The Purge: Anarchy

Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Zoe Soul, Justina Machado, John Beasley, Michael Kenneth Williams, Edwin Hodge, Noel Gugliemi
Directed by: James DeMonaco
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two groups of people are trapped outside during Purge night, and are saved by a mysterious man (Frank Grillo) who is seeking revenge.

Review:

Tim: The Purge: Anarchy is actually a very, very unique movie. The original Purge film had a great idea, but director James DeMonaco botched the execution of it. So, this film follows a disappointing film that didn't live up to its potential. The same director (who also wrote both movies) comes back to direct. And, this sequel has lost all of its biggest stars and they were replaced with B-listers at best. I've seen over 2,700 movies and this my friends is a recipe for disaster. And yet, DeMonaco pulls off a stunner- The Purge: Anarchy isn't just better than the first film, it's actually a good movie in its own right. I did not see this coming.

The idea of all crime being legal one night a year is a great one and there's so much cinematic potential. This sequel had the brilliant tactic of getting the film outside. The original movie took a brilliant idea and gave us a glorified home invasion movie. By moving the action outside, everything gets better. The movie is more intense, more suspenseful, more exciting. It also served to really differentiate this movie- this isn't the same thing all over again. It was also absolutely the right call to jettison the original cast (except for maybe one brief appearance). The original cast was disappointing.

I'm sure it must have made someone nervous to switch out Ethan Hawke for Frank Grillo- on paper, that's a drop in quality. Surprisingly, though, Grillo is far more effective and enjoyable than Hawke was in the first film. Grillo's star is on the rise and I expect huge things from him. He could have phoned this performance in, but he really gives a very strong, memorable performance. He took a cliched, paper-thin character and made him much more than that. I loved seeing him on screen and wouldn't mind a return of this character in a future film. Outside of Grillo (who's really the best part of this film), no one else in the cast is remarkable. That's usually a really bad sign, but while no one gives a great performance, everyone is solid. They give performances just good enough not to detract from the movie. This is pretty rare when you have a bunch of unknown or barely recognizable actors. For some inexplicable reason, it just works.

I also really enjoyed how this film opened up the world and expanded the mythology a bit. While some of it seemed a little cliched for these future-set movies, there's a lot of interesting potential and a number of different places for future sequels to go.

DeMonaco did a good job of staging some intense sequences. There wasn't really any one scene that was incredible (the movie really needed one showstopping sequence), but most of the scenes kept up that sense of uncomfortable dread that something bad was about to happen. A few scenes are a bit too predictable, but there were some nice surprises thrown in along the way. The ending of the film was a little cliched and convenient, but it was fine for the most part.

I want to be clear that The Purge: Anarchy isn't a great movie. It's still very flawed. However, it is a major step in the right direction. It's pretty rare for the same writer/director to turn a series around in only one film, but DeMonaco obviously learned a lot from the first film. This is only his 3rd film, but he made a remarkable turnaround from his 2nd. I'm kind of shocked to be saying this, but I'm really, really interested to see where they take the third film. Things could always revert, but if they just maintain this level of quality, I'd look forward to Purge movies for years to come.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Purge, Funny Games, Panic Room