Review of The Purge (2013) by Sean W — 30 Mar 2014

The Purge was made on a shoestring budget of $3 million. To compare, Godzilla (2014) cost about $160 million. What does one have to do with the other? Well, they're two movies I saw recently and enjoyed to the same degree. The difference being this flick cost a fraction of that one, and I'm just a sucker for low-budget flicks (and Ethan Hawke, but we'll jump to that in a second).

The Purge, if you're not familiar with the set-up, takes place in either the near future or an alternate timeline. In this reality, people are allowed to go batshit crazy; murder, rape and pillage, for a 12 hour period. This brings crime down to basically one 12-hour period a year, and pretty much gets rid of the homeless. After all, who do you think is not going to be able to afford to protect themselves? The premise brings up some moral questions, and is the backdrop to what is essentially a home invasion flick. It's every white-collar's worst nightmare. In the midst of it is one father (Ethan Hawke) trying to protect his wife (Lena Headey) and two children.

I really dug the premise. Even when things started to get a little paint-by-numbers (and believe you me, you want to take those kids out before the movie's end), the backdrop of it all raised some interesting moral dilemmas for our characters. I think it's easy to forget how quickly things can escalate in a film, and I appreciated the fact that there's a scene where the characters literally say, "Wait, what the hell are we doing?!?" Aside from the aforementioned annoying kids, the rest of the cast was top-notch. Hawke is always on point, and Headey played a much more restrained role than you may be used to seeing (if you're a Game of Thrones fan). There's was also an actor by the name of Rhys Wakefield who played the "Polite Leader". I really appreciated his role here, as he added a tinge of sinister to an otherwise black and white character. He very much reminded me of a young Joker, if you will.

At the end of the day, the movie's not going to change cinema. I've read more bad than good about this flick and frankly, I don't know what the hell people were expecting with this movie. Sit back, and enjoy Hawke owning some uppity killers with a shotgun (loved the double-tap, by the way). At a brisk 85 minutes, there are plenty worse horror/suspense thrillers out there that will waste your time (lookin' at you, You're Next).