The Purge: Anarchy (James DeMonaco)

[Irish]

http://i.imgur.com/QwYfAt7.jpg?1

- IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975578/)
- Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge_anarchy_2014/)
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge:_Anarchy)

[Irish]

Caught an early screening. It's not a great horror movie by any means, but it is an entertaining one. The movie is smart enough to avoid the original's bullshit, and on the whole it's much less sloppy. There's some bald and ham handed attempts at social commentary (of course) and big lunges at ideas around class warfare, but for the most part that goes exactly nowhere. Some decent world building helps paper over the rough spots. Lots more implied violence than actual violence. Given the casting and some of the things this movie says and does, Blumhouse is working hard to court the urban minority audience to the theater.

I enjoyed this, for what it was. But at the same time, I couldn't help thinking what this sort of movie -- sci fi horror with a quasi social bent -- could have been in the hand of somebody like John Carpenter.

[TGM]

While nowhere near as bad as the first, I still can't help but be disappointed with this one. The concept for these films is SO awesome, and has SO much potential to do and say so much, and yet it's in the hands of people who are seemingly content with doing absolutely NOTHING with it. There are so many aspects that could be explored with such an interesting concept, but the only one the creators are even the slightest bit interested in is murder. It's a mindless movie with a one track mind, which I suppose should be all that can be expected from this series by this point. But I walked out with the same thought as Irish, where I couldn't help but just wonder how great this series could be in more capable hands.

[Henry Gale]

Kind of want to see this but never bothered with the first. I don't feel like I'll catch up with it before I eventually watch Anarchy.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Yeah, from what I've heard, this one is a step up, but I imagine a Larry Cohen script or a John Carpenter camera or Roger Corman producing, and I know none of that is happening.

[TGM]

Kind of want to see this but never bothered with the first. I don't feel like I'll catch up with it before I eventually watch Anarchy.

You really don't need to see the first one to be able to understand this. Outside of taking place in the same world with the same concept that's explained in both, they're entirely unrelated.

[Henry Gale]

You really don't need to see the first one to be able to understand this. Outside of taking place in the same world with the same concept that's explained in both, they're entirely unrelated.

Yeah, I didn't imagine there would be any intersection with the original movie's plot.

It's like they just made the micro-budget bottle-episode version of the story with the first one to ensure they could make this down the line.

[Dukefrukem]

Enjoyed the hell out of this. Expanding the Purge universe in a good way.

[megladon8]

Enjoyed the hell out of this. Expanding the Purge universe in a good way.

Is it still a horror? Or does it play out more like a dark thriller/action?

[Dukefrukem]

Is it still a horror? Or does it play out more like a dark thriller/action?

Good question- there's a lot less staring with masks on (and acting psychotically), but there still are some masks. We get an expanded view of what the city streets look like during the purge and what else goes on across the city. So you're probably right it's more of a thriller/action movie than home invasion horror.