Movie Review: The Purge
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
The Purge is definitely one film you will want to purge from your memory. This story features a seemingly interesting concept that is so poorly executed that it becomes the epitome of predictable.
The premise being that in the year 2022, the new America is a much better and safer place because the government has instilled the Purge – a once-a-year twelve-hour event during which anyone can kill, rape, or murder anyone else without consequences. This is thought to cleanse one’s soul of its innate animal desires. During the Purge, there is no emergency service available. In a nut shell, this means no police or ambulance services will be at your disposal.
Most people hunker down in the protection of their own homes, which many take great pains to make secure. It is also part of the plan that if you are peaceful and in support of the Purge you place blue flowers at your front door, in hopes “hunters” will pass you by. There are Purge parties, where people eat, drink, and are merry while the killing outside focuses on the homeless – ridding America of society’s undesirables. The unemployment rate is at 1% and the crime rate is also at an all time low. This is thought to be because people wait for this one day to let their emotions rip.
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The film begins with James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) heading home a few hours before the Purge is set to begin, listening to radio speak about what the callers are planning to do for the event. James is a big shot in the security system market. He has sold most of his neighbors incredibly advanced systems to keep them safe for this one night. He has been so successful in his upper scale neighborhood that it has afforded him an enormous addition to his already outstanding home. It is also suggested that the neighbors are jealous of him and his family for having so much and unwittingly shoving it in their faces.
James arrives home to greet his beautiful wife Mary played by Lena Headey. They have two children, the youngest Charlie (Max Burkholder) and Zoey (Adelaide Kane). Zoey is the rebellious teenager with the older boyfriend that her father has forbid her to see. Shortly after the family dinner the lock-down in underway. The security system is incredible and there are camera’s everywhere. Young Charlie sees a man begging anyone for help and decides to open the home to save the blameless victim. Consequently there is a large group of young, entitled people after him and they know that the Sandin’s have allowed him safety in their home. They make demands of the family to give him up, or the mob will come in and kill the whole family.
Ethan Hawke in “The Purge.” Photo by Daniel Mcfadden – © 2013 – Universal Pictures.
I can’t express just how predictable The Purge is. For a would-be horror/sci-fi/thriller this one is a poor excuse. Writer/director James DeMonaco could chalk this one up as an enormous disappointment. The best quality of the film is that it is a merciful 85 minutes long. The Purge starts out mildly interesting, and quickly escalates into a silly concept that inevitably turns out exactly as one might imagine. Don’t waste your time.
Betsy Cizek
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