التطهير: الفوضى

The concept of the movie is interesting and would have made a good movie. The way they went about it as a political statement and how the "rich white people" want to get rid of the poor and minorities is just more liberal garbage. When they weren't entrenched in that nonsense the movie was entertaining, but mocking the conservative movement and painting them as racists by repeating "the new founding fathers" 100 times makes anyone with a brain want to pull their hair out. I bought the "purge bundle" on iTunes and the first one was okay except for it's mostly veiled references to political message of "rich white people are preying on the poor and minorities". This second one just jumped head first into that garbage. I think my favorite part was the iTunes "extras" which was a behind the scenes look consisting mostly of, you guessed it, rich white guys talking about how "other" rich white guys want to purge the poor and how that's where "society is headed" and is currently "not far from that right now". Funny how the rich white Hollywood types don't include themselves in the problem of income inequality. It's always the "other" rich white folks. Why does Hollywood strive so hard to keep racism and class warfare alive? I'm amazed that I lasted until the end of this movie. I wanted to turn it off several times, but then it would veer away from it's political message and be interesting on its own merits. They should have stuck with making a movie that entertains you and avoided trying to become the voice of the "other" white peoples' conscience. I wish I hadn't paid $20 for the bundle but I'm sure the studio and other benefactors (e.g. rich white guys) of the movie will donate it all to the poor. After all, Frank Grillo, who commented in the extras about income inequality, donated his salary from the movie, didn't he? I'm sure they practice what they preach. Now I will "purge" this from my iTunes library.

"The unwritten Purge rule: don't save lives. Tonight we take lives. We make things manageable." James DeMonaco returns as the director and writer of the sequel to his 2013 film, The Purge. My expectations for this sequel were extremely low because I didn't like The Purge and thought the premise was ridiculous, but if you enjoyed the first film then you will definitely like this one. I'd like to begin my review by focusing on what did work for this sequel before I get to its weaknesses. First of all, The Purge: Anarchy is a huge improvement over its predecessor. While the first film followed the conventions of a home invasion horror film, this sequel takes the original premise and establishes the action in a much wider setting. It doesn't set out to repeat the same things from its predecessor. This sequel takes us to the streets where we can see how the purge takes place out in the open where the danger is eminent. Considering that the characters were the least interesting part of The Purge, this time the story doesn't center on one family, but gives us three different story lines and later brings them together. This makes up for the lack of character development in the film and allows for the movie to be more entertaining. It is a B picture that gives its target audience what they are looking for. The second positive thing this sequel has going for it is the lead performance from Frank Grillo. He delivers as a smooth action star despite the weaknesses of the screenplay. He is the only engaging character in the entire franchise. Despite that The Purge Anarchy is much better than its predecessor, it still is a flawed film full of horror clichés and unimaginative characters. The film relies on jump scares that never work. All it seemed to be doing at times was suddenly turning up the volume when things were quiet in order to shock or unsettle its audience. The characters never seem to make smart decisions and they all rely on Grillo's lead performance. With all the horrible crimes he drives through during his purge mission, we never quite understand why he would care for these two particular characters he stops for in order to save them. It was simply an easy way to reunite the different story lines, but I didn't find anything unique in that mother and daughter relationship that he would be interested in assisting. Its not like he was painted as a saint during the opening scenes where he drove past several people crying out for help. The sequel also tries to be an interesting parody of our society and a slick social commentary, but it isn't really as smart as it thinks it is. Every time I heard the phrase our "new founding fathers" my ears bled and I couldn't help but finding it silly. The film also is heavy handed on its rich versus poor commentary, and it is something we see often in adaptations from YA books. The villains never post a significant threat either, but Grillo elevates the source material with his smooth performance. The rest of the characters I couldn't really care less for.

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.