The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
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The Purge: Anarchy Movie Review
The Purge: Anarchy is a 2014 dystopian action horror film directed by James DeMonaco and starring Frank Grillo and Carmen Ejogo. It’s an improvement upon its predecessor.
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“Get ready to bleed, rich bitches!
This is our time now!“
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A group of people get stranded on the streets during the Purge, a period where all crimes are legal and emergency services are closed. While I found a lot of promise in the first ‘Purge’, ultimately that movie proved to be mediocre and disappointing. Anarchy, however, fared better.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still not great. It’s an okay, passable genre flick, but one that is more confidently made and much more entertaining than the original. My main issue here is that gone was the home invasion element and the horror genre as a whole. This is much more of an action flick for better and for worse.
But taking the action to the streets was still a solid choice that paid off with some truly memorable and fun action set pieces. Witnessing this mayhem and craziness reminded of something from ‘Mad Max’. It can never compete with that franchise of course, but at least it’s somewhat diverting.
The violence on display continues to be insufferably graphic. I get that the script demands it, but because the story and characterization are so slight, we don’t ever care for any one of these people and what happens to them.
Carmen Ejogo of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ fame plays the main hero and she is pretty good, but the character herself is boring. Frank Grillo is the only truly memorable member of the cast and the character worked as he was both cool and striking in looks and action scenes.
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Purge: Anarchy is not a long movie and it does mostly fly by, but I wished for better handling of its important themes that focus the most on American gun violence. It is just not sophisticated enough to treat this serious issue, resulting in a movie that is ultimately just a silly popcorn flick with pretentions, but not strong execution. Also, it’s well shot, but too dark as it is always set at night.
The Purge: Anarchy is an improvement upon its predecessor. Yes, this movie still doesn’t handle its important themes in any sophisticated way and the violence was overwhelming. The character development is so mediocre, thus making it difficult to care for what happens to any of these people. But the action sequences are very well executed, the movie is reasonably diverting, and taking the action to the streets made this film more of an action than a horror flick mostly for the better.
My Rating – 3
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