Review of The Purge: Anarchy (2014) by Patrick L — 04 Nov 2014

"Government-sanctioned anarchy continues in "The Purge: Anarchy", a gritty and ambitious sequel that definitely tops the original.".

Movie Review: The Purge: Anarchy.

Date Viewed: July 31 2014.

Written and Directed By James DeMonaco (The Purge).

Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zoe Soul, Kiele Sanchez, Zach Gilford, Justina Machado, Michael K. Williams, Edwin Hodge,.

John Beasley, Castulo Guerra, Jack Conley,.

Noel Gugliemi, Roberta Valderrama and Brandon Keener.

Anarchy has been unleashed alright. "The Purge: Anarchy" is a thoughtful thriller with a badass vigilante and clever ideas. "Anarchy" is what the first "Purge" movie should have been. The original movie was just a routine home invasion thriller that didn't go deep enough into it's world. Writer and director James DeMonaco has made an ambitious sequel that is way better than the first. "The Purge: Anarchy" reminded me of those gritty B-pictures from the late 70's like "Assault on Precinct 13" and "The Warriors".

Just like the first movie, it is set in the near future where America begins it's Annual Purge. Every year for 12 hours, crime will be legal. This annual tradition has been responsible record low unemployment and poverty rates. "Anarchy" is set in March 21, 2023 (a year after the first movie) and people across the United States are either willing to commit murder or barricade themselves inside their homes. The movie follows five strangers, a thirty-something couple who are on the brink of separating, a mother and daughter and a police sergeant who is out to get revenge on the man who murdered his son.

Shane and Liz (Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez) are driving back home but their car dies down on the highway just as the Purge begins. A waitress named Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) is shocked to learn that her terminally ill father sold himself to a wealthy family for a Purge offering. In exchange, the wealthy family will transfer $100,000 onto the bank accounts of Eva and her daughter Cali (Zoe Soul). Finally, police sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) is out on the streets in Los Angeles to Purge on the man who killed his son in a fatal car accident but he runs into Eva and Cali and saves them from being killed by paramilitary men.

Soon, Shane and Liz join them and all five of them have to find a safe place and survive the night. James DeMonaco has definitely learned from his mistakes, "The Purge: Anarchy" is the best horror movie I've seen in quite some time. It goes more deeper into it's ideas unlike the first film. The first "Purge" was nothing but a tasteless home invasion thriller with masked men terrorizing Ethan Hawke and his family. Character actor Frank Grillo who is in almost every movie makes a great action hero, he reminded me of a young Charles Bronson. Michael K. Williams (from "The Wire") is also very good playing the leader of an anti-Purge resistance.

This is why "The Purge: Anarchy" goes more deeper into it's politics, Americans are deeply divided on the Purge. Some people like it, others oppose it. Were told that the Purge was created by America's founding fathers, now just who are these founding fathers? Tea Party Republicans? There are some great action sequences in this movie including one in a subway tunnel involving a flame thrower.

"The Purge: Anarchy" is a darker and better movie than the lackluster 2013 original.