The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
** (out of 4)
A mysterious man (Frank Grillo) comes to the aid of a husband-wife and mother-daughter who find themselves in the streets with the annual purge begins. The man agrees to take the four to safety but there's something that has him out for his own gain. THE PURGE: ANARCHY is certainly better than the first film but when all is said and done, that really doesn't mean too much. As with the first film, this sequel has some interesting ideas but sadly the screenplay by writer-director James DeMonaco just has too many unanswered questions and in fact I'd say the entire film is rather sloppy. It seems there's never any clear idea of what anyone is trying to do. At times we're just treated to graphic violence. At other times there's a political commentary going on and I think this is where the film just gets a bit too laughable. In fact, the rich vs. poor angle just doesn't work at all and in fact it had me rolling my eyes several times. Another problem is that we really don't care about any of the five characters so there's never any tension to whether they live or die. If you can't connect with the characters then there's really no point to anything we're watching. This film pretty much turns out to be a knock off of a DEATH WISH type of film but I'll at least give it some credit for trying something a tad bit different than the original movie. The producers simply could have given us a remake of the first but instead they did do something different. The performances are decent for the most part but Grillo's "silent" performance can't match someone like Bronson. Still, THE PURGE: ANARCHY certainly isn't the worst movie out there but perhaps the third time will be the charm.
** (out of 4)
A mysterious man (Frank Grillo) comes to the aid of a husband-wife and mother-daughter who find themselves in the streets with the annual purge begins. The man agrees to take the four to safety but there's something that has him out for his own gain. THE PURGE: ANARCHY is certainly better than the first film but when all is said and done, that really doesn't mean too much. As with the first film, this sequel has some interesting ideas but sadly the screenplay by writer-director James DeMonaco just has too many unanswered questions and in fact I'd say the entire film is rather sloppy. It seems there's never any clear idea of what anyone is trying to do. At times we're just treated to graphic violence. At other times there's a political commentary going on and I think this is where the film just gets a bit too laughable. In fact, the rich vs. poor angle just doesn't work at all and in fact it had me rolling my eyes several times. Another problem is that we really don't care about any of the five characters so there's never any tension to whether they live or die. If you can't connect with the characters then there's really no point to anything we're watching. This film pretty much turns out to be a knock off of a DEATH WISH type of film but I'll at least give it some credit for trying something a tad bit different than the original movie. The producers simply could have given us a remake of the first but instead they did do something different. The performances are decent for the most part but Grillo's "silent" performance can't match someone like Bronson. Still, THE PURGE: ANARCHY certainly isn't the worst movie out there but perhaps the third time will be the charm.