The Purge Reviews

DeMonaco clearly hopes to make a significant moral statement on the level of Shirley Jackson's literary masterpiece The Lottery. Alas, his aim at political conservatives who support the gun lobby falls flat before he can pull the trigger.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

If The Purge is as far-sighted as Network proved to be, we are in for very ugly times.

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That old horror-movie standard, a homestead besieged by psychos, gets remixed with a bit of Occupy-era class-conflict satire in the disappointing future-set thriller The Purge.

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Gimmicky chiller lacks the robustness and distinction needed to support its social-commentary ambitions.

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The blunt instrument plot allows for a few sneaky moments of satire and social commentary lite.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

When critics bemoan the dumbing down of movies, they're talking about stuff like The Purge.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

Instead of being a creepy B-movie about the necessity of suppressing one's animalistic urges, "The Purge" is just a product of uninspired filmmaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

In its own clumsy, exaggerated way, The Purge takes a strong stand against our cultural obsession with violence and our tendency to conflate justice with vengeance.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Fans, gear up for rock-em-sock-em action, yet don't be disappointed if much of the goonery seems a bit tepid and, dare I say, staged.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

A nutty if bloody lark, with a strange artificiality to the behaviors it portrays. That blunts the sharpness of any cultural critique it might aspire to.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

There's nothing you'd want to see again, particularly served up with all these shaky closeups and off-kilter angles and a cast mostly waiting - like us - for it to be over.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

The message just gets louder and louder, cruder and cruder, which is too bad because Mr. DeMonaco knows how to set a stage.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Audiences will feel the need for a good cleansing after experiencing The Purge.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

It's cultural commentary as blunt instrument - and as blunt instruments are wont to do, it achieves an end while making a bloody mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The great premise in "The Purge" - and it is a great premise, while being no "Hunger Games" - is squandered on a few levels.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The vague posters for "The Purge" won't prepare you for how sharp and shockingly subversive this home-invasion flick can be.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Its premise requires more sophisticated layering for the audience to really get on board with the notion that people leading very comfortable lives will suddenly go on a murder bender just because they can.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The Purge is mostly a genre picture trying to layer on some prestige by way of social commentary. The latter falls flat; the film is actually stronger when it just goes for our baser instincts.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

Somewhere between Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the "Family Guy" episode in which Peter Griffin joins the Tea Party lies "The Purge." Unfortunately, it's as funny as the former and as thoughtful as the latter.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

The film has some vague things to say about class and racial differences, but they are drowned out by the sounds of blasting shotguns and huge knives being plunged into chests.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

Too bad the film devolves into a series of home-invasion clichés. The Purge was almost on to something.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

"The Purge" is one of those unimaginative horror flicks that depend on skreeky music and sudden appearances to startle, but never actually frighten, the audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

You hope for a purge to wipe away bad movies like this.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

After a wickedly promising start, this pointed political satire quickly deteriorates into a fairly routine, if sporadically quite effective, home-invasion thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

A routine home invasion movie more interested in B-horror tropes and bloodletting than a thought-provoking look at "Hunger Games"-ish class warfare.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

No real answers are provided by writer-director James DeMonaco. He simply presents this bizarre dystopian future, and the audience is left to take it or leave it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

The Purge clearly has a lot on its mind, but it never really manages to express it.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

A blunt takedown of 1%-er politics masquerading as a home invasion picture.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.8/10

The film morphs into a dull version of Straw Dogs ...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

The set-up is arresting, the domestic scenes well observed and acted, and the payoffs involving that Roomba toy excellent. Also, a late-film twist isn't a surprise, exactly, but it is delicious.

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The film's would-be subversive ideas about the kneejerk appeal of social violence get lost in the mix.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5