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Words That Built America
Director: Alexandra Pelosi
Screenplay: The Founding Fathers
Starring: Donald Trump, Meryl Streep
This July 4th special features a bunch of celebrities reading the Declaration of Independence, including Donald Trump. If you love a good parade of irony, then this will no doubt be for you!
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Tour De Pharmacy
Director: Jake Szymanski
Screenplay: Murray Miller
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Kevin Bacon
This HBO original is a mockumentary look at the juiced-up world of competitive cycling. It features Lance Armstrong in a minor role so obviously he’s not taking the doping thing too seriously.
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The Defiant Ones
Director: Allen Hughes
Screenplay: Allen Hughes
Starring: Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre
The four-part documentary tells the story of record industry wunderkind Jimmy Iovine and his time working with Dr. Dre—a relationship that leads to landmark albums, which shape contemporary culture as a whole.
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Watchmen
Director: Zack Snyder
Screenplay: David Hayter, Alex Tse
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley
For such a complex and dense graphic novel as the Watchmen, it was always going to be difficult to bring it to the big screen, but Zack Snyder did an admirable job. This is despite the fact that creator Alan Moore completely crapped on it. Leftovers writer Damon Lindeloff is bringing Watchmen back as an HBO original series so get learned up on the source material.
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Ballers, Season 3
Created By: Stephen Levinson
Producers: Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Rob Corddry
If you’ve been to a frat party in the last three years, you’ve probably heard someone talk about Ballers. If not, then you might not know that it stars the Rock and it’s about sports agents.
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Insecure, Season 2
Created By: Issa Rae, Larry Wilmore
Producers: Issa Rae, Prentice Penny
Starring: Issa Rae, Jay Ellis
Based on the mega-popular web series Awkward Black Girl, Insecure returns for its second hilarious season.
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Room 104, Series Premiere
Created By: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Starring: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
After the untimely cancelling of their fantastic HBO series, Togetherness, the Duplass Brothers return with an anthology comedy series set in a motel. Hopefully, this one will last longer than two seasons.
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Loving
Director: Jeff Nichols
Screenplay: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga
The true story of Loving vs. Virginia, the case that contested and ultimately dismantled laws against interracial marriage in America.
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Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Director: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone
Screenplay: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg
Starring: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg
We thought it was understood that the Lonely Island would just kind of go away after, like, 2010 as their brand of comedy had petered out and been replaced by the more absurdist stylings of Wareheim, Heidecker, Andre and Buress, but, nevertheless, here they are. Actually, the movie isn’t all that bad and kind of makes you harken for the simpler time of the early aughts.
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Hacksaw Ridge
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenplay: Robert Schenkkan, Andrew Knight
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington
Honestly, it’s surprising that Mel Gibson was welcomed back into the folds of Hollywood after he’d been caught on audio being openly racist, sexist and anti-Semitic. It just goes to show you that money and everything else walks. Of course, this movie looks like one of those fake films you’d see on the show Entourage it’s so incredibly by-the-numbers.
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The Blair Witch Project
Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez
Screenplay: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard
We don’t care what you say, this movie was a damn revolution. Even during that scene where the girl shoves the camera up her snotty nose, we were on board. And it’s still scary after all these years.
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Born on the Fourth of July
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenplay: Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick
If there’s anybody you know who hates Tom Cruise, tell them to watch this movie because it’s probably one of his best roles. It’s the second in Stone’s “Vietnam” trilogy and might be the highlight.
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The Dark Knight
Director: Christopher Nolan
Screenplay: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger
What can be said of this movie that hasn’t already been said? It’s not just a super hero film, it’s a damn masterpiece.
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Minority Report
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell
We got a lot of Cruise movies on this list, as it seems HBO is doubling down on its July “Cruise Control.” In this one, Cruise has to stop a crime before it can be committed with the help of a psychic who can see crimes before they can be committed. It’s a pretty good movie, trust us.
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Mission: Impossible II
Director: John Woo
Screenplay: Robert Towne
Starring: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton
That’s right, it’s Cruise again and he’s out there saving somebody from something.
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Mr. Deeds
Director: Steven Brill
Screenplay: Tim Herlihy
Starring: Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder
Sandler gets a lot of flack for his movies and some of them are pretty bad. Mr. Deeds has heart, laughs and John Turturro being unsurprisingly hilarious.
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Platoon
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenplay: Oliver Stone
Starring: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger
When he was a younger man, Stone actually requested combat duty in Vietnam and remains a decorated veteran. Dude was more than just an artist. This is the first and most lauded in Stone’s “Vietnam Trilogy.”
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Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Director: Mel Brooks
Screenplay: Mel Brooks, Evan Chandler, J. David Shapiro
Starring: Cary Elwes, Dave Chappelle
It wasn’t the highest grossing of Mel Brooks’ films and it wasn’t the best either, but it’s got some of the most memorable moments and songs. It also receives bonus points for being Dave Chappelle’s first featured role in a film.
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Thirteen
Director: Catharine Hardwicke
Screenplay: Catharine Hardwicke, Nikki Reed
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed
This semi-autobiographical movie was written by the then-thirteen year old Nikki Reed. The movie was released in 2003, when movies about bored suburban teens were all the rage.
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Game of Thrones, Season 7 Premiere
Created By: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Producers: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey
Ultimately, none of this other stuff matters because Game of Thrones returns for the first part of its final season July 16th. This country (world?) needs some escapism right now and there’s no better cure than swords and sorcerers. The war for the Seven Kingdoms is coming and it’s going to be bloody as hell and, by the look of the trailers, everything is either going to be on fire or frozen solid.
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