THE PURGE MOVIE REVIEW

 

The Purge is a thriller starring Ethan Hawke {Sinister} and centres around a futuristic America in which unemployment has lowered to less than 1% and crime has seized due to an annual event called The Purge, a 12 hour period where crime, including murder, is legal and is used for citizens to release their inner rage. When I saw the trailer for this film I was immediately intrigued, as it looked like a concept id never heard of or seen before, unrealistic? yes but an interesting idea none the less.

 

Hawke plays a home security salesman who becomes the number one salesman in his district, he lives with his wife and 2 children in a huge house. The early part of the film focuses on the family's preparation for the purge, whilst many of their neighbours decide they want to take part in the annual event, Hawke and his family decide to sit it out and watch events unfold on their surveillance camera placed around the town and their neighbourhood. Once the preparation is complete, they lock down the entire property, however mere moments into the starting of the purge, one of their cameras picks up a distressed man running towards their home urging someone to let him in as "they are trying to kill me!". Under specific instructions from his father, the son decides to disarm the security panel and offer the man a place to stay to avoid the murder spree. It turns out to be a very bad idea, as moments later a group of well to do Harvard type college nutjobs with creepy pig like masks are seen walking towards the family's property, they were hunting the man that has now taken shelter in Hawkes' family home and tell the family in no uncertain terms give us "the homeless pig" or they will find a way of disabling their tight security system and kill not just the homeless man, but the entire family inside. This leads the rest of the film to be a nervous cat and mouse game between the crazed scholars and the family.

 

Now let's talk about the acting in this film. I felt Ethan Hawke was the stand out star of this film, as he was in Sinister which I loved. However there are no other big name actors in this film, none that I knew of anyway. One thing I will say though, is that the daughter of the group who is apparently 18 {and in shown in school dress for her role in the film} is clearly older than 18, she doesn't look too dissimilar to Megan Fox in my opinion and would easily say she's 25/26. Just a nit-pick I know but she wasn't fooling anyone! The son to me was quite creepy by himself, he is not quite all there in the head as whatever condition he has requires him to take medication {I assume ADHD or some other disorder} and strikes a resemblance to the son of Michael Jackson! Again just a side note. He had developed a camera built into a baby doll's head {kind of looks like the baby doll creature in Toy Story in my opinion} which he uses to spy on other members of the family. I felt the camera was used very well in certain scenes and added tension to parts of the film where it was used to find out where the crazed college killers are when they break into the home. This camera was good at building tension and as this is produced by the same guys who produced Paranormal Activity, I can see where they got their inspiration from.

 

The main "ringleader" of the crazy masking wearing maniacs was very good in my opinion, had that weird and creepy vibe needed to portray the films ensemble of villains. I do believe though that the concept of this film is better than the actual pay-off as when it starts out the film looks amazing, very good camera work, good suspense and some good special effects, however around the halfway mark of the film is where I felt it went flat. Does it contain many clichés from many horror/thrillers you may have seen before? yes and sometimes too much so. There is quite a few jump scares, and while its tradition at this point, doesn't try to do anything new and not the most creative way to scare the audience. Is there a plot twist that is so stupid that it may take you out of the film? For me, yes. You meet a woman character at the early point in the film and her attitude will lead you to assume she will figure a vital point in the later stages of the film, which she does.

 

The ending though, to me, was without doubt the second worst ending to a film I have ever seen, second only to Birdemic : Shock & Terror and if you have read my review for that "classic" you know how annoyed i was at that ending! This ending made me literally shake my head in disgust. Is it a plausible ending? I guess so but it felt like a huge let down when the film up until the last 20 minutes built up so much tension and suspense, and at the final hurdle brought the films to a screeching halt. Very disappointing.

 

Would I recommend this film? Yes I would, its a solid, yet fairly predictable thriller which had a great idea and intrigue behind yet lost its suspense with one of the most easy to see plot twists in recent memory and en ending which had not just myself but several other people shaking our heads and uttering the word "bullshit". However if you want to give this film a chance I think many will enjoy it for what it is, a slightly cheesy thriller with an original concept and a very good performance by Ethan Hawke.

 

My Rating - 7/10

 

Positives - Ethan Hawkes' performance, good camera work, good suspense and tension building in most scenes.

 

Negatives - Some cheesy/awful acting especially towards the end of the film, quite predictable, poor plot twist, one of the most stupid endings in a long, long time.

 

 

Thanks again guys for reading this review I appreciate every view and if you like this and haven't checked any of my previous reviews you can find them in the sidebar. If you like this review don't forget to +1 this review, leave a comment below {if you are on Google+} share this review amongst your friends and other blog sites, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD spread the word!

 

My question for you guys is ; Have you seen The Purge yet? and if so what did you think of it?

 

Also, what did you think of Ethan Hawkes' performance? Has this film's trailer intrigued you?

Whatever you want to comment about, let me know!

 

Take care guys and I will see you all very soon with my next Classic movie review :}