In a not too distant future, a radical new political party is voted into office in a desperate effort to reduce the crime and unemployment rates in America. Once a year, the new founding fathers sanction that any and all crimes, including murder, are legal for a 12-hour period. This is the Purge.
Instead of picking up with the home invasion that plagued a suburban family in the first film, director James DeMonaco takes “The Purge: Anarchy” to greater heights. Out on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, there’s more chaos, more violence and more villains to run away from in order to stay alive.
The film follows an emotionally tortured Sergeant, played by a tough-looking Frank Grillo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), on a mission to avenge the death of his child by purging his killer. Before he can get to his destination, he comes across a mother and daughter who are about to be killed by a mysterious militant group and makes the decision to take them to safety first. An annoying young couple whose car broke down also tags along, but their plot line does nothing for the film and the circumstances of everyone running into each other is too convenient to feel believable.
Roaming through various boroughs, “The Purge: Anarchy” succeeds in keeping the viewers on the edge of their seat with maniacal killers around every corner. From masked gangs to snipers, everything is bigger and badder than the first film, including amount of violence. There’s a slaughtered banker hanged on the front of a bank for stealing pension, people set on fire and more guns and knives than one can count. The group following the Sergeant are the only ones without the ability to protect themselves, but he is enough of a killing-machine for the lot of them. His character is the most compelling and refreshing to see for a movie genre that is habitually known for poor character development.
Whether intentional or not, “The Purge: Anarchy” is filled with loads of political and social commentary. There is an anti-Purge group that goes after the elite class and a conspiracy theory that the Purge is simply a means to slaughter the population of the lower working class to keep money among the rich. The leader of the rebel group is a loud, Black Panther-esque man named Carmelo, played by Michael K. Williams (“The Wire”) who is comparable to Samuel L. Jackson in “Snakes on a Plane.” His one-liners are hilarious, providing the story with comic relief during the group’s brushes with death.
While “The Purge: Anarchy” is better than the first movie in both style and content, it still isn’t necessarily great. Other than Grillo’s character, the rest of the group is essentially useless the entire film, simply standing there as he protects them yet again. It isn’t until the last few minutes of the movie that they do anything useful but by then it may be too late. For a movie trying hard to allude to serious classist issues, the dialogue is campy and often times so silly that the sense of urgency gets lost.
Director James DeMonaco goes slightly into more detail regarding how the Purge started but still barely scratches the surface of exposition. What “The Purge: Anarchy” does best is drop the audience into a terrifying situation that it believes from which they cannot escape. If DeMonaco just embraced the campy nature of literal class warfare rather than force a serious tone, the movie would feel less muddled.
“The Purge: Anarchy” (R, 103 min) opens in D.C. theaters on July 18.
