The Purge: Anarchy sees the second take on the pretty original concept of human beings being able to cleanse their souls, by wreaking havoc on the world, and maybe killing somebody. In the first movie, we got an extremely unoriginal home invasion movie, that I hated with a passion. Why waste a great concept on such a cliche scenario? This time around, writer/director James DeMonaco listened to the audience, and wrote a movie that had to do with the actual Purge, and not a silly home invasion horror movie. So we see Frank Grillo as our main character, who decides to Purge, but then finds himself being the hero through a night of terror.
I thought going into this movie, I was going to loathe it like the first one. Turns out: I was wrong. This movie is actually decent, because it actually has to do with the Purge, and it seems that DeMonaco decided to step away from trying to make a horror movie, and made it an action-thriller instead. It works a lot better, but his directing is still very sloppy and lazy, so don’t think this is going to something to rush out and see.
I liked Frank Grillo’s character, just like I liked Ethan Hawke’s character in the first. Sad reality is, DeMonaco gives his main character all the logic, leaving straight stupidity to the rest of the characters. I knew that was going to be the case, but come on dude; let’s not bring on the shaky cam when action is happening on screen.
The Purge: Anarchy isn’t a movie that you absolutely have to see, but if you want to, do it. Otherwise just wait for it to come out on video, and have yourself a Redbox or Netflix night. Check out my video review below to hear me talk more about it. Let me know if you saw it and what you thought about it.