"I don't like his other work; I think its shallow and badly written. I mean, I've got kids who like superheroes, and they think the Batman films are boring and pretentious. They like things like The Avengers and Iron Man because they're fun."

"Much like the once wide-eyed Captain, I felt a little manipulated. Had I known those whiz-bang scenes from The Avengers were supposed to have more heft, I may have approached them differently as I was strapping that feed bag of popcorn to my face. I would have looked for more pathos in the Hulk flinging Loki around like a rag doll and muttering “puny God.” Perhaps it was less of a laugh line and more of a comment about fundamentalist religion’s unsuitability with liberty-loving New York. Which means I don't even want to think about that shawarma gag!"

"So the Chitauri were Al-Qaeda? O.K., good to know. A suspicion I had during Iron Man 3 was confirmed during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (by which we mean the movies starring Marvel comic-book characters that aren't distributed by Sony or 20th Century Fox) has decided to go back and reposition the big battle from Marvel’s The Avengers as its 9/11. On the one hand, this is a “no duh” observation—at the end of The Avengers, New York was blown to smithereens. But the tenor in which Joss Whedon shot and cut the lengthy third act sequence was so zippy and fun that it seemed as if Marvel was “taking back” the iconography of New York’s destruction, from both the terrorists and real life. The key image from Avengers is an adulatory 360-degree swoop of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes assembled in full flex before the sturdy columns of Grand Central. It is not “Falling Man.”"

"Haley Peel - Dot Polkadots"

"Five buddies, one butler, and a dog on an adventure so big... Even the world's richest kid can't afford to miss it."

"Without the inventions, the butler, and the private fast-food restaurant...he's just a normal 12-year-old billionaire."

"[Last words in the film] Aren't you gonna throw it back?"

"[Last words in the film] Hey, screw. Fetch."

"[to Ferguson] Not me, you imbecile, them!"

"[Annoyed with his chauffeur after stepping out of his limo and into a puddle] 37-and-a-half miles of driveway, and you park in the 5 feet with a puddle!"

"If I had my choice of weapons with you, Sir, I'd choose grammar."

"Not so fast!"

"Well... I'm already wanted for attempted murder, escaping from jail, and blowing up an aircraft. Breaking and entering sounds right up my alley. Let's kick some butt, shall we?"

"[After the laser gun has destroyed her nose on Mount Richmore] Oh, my God! My nose! I look like Michael Jackson!"

"Mr. Van Dough, you're fired!"

"Samuel L. Jackson – Nick Fury"

"Cobie Smulders – Maria Hill"

"Clark Gregg – Phil Coulson"

"Tom Hiddleston – Loki"

"Jeremy Renner – Clint Barton / Hawkeye"

"Scarlett Johansson – Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow"

"Chris Hemsworth – Thor"

"Throw down the hammer."

"Every team needs a Captain."

"Some assembly required."

"Avengers Assemble!"

"The Avengers, which last week enjoyed the biggest North American opening in history, recasts 9/11 in the Bush years' dominant movie mode, namely the comic book superhero spectacular – albeit with a heavy dose of irony and added stereoscopic depth. But more fundamentally, The Avengers demonstrates how completely 9/11 has been superseded by another catastrophe, namely the financial meltdown of September 2008. To the extent that the movie has any sort of social content (or any content), it offers a flattering view of America's best as a group of eccentric individualists bamboozled into saving the world (economy) by the unflappable Samuel L Jackson's black dude of mystery. But even this Obama-iste reading is a bit of a stretch. The medium is the message. Hollywood felt threatened by 9/11 in 2001 but impervious to financial disaster in 2008. Three days after Lehman Brothers went bust, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg assured investors that movies were "recession-proof". Of course, the industry did not allow for the simultaneous erosion of the DVD market and the public's discretionary income. The Avengers has less to do with the terror of falling buildings than falling grosses. The palliative for that goes by the name 3D. Bombs away: The Avengers is 9/11 as you've never seen it!"

"Thora Birch – Enid"

"They're high school graduates, and the world's got hell to pay!"

"Accentuate the negative."

"Steve Buscemi – Seymour"

"Illeana Douglas – Roberta Allsworth"

"Brad Renfro – Josh"

"Scarlett Johansson – Rebecca"

"They're coming back! They're coming back!"

"Brendan Wayne as Deputy Lyle"

"Raoul Trujillo as Chiricahua Apache chief, Black Knife"

"David O'Hara as Pat Dolan, Longeran's former gang member"

"Julio Cesar Cedillo as Bronc, a bandit"

"Walton Goggins as Hunt, a bandit"

"Ana de la Reguera as María, Doc's wife"

"Abigail Spencer as Alice, Jake's lost love"

"Adam Beach as Nat Colorado, Colonel Dolarhyde's right-hand man"

"Keith Carradine as Sheriff John Taggart"

"Clancy Brown as Meacham, a plain-spoken preacher"

"Paul Dano as Percy Dolarhyde, Woodrow's cowardly son"

"Noah Ringer as Emmett Taggart, grandson of John Taggart"