20150501: Horror Review--The Purge

The Purge

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: The Purge
2. IMDb: Users rated this 5.6/10 (110,311 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   38% of critics liked it of 136 critical reviews posted
   36% of movie goes liked it, from 93,551 user ratings
   Critics Consensus:  Half social allegory, half home-invasion thriller, The Purge attempts to make an intelligent point, but ultimately devolves into numbing violence and tired clichés.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2013-06-06
6. Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Platinum Dunes, Why Not Productions
7. Tagline: One night a year, all crime is legal.


8. Budget:  3 million USD
9. Revenue: 64 million USD
10. Runtime: 86 minutes.
11. Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller


12. Directed by: James DeMonaco; written by James DeMonaco


13. Starring: Lena Headey as Mary Sandin, Ethan Hawke as James Sandin, Max Burkholder as Charlie Sandin, Adelaide Kane as Zoey Sandin, Rhys Wakefield as Polite Leader, Tony Oller as Henry, Edwin Hodge as Bloody Stranger, Tom Yi as Mr. Cali, Arija Bareikis as Mrs. Grace Ferrin, Chris Mulkey as Mr. Halverson


14. TMDb overview: Given the country's overcrowded prisons, the U.S. government begins to allow 12-hour periods of time in which all illegal activity is legal. During one of these free-for-alls, a family must protect themselves from a home invasion.


2. Setup and Plot


1. Father James Sandin, mother Mary, daughter Zoey, and son Charlie are a nuclear family who are quite well-to-do.  They live in year is 2022, after the actions of the 'New Founding Fathers,' who revamped the failed United States.  One of their innovations is the 12 hour periods, once a year, when nothing is illegal.  These periods are The Purge, when pent up anger results in massive loss of life, especially among the poor or the disconnected.


2. James sells security systems that work 99% of the time.  Great.  The biggest threats to the family's safety are (1) Charlie, who lets in a wounded victim and (2) Zoey, whose boyfriend stows away in the home/fortress just before the Purge starts.  Giving sanctuary to the victim results in the organised attack on the household by well-to-do marauders who want the victim so they can finish killing him.


3. The film is about the outside attackers assailing the household, and the family's decisions on how to deal with it.  Their target is not the family, but the family's stupidity turns the family into an additional target.  Will the attackers break in?  That's easy to guess.  Will they leave anyone alive?  Are they the only threat?


3. Conclusions
1. RT got it right, but they were not nearly harsh enough.
2. One line summary: Yet another elimination derby, this time among the wealthy.
3. One stars of five.  Two black holes for cinematography and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 2/10 Some of it is absolutely beautiful.  Then there are the long segments filmed versus flashlight, some using shaky cam.  Unfortunately, I am mostly reminded of the dreadful film The Blair Witch Project.


2. Sound: 8/10 The music was useful for building tensions.  I could usually make out the dialog.


3. Acting: 0/10 The story and horrible camera work are so bad that acting is not all that noticeable.  My already weak esteem for Ethan Hawke's work took another hit.


4. Screenplay: 3/10 There are some interesting ideas here, but the execution just sucked.  The only bright spot for me (the reason I gave it a 1/5 instead of 0/5) was watching Ethan Hawke murder half a dozen or so home invaders.  That gave a few moments of feeling of righteous revenge, which was rather fleeting.