Riveting, gripping, exciting are all words that could be used to describe the sequel to last year’s “The Purge”. A movie with a relatively original idea, where for one night a year, citizens are allowed go bat shit crazy and do whatever they want, from crime sprees to a spot of murder should they desire. For the other 364 days of the year, said citizens go back to being good little boys and girls after their “purge”. And as for those opening words of riveting, gripping and exciting, well, you’re not going to find them here.
The sequel has the same idea. People go bonkers for one night a year, except this yearly movie outing (it looks like this is going to be an annual occurrence) takes it out onto the streets entirely and a bunch of clichéd characters try and help each other to stay alive. This hapless group are made up of a mother and daughter, a young couple who are about to break up and a man who’s out to avenge the death of his son. Once their paths cross, they stumble through a few predictable and boring scenes, which are as entertaining as a belt of a hammer into the jaw.
This is a pretty deserted Los Angeles. One would imagine thousands of maniacs running riot on purge night. Instead we get a few blokes playing Splinter Cell in a truck and another few idiots driving around in the van from Robocop as well as a few clapped out motorbikes. Excluding the occasional random shot of someone getting chased down or beaten up, the whole place is deserted, save the 20 odd aforementioned idiots. And all this in a city that has a population of over 3 million people.
Not only is the city devoid of people, the movie is devoid of performances from it’s cast. Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo and Zach Giford bumble their way through horrifically written dialogue and the chemistry between is about as existent as ashtrays on motorbikes. You care nothing for these characters. If they live, you don’t care. If they die, you don’t care. All you’ll care about is when is it all going to end!
The Purge Anarchy has the tag line “An American Tradition”. This is one tradition the world can do without. No more! PLEASE!
