley be true to his creed?

• Release Year: 1995
• Genre: Crime
• Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Val Kilmer.
• Trailer
• Summary: A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.

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Peter Berg, a veteran actor turned writer-director, brings us Lone Survivor, a true story about a group of four Navy SEALs sent to Afghanistan to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. After a grueling five-day long fight with the Taliban, the only surviving member of the team is Marcus Luttrell, who is seriously wounded, but is miraculously saved by Mohammad Gulab, an Afghani citizen of a nearby town. Gulab and the rest of the townsfolk protect Luttrell and ward of the Taliban onslaught.

Like his other films Patriots Day and The Kingdom, Berg's passion and respect for military personnel clearly shines through from beginning to end. The sound mixing and design is top-notch. So much so that the audience psychologically feels every flesh-penetrating bullet.

Unfortunately, the film drinks a little too much of its own patriotic Kool-Aid and doesn't deliver enough character development, which makes the action feel somewhat empty.

• Release Year: 2013
• Genre: Action, Drama, War
• Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, and Emile Hirsch.
• Trailer
• Summary: Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.
• Commissioned By: Brian C.

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