In America, in the near future, an annual 24-hour lawless free-for-all known as The Purge has crime down, productivity up and balance restored to a country on the brink of self destruction.
Even the richest one per cent can get in on the action by having the desperate and poor do their dirty work for them.
But there grows a grassroots faction of malcontents, quickly unavoidable, to expose the truth of The Purge and turn the tables on those in control.
We say, “Stay safe, citizens.”
HOWE: It’s not very often that I say this but The Purge: Anarchy is a far better movie than its predecessor. When I knew this was coming out a few months back, I watched the first one online, most of it on fast forward. This one I enjoyed a lot more. It felt like we had been thrown back to the ‘80s, a cross between The Warriors and Escape from New York, if you will.
TAYLOR: I didn’t see the first, not that it really matters. The silly premise of the film merely sets up the world in which the hunting may take place. That’s all The Purge: Anarchy is: “the most dangerous game.” It makes no apologies. It pulls no punches. It’s kind of pointless, but at the same time, so much of modernity seems pointless sometimes.
On a grander scale, humans run around and kill each other for rather silly reasons and to fruitless result. Governments do manufacture strange philosophies to which we subscribe. Still, there’s not much going on in this film, short of hiding and killing.
Yes, it’s somewhat political and certainly a bit of a comment on America (again.) The one thing that shines in the film is its style. It’s well directed and due to it’s borderline horror film cinematography, it contains imagery that impresses and lingers.
HOWE: The acting is fine in this, even though there are no big stars in it. There’s lots of action, mostly running around trying not to get shot or something worse.
In the first film, it was mostly to do with surviving the night in your own home. This time you have gangs trying to capture unlucky victims and then sell them to the rich for their purge pleasure. And if that’s not hard enough, they also have to dodge the government from culling off the not-so wealthy.
TAYLOR: I think you’ve stumbled onto the deeper meaning of The Purge, it makes the other 364 days a binge, but only if enough die. “Blessed be America, a nation reborn.”
– Howe gives The Purge: Anarchy 3.5 night-vision glasses out of 5.
– Taylor gives it 3 moments of bad acting out of 5.
The film is currently playing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
– Peter Howe and Brian Taylor are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C.
