It is another year for The Purge and the
annual Purge is
about to commence. Five people must
band together to survive the night where all crime is legal for 12 hours. The
rich pay for people they can kill in the
safety of their own homes or in exclusive clubs where they can hunt
people. Meanwhile, trucks travel the
city with armed men. The story follows
a mysterious police sergeant (Frank Grillo) who wants revenge against the man
who killed his son, a young couple (Shane and Liz) trying to get out of the
city (and the girlfriend wants to break up with him), and a mother (Eva) and
daughter (Cali). Their stories converge when the sergeant
decides to save them and guide them to the house of a friend of Eva’s as they
are being hunted by a masked gang and one of the semi truck trailers.
THE PURGE: ANARCHY is better than the first PURGE. The first movie had some interesting ideas
before becoming your standard home invasion thriller. This sequel explores
some ideas of what
would happen in a big city (Los Angeles)
during the annual Purge. A movement is
rising against the purge and a rebel organization (The Anti-Purge movement) is
asking the poor to rise up against it. The
poor has to run and hide while the rich (and some of the middle class) find a
way to protect themselves. Could it all
be about money and population control?
I could believe that and New World Order conspiracy theorists would
concur. The Roman Empire
had gladiator games and this near future dystopia of THE PURGE movies is a
world where the rich (and possibly even the government of the New Founding
Fathers) is seeking a way to control the population. It is all about money
and keeping the wealth
for the one percent. The semi
trailer trucks being sanctioned by
powerful people is a chilling idea and it is believable that someone would do
it if something like The Purge existed.
James DeMonaco manages to make the movie more
about
something and the things you don’t focus on for long have the most impact as
the burning bus traveling down the city streets in the background of one
scene. The sequel also gives glimpses of
the ninth annual Purge through traffic cameras and news footage. I hope
the third PURGE film (despite the
recent lawsuit launched claiming copyright infringement) explores the annual
Purge in more aspects. THE PURGE: ANARCHY rises above the first movie and
manages to provide some interesting social commentary with what the first movie
should have tackled in the first place.
It is definitely one movie you should check out even if you skipped the
first one.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Five deleted scenes where three are rightfully
cut for
pacing where I do think the car fight between Shane & Liz and the Dog
Attack scenes may have been interesting scenes to leave in
BEHIND THE ANARCHY is a promotional featurette
that has
interviews with cast and crew as they talk about the characters and concept of
the Purge
Also on the disc are previews for other releases
from
Universal like the upcoming SCORPION KING 4 and THE MAN
WITH THE IRON FISTS 2
FINAL ANALYSIS: THE PURGE: ANARCHY is a superior
film to the
first PURGE as it explores the concept of The Purge and opens the world wide
open. It is also a good allegory on
class struggle between the rich and the poor.
I wish there were more behind-the-scenes extras or even an audio
commentary
This review is ©10-27-2014
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all
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