The Purge is a 2013 Science Fiction/Horror movie directed by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey and Rhys Wakefield.
The year is 2022 and there is hardly any crime and unemployment in America. The government is called the New Founding Fathers of America and they have a 12 hour purge where people can vent their frustration and commit any act of violence they like. People who can afford it have security systems while the poor or homeless people get the brunt of the violence. James Sandin(Hawke) sells the security systems and he and his wife Mary(Headey) live in a very nice neighbourhood with their two children, Charlie and their daughter Zoey. They get ready for the purge and they start to shut down everything. Zoey's boyfriend, Henry gets into the house and he confronts James with a gun.
Meanwhile, in an act of utter stupidity, Charlie sees a wounded man on the cameras and he decides to let him in.
This leads to a group of youngsters, led by a masked leader(Wakefield) who calls on them and tells them that they have something he wants. The homeless guy that they were chasing down is theirs and they want him back so that they can kill him. They give them time to decide before they break inside and kill everyone. At first James wants to hand him over, but it doesn't work out that way and the group breaks in and it is a game of cat and mouse as they try and survive. James and co battle their way through the group but James is mortally wounded and he eventually dies. Mary survives and she is faced with some crazy neighbours who want to kill her family too. The homeless guy pops up and saves them from death and Mary lets the neighbours go when the purge is over.
This was an entertaining movie. I liked the premise and it was good fun. The twist at the end where the neighbours were trying to kill them too was a bit silly, but overall, this wasn't bad. I will give it a 7/10.
I hated this movie so much I can't help but respond. After hearing about it I eagerly waited for it for months. The potential was unlimited. I imagined a revved up version of Escape From New York meets Transformers.
ReplyDeleteInstead, to me it was a movie that just never got off the ground. Before I saw it, I had heard it was quite a bit over the top on the "money is evil" theme. That doesn't bother me and the social values I hold are quite liberal most of the time, so it's not something that would offend or make me angry.
But what I didn't like was the horrible ways they kept inserting it into the movie. Instead of letting it flow and getting across a point, they tried at times to force it too much. "Come on kids, be thankful we have the financial means to be virtually immune from it". Gag.
The plot with the teenage girl I never got into beyond Adelaide Kane being super hot, and the ending just made me wish I hadn't fast forwarded through the rest to see how it ended.
I'll give it a 3 of 10, two points for the idea and one point itself for the resulting movie.
There's not many times I disagree with your reviews, so it's kind of fun when I do and try to give my over the top frustrated spin.
Appreciate you guys!
Thanks for your comment. I understand what you mean about the teenage daughter angle. It was irritating and silly. There were parts of this that I didn't like and the ending was so so but the idea intrigued me and I liked the originality of it. I'm not sure if I will watch the sequel- I suppose I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteI loved the originality of it and I think a lot of why I didn't like it was I expected more than a new version of Jody Foster's Panic Room. I like the concept enough to give the sequel a try. Maybe we can compare notes again after we both see it.
ReplyDeleteHave a good evening there Amanda, and thanks again for all the great reviews.