The Purge: Anarchy

Starring: Frank Grillo, Zach Gilford, & Kiele Sanchez

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

When I saw the trailer for the first Purge movie, I thought it was a wildly innovative idea and I absolutely loved it! I was so excited to see the film, unfortunately it amounted to little more than a slasher movie. The story had all the potential in the world, but they really didn't go into it, they just wanted to show off the violence and hatred people had towards one another. I was hoping they would correct this in the sequel and boy did they ever! Anarchy isn't about some family hunkered down in their home, fighting off attackers. In the second installment of the Purge, we learn a lot more about it. The pro and anti-purge factions that exist, the professional companies that make a fortune off that one night, the way the rich purge, and the main story which centers around what happens on the streets when two families are trapped outside on purge night. Two families are easy pickings until they find Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), a man on a mission that he can only complete on Purge night. Barnes however is a man of conscience and won't complete his mission until he begrudgingly gets the families to safety, which means a wild trek through the city. The Purge: Anarchy is a wild ride through a city of ordinary people turned into killers, with home made weapons, booby-traps, and pure anarchy, just as the title promises. If you're looking for action and violence, there are a million places to turn, that's not what the appeal of this movie is. It's the idea, that crime virtually is nonexistent, except for this one night, where society turns on each other. Where almost everyone's craziest fantasy becomes reality and just how some people react. What will each character turn into when they are allowed to do whatever they want? How does society feel about this law and is the benefit worth the cost? This story has just so many directions it can go in, that why I'm not surprised to hear they're working on a fourth film. The Purge series may just be a series of action/slasher films, but this one idea puts a whole new spin on them and makes you see things through a whole different set of eyes and I for one think it's ingenious.