15 Jul 14 - The Purge:Anarchy

****CONTAINS NO SPOILERS****

It's 2023 ...and crime, poverty and unemployment are at an all time low in this country thanks to the New Founding Fathers and their implement of "The Purge" - that designated one night (on March 21) of the year were all crime (including murder) is completely legal. Yes, you can finally hunt, maim and/or kill that "special" someone or anyone you've been wanting to x out of your life without any feat of being arrested, tried and convicted because even emergency services (fire, police and hospital) will be suspended for twelve hours from 7p to 7a.

 

"Blessed be our New Founding Fathers for letting us Purge and cleanse our souls. Blessed be, America, a nation reborn..."

 

That was the premise for the original The Purge (2013) which starred Ethan Hawke, Lena Headley, Adeliade Kane, and Max Burkholder and was directed by James DeMonaco. Well, blogspot readers, director/writer DeMonaco is back with a sequel - The Purge: Anarchy in which he takes the audience out of the "comforts" of the suburban life during the night of the annual Purge as the terror unfolds around one particular family. Now, he gives us a sequel that features three unseemingly separate storylines (at first) but all merging (unexpectedly) together as five (5) people try to survive the night on the streets of Los Angeles during the annual Purge. And, believe SouthSide, it's not going to be easy either. Not with armed people on the hunt ...prowling the streets looking for people to shoot and kill and with no safe place to hide from them. Will these unlikely group of people survive the long night of dodging bullets?

 

Hm ...good question.

 

The Purge: Anarchy features a new set of faces such as Frank Grillo as Sergeant who's the only real participant of The Purge to seek revenge on one particular person who murdered his son the year prior and then was acquitted due to a minor prosecution technicality. There's husband and wife Shane and Liz (played by Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez) who, on their way home, find themselves in a bit of car trouble and then subsequently chased by a gang of Purgers throughout the streets of Los Angeles. Meanwhile there's Papa Rico (veteran actor John Beasley), his daughter Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and granddaughter Cali (Zoe Soul) who are indirectly as well as directly effected by The Purge especially when the destruction of their home forces both mother and daughter to face and try to survive the horror of the annual melee. Yet, what director James DeMonaco does with the three separate storylines, blogspot readers, he tries to establish how each group is effect by this annual event whether they want to or not. In this movie, the audience gets a terrifying peek of how the rich and wealthy "purge" from within the safety net of their own homes - by paying the elderly and/or dying a large sum (which is paid into their surviving family members' accounts). It seems there's money to be made during The Purge as well as a hidden government agenda behind The Purge which has sparked an anti-Purge movement by activist Carmelo (Michael K. Williams) who uses the social media/internet to spread his message on what The Purge is truly all about, blogspot readers. It may ...or not surprise you in the end.

 

SouthSide would tell you however she won't. Yet she can tell you this ...it's (The Purge) not really benefitting the majority of an economic/social class of people as you might have expected it would, blogspot readers.

 

This reviewer highly recommends checking out The Purge: Anarchy when it opens in theatres tomorrow. She found the sequel way better than the first because it gave you more of an in depth look at what happens on the streets during the annual event rather than bottling you inside a house with a single family trying to evade teenage intruders and their neighbors. You as the audience are placed right smack in the middle of the action ...dodging the onslaught of armor piercing bullets, heavily suited and armed men in black government-issued protective gear and/or crazed masked gangs scouring the streets to nab you for some wealthy Purge hunt club. Yes, blogspot readers, there's more to this Purge than the original because there was so much revealed about the true nature and reason for The Purge this time. Can something like this actually happen? Of course, as this nation gradually moves towards being "one nation under a gun" (please note SouthSide is all for the 2nd Amendment and your right to bear arms but do it with responsibility). Just as Carmelo stated during the movie "...we have become a nation that prays to their gun ...not to God, Allah, etc..." (paraphrased) And as morbid as it sounds, you just might find yourself cheering and/or laughing during this movie like SouthSide did when attending the recent screening. She supposes that she may have been desensitized to the acts of violence seen throughout the movie even though some scenes were intensely brutal at times as well as thrilling. Perhaps ...just perhaps, she has her own "purge" agenda in mind. Still, she does have to caution parents on thinking about bringing kids younger than 12 or 13 to this movie - DON'T!  Don't be like those parents who brought their 10 ...even 6 or 7 years old kids with them to the screening. Though they see violence and acts of violence on the streets and/or television and video games, The Purge: Anarchy is way too intense for them to handle though SouthSide did bring her 12 year old daughter with her to the screening ...let's just say, she wants to see it again.  So does SouthSide, blogspot readers.

 

The Purge: Anarchy is one the better sequels recently seen by this reviewer ...which she has a feeling director James DeMonaco has another up his sleeve...

 

 

Until next time, support your local scene,
SouthSide