Director: James Demonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder
My Rating: Didn't like it
In 2022, America is flourishing because of a twelve-hour
time period named The Purge. Anything goes in this time period, even murder.
The Purge has saved America; Unemployment is less than 1% and the crime rate
has dropped tremendously. It has made home security systems the business to be
in and Ethan Hawkes’ character, James Sandin, is one of the top security system
salesmen in the area. In fact, their whole ritzy-ditzy neighborhood has purchased
a system from him.
The Purge starts at 7 p.m. and lasts until 7 a.m. During
this time period, there will be no medical or emergency services to come to the
rescue. Closing in on 7 o’clock that night, the Sandin family activates their
security system and settles in to their mansion. The son, Charlie, being the
young, empathetic teenager he is, sees a man that needs help outside and
disarms the house to save the man’s life. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie – what a
mistake that was. A group of masked Purgers show up at their house looking for
this man, and they will stop at nothing to get in and kill him. And as you can
imagine, this is when all hell breaks lose.
In my eyes, The Purge is one of the better movie ideas to
come around in quite some time. It’s ridiculous, and obviously would never
happen in real life, but that’s why we have movies and novels - to explore
ideas like this one. James DeMonaco, the writer and director, could’ve explored
about a million different situations, and it really blows my mind he went the
direction he did with it. I don’t want any of you to get me wrong, I was
incredibly entertained for the duration, but there were so many problems with
the script. And I’m not talking about complicated problems dealing with The
Purge or the implications of it on America; I’m talking about very simple
problems with logic.
The second half the movie, the home invasion portion, is
entertaining and has a few well-made “jump worthy” moments. The violence is bloody
and satisfying – feeding our need for a release just as The Purge is giving
future Americans a release. I also enjoyed quite a few of the camera shots,
specifically the Purger wielding the machete skipping down the hall. But there
were so many motives, actions, and moments that had me scratching my head.