A vengeful father comes to the aid of a mother, her teenage daughter, and a defenseless young couple on the one night of the year that all crime, including murder, is legal in this self-contained sequel from producer Jason Blum and original writer/director James DeMonaco. This unlikely group must stick together in order to survive the night. But little do they realize that their nightmare has only just begun. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director: James DeMonaco
Cast: Frank Grillo, Kiele Sanchez, Michael K. Williams,
Zach Gilford, Carmen Ejogo
Release Date: Jul
18, 2014
Rated: R for Strong Disturbing Violence and Language
Runtime: 1 hr. 43 min.
Genres: Horror, Suspense/Thriller
Review:
The Purge was a solid film with a nice little premise which
it never really expanded on, instead just turning it into a standard home
invasion thriller. There was plenty of
meat on the idea to explore which was left untouched by the original so I was
looking forward to a sequel but worried it’d miss the point of it all. The Purge: Anarchy is actually a nice
surprise even if the message is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. The story smartly gives us 3 storylines to
follow which converge rather quickly. It’s
enough to give us a feel for the world at play and some of the ideas
extrapolated out stretching the not so subtle metaphor out and expanding the
mythos. The characters outside of Frank
Grillo’s, delivering a grizzled Punisher like performance, man out for vengeance are rather bland but
they’re there to serve a purpose. We are
given a Warriors like trek through the anarchy like streets during Purge
night. At its core, the sequel feels a
lot like some of the wonderfully ham fisted exploitation message movies from
the 70’s and 80’s which isn’t a bad thing.
B-
