Review of The Purge: Anarchy (2014) by Axet — 25 Apr 2015

Why was this lousy, ultra low budget, vile, sadistic, formulaic, boring as hell little thriller released in 2:35 widescreen? Because the producers and distributors are jackasses that either don't know what they're doing or erroneously think that with 16x9 TV having taken over, the cinema screen needs to go wider across the board? Or is it because the jackass filmmakers delusionally think they are David Lean? It's not even photographed well, particularly a scene with a flashlight in a tunnel where the blue flares hitting the lens look so out of place as to be animated in or something? Fire that color grader! And director and DP take yourself back to film school and get an education where you learn what is acceptable and what is just your childish indulgences!

The fact is a junky little movie like this lives on video after a short life in theaters, and all that letterbox does is lose screen real estate for the flick on today's TV's. The desired wide effect does nothing to make the movie any bigger or more legitimate. It's not fooling anybody.