The Purge: Anarchy - Film Review

Sometimes our minds betray us and nostalgia clouds our judgement. It's times like these where friends come in handy as they help keep you honest. When I started this up, I assumed this would be the best entry of the franchise, but a new viewing made me see that everything isn't as rosy as I remember it being.

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Where You Can Find It: I viewed this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rent/purchase.

General Information 
The Purge: Anarchy is an action thriller film that was released on 18 July 2014. It is the sequel to The Purge and was written and directed by James DeMonaco. It was produced under the combination of Blumhouse Productions, Platinum Dunes, and Why Not Productions with Universal Pictures distributing. It is the second entry in the Purge film franchise, and was released approximately one year after the original film. Like its predecessor, it grossed well over ten times its original budget. The film currently holds a 50 Metascore on Metacritic with a 57% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Story

The plot opens up with a focus on Los Angeles mere hours before the sixth annual Purge is about to begin. Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) is a waitress struggling to pay the bills and afford medical care for her family who hopes to ride out the Purge by hiding in her small apartment with her daughter, Cali (Zoe Soul). Across town, off-duty police sergeant, Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), is gearing up for some payback on someone who wronged him and his family that left him emotionally devastated. Elsewhere, a married couple preparing for divorce find themselves stranded downtown when some purgers surreptitiously disable their car. These seemingly unconnected strangers will all cross paths when the Purge kicks off and they'll have to work together to navigate through the harsh Los Angeles streets and survive the night.

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Eva and the other survivors are about to experience LA's nightlife

I really enjoyed that this film's story takes place from multiple perspectives as the separate characters each have their own motivations and objectives. The wide range of views gives the audience more of a chance to explore how the Purge affects the world the writers are trying to convey while also keeping the story cohesive by having everyone come together. An unfortunate facet of this approach though is that some characters are more interesting than others. The married couple of Liz (Kiele Sanchez) and Shane (Zach Gilford) were completely unremarkable once the Purge started, which only made me hope they'd die off so we could focus more on Eva's and Barnes' stories instead.

As I mentioned in my review for the first film, the Purge is a fascinating concept however it is also one that viewers shouldn't think about for too long as it falls apart upon closer inspection. With that said, I enjoyed some of the sense of paranoia as we see a few particularly diabolical betrayals as neighbors and friends become enemies once all hell breaks loose. One area where this theme somewhat disappoints is the very end of the film where a particular character fails to follow-up on a major objective that would make sense for the world they live in (see the spoilers comments for what I'm talking about). 

Special Effects/Atmosphere

One of the greatest issues with the original The Purge was its lack of scope, which was frankly not the fault of the director, but more-so just a budget problem as DeMonaco couldn't properly convey the world he presented. This time, DeMonaco is back with a much bigger budget and he's able to finally present a sprawling city in the midst of chaos. Los Angeles is a hellscape with roving bands of costumed psychopaths, ranting shooters, and blood-soaked victims. With that said, there's a bit of an artificial feel to some of it as some things feel a little too neat and impractical at times. A few scenes honestly made me feel like I was watching actors tour a spooky-themed amusement park ride than an actual warzone.

***

There's a lot more to see this time around

As this entry in the franchise is more of an action film, there's a good amount of gunplay with some mixed results by the end. I certainly applaud the film's use of all sorts of flashy guns and blades, however the audio was really strange. For some reason, some of the submachine guns make the same whirring sound as the Gatling gun seen early into the film. Every time a shot was fired, it left me and my screening partners scratching our heads as to how or why this was happening. Excluding that though, the shooting was fun and the gore was awesome without being too bloody.

The Acting

I believe this is the first film I'd seen with Frank Grillo in it when I first saw it in theaters and I remember being pretty impressed with his performance. He makes a great action hero and he carries much of this film. He carries himself far more realistically in fight scenes than one would expect with this kind of movie and he even has a few emotional scenes that work out pretty well. I'm glad that Hollywood seemed to pick up on this as I recall seeing him in bigger roles in larger films after this premiered.

****

Frank Grillo stands out in this one

Besides Grillo, I was relatively unimpressed with everyone else. Ejogo likely has the most screen-time in the film, but there was nothing that ever caused her to break out and really establish herself. The same can be said for Zoe Soul, who came off as unintentionally annoying more than anything else. Strangely enough, Michael K. Williams is in this as a sort of rebel leader fighting against the government, but I never felt like Williams was used to his fullest capabilities in this, which is a shame as he's likely the best actor in the entire cast.

The Best of the Best: A large-scope presentation of the Purge as it engulfs all of Los Angeles.

The Worst of the Worst: Liz and Shane existing in this film.

Calhooey Score: 6/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

Before re-watching this, I would've said that this is the best of the Purge films, but now I'm not so sure anymore. The Purge: Anarchy is fun and doesn't require viewers to watch the first film to understand it, but it has more than a few areas where it's wholly unremarkable. I'd say that it's certainly fun to watch with friends and I think you'll get a kick out of it if you liked the first movie. Horror fans won't find this remotely scary, but I generally think it works as an action film.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I get that the Purge is a common thing at this point, but it baffles me why everyone waits so late to protect themselves before the Purge starts. Seriously, Eva waited until practically the last minute to barricade her door (long enough for her father to stroll out undetected) and I demand to know why Liz and Shane felt they should go on a road trip right before the Purge!
• I think the inclusion of government death squads kind of ruins some of the impact of the plot. If the writers want to convey that the Purge disproportionately affects lower-class people, I feel like they could do it in a better way.
• With that said, it was great seeing a Gatling gun mow down people.
• What was not great to see though was how Barnes' Purge-mobile has a windshield that blocks giant bullets, but also has a hood that does not.
• I know the kidnapper gang was hunting Liz and Shane, but how did they keep knowing where to follow them?
• That old lady leading the aristocrat arena reminded me of a cross between Betty White and Hillary Clinton. She may have been one of the scariest parts of this movie.
• The part I mentioned in my criticism of the film's ending was that Barnes doesn't kill the man that drunkenly killed Barnes' son. To me, it felt unearned and I think it would've been a better ending if he had killed the guy. I totally understand that the drunk driver wouldn't have been able to save Barnes in the end, but that could be fixed by the fact that Eva and Cali (who are both armed) were parked right outside the house.
• Man, I feel bad for EMS workers who are on-call right after the Purge ends...

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Wikipedia. (n.d.). The Purge: Anarchy film image. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge:_Anarchy.

**Kohn, E. (2014, July 16). Eva and Group image. IndieWire. Retrieved from: https://www.indiewire.com/2014/07/review-why-the-purge-anarchy-is-this-summers-essential-guilty-pleasure-24221/.

***Abrams, S. (2014, July 18). Purge raiders image. Roger Ebert. Retrieved from: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-purge-anarchy-2014.

****Lodge, G. (2014, July 17). Frank Grillo image. Variety. Retrieved from: https://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-the-purge-anarchy-1201262734/.