Review: The Purge

By Joe Moss

★½

In the not so distant future (2022), the American government allows its population to have a night of free for all killing to usher in the NEW American ideal of peace and prosperity. Employment rates are up, crime is down. Here lies the premise for James DeMonaco’s sophomore directorial “The Purge.” The movie runs like an Americanized retrograde version of “Battle Royale” (2000) directed by Kinji Fukasaku who helped direct the Janpanese sequences in the classic “Tora, Tora, Tora” (1970). This movie places 9^th grade students onto an island and the battle ensues until only 1 survives—similar to another hit film/book series of late, “The Hunger Games” (2012).

“The Purge” stars Ethan Hawke (as James Sandin) a security system salesman who is at the top of his game—when it comes to selling high tech security for the wealthy… And so stops the plot development for the remainder of the film. Sure, the story (also written by DeMonaco) attempts to add in small tidbits of information such as “only a few short years ago we couldn’t pay bills, and now we are looking to buy a boat [said by Sandon to his wife, Mary (Lena Headey)]” but these comments come off trite considering the opulence in which they reside. Headey’s character seems to float through life on this effervescent cloud of ignorance. While her son is obviously a social outcast and her daughter is on the verge of teenage hormone overindulgence. Still, these are all cliché plot nuances that are as evident as grass being green and the sky being blue. DeMonaco is much more talented a writer as was evident in “The Negotiator” (1998) and even “Assault on Precinct 13” (2005).

             I had the distinct impression throughout the entire movie this was another Hollywood attempt to squeeze the remaining dollars out of the American public on the heels of success of “Hunger Games…” as well as a poor attempt to prime the waters for the November release of “Catching Fire.” There was not a single item in the movie that was surprising. Sure, there were great suspenseful moments that made the film easy to watch, but there was no new substance/plot/intrigue as in the aforementioned films from which this film obviously takes root. As a scientist and teacher, I can even appreciate the attempt of Demonaco to offer some modern day substance to Alfred Adler's ideas on psychology and the inferiority complex, as well as play on A.R. Wallace's and Darwin's evolutionary ideals of "survival of the fittest."  Thus, I did not have a problem sitting through the film, as it was only an 85 minute run time—thankful editing by Peter Gvosdas (of "The Avengers" (2012) and "Captain America" (2011) editing teams)—but much longer and the rating would have been lower.