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Saturday, July 19, 2014

MOVIE REVIEW: THE PURGE: ANARCHY







































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-


6 comments:

  1. Frank Grillo really should have played the Punisher. He was a cool tough guy in The Winter Soldier as Crossbones. As for the Purge, I have not seen the original, so I am not particularly interested in seeing this though.

    -James

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    1. Frank Grillo would have been a perfect Punisher pretty much was I I was thinking the whole time when I was watching this.

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  2. haha like a sledgehammer indeed, but i preferred the first film. this one was a little too scattered to me. i did love frank grillo too, and much of the horror suspense.

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    1. Very much so. I liked the first one but really liked how this took us out on the night to see what was happening during this madness.

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  3. Fully agree with your review. Compared to the first part which I didn't like at all, this was a stunning surprise and gave me one helluva time at the theater.

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    1. Nice surprise for me too, really much better than expected.

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