The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
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Critics Consensus: Gritty, grisly, and uncommonly ambitious, The Purge: Anarchy represents a slight improvement over its predecessor, but it's still never as smart or resonant as it tries to be.
Critics Consensus: Gritty, grisly, and uncommonly ambitious, The Purge: Anarchy represents a slight improvement over its predecessor, but it's still never as smart or resonant as it tries to be.
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The New Founders of America invite you to celebrate your annual right to Purge. The Purge: Anarchy, the sequel to summer 2013's sleeper hit that opened to No. 1 at the box-office, sees the return of writer/director James DeMonaco to craft the next terrifying chapter of dutiful citizens preparing for their country's yearly 12 hours of anarchy. Returning alongside DeMonaco to produce The Purge: Anarchy are Blumhouse Productions' Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity and Insidious series), alongside … More- Rating:
- R (for strong disturbing violence, and for language)
- Genre:
- Horror
- Directed By:
- James DeMonaco
- Written By:
- James DeMonaco
- In Theaters:
- Jul 18, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Oct 21, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $71.5M
Cast
-
Frank Grillo
as Sergeant -
Kiele Sanchez
as Liz -
Michael K. Williams
as Carmelo -
Zach Gilford
as Shane -
Carmen Ejogo
as Eva
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Critic Reviews for The Purge: Anarchy
All Critics (118) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (51) | DVD (1)
For most of the film, returning writer-director James DeMonaco favors gore and shock inserts of music over the edgy, nasty parody for which the material seems ready made.
DeMonaco is more interested in scenarios than in stocking them with human beings. Everybody here is a backstory in a T-shirt.
Grillo's performance will make you wonder why he didn't start headlining movies like this before turning 50; his is the soft-spoken kind of charisma that helped make half of the Expendables into stars back in the '80s and '90s.
The Purge: Anarchy is basically a slasher movie in which society is the deranged killer. It plays like it's already a grindhouse classic - dark, dirty, and disreputable.
"The Purge: Anarchy" is more in line with what people going to a "Purge" movie would want out of a "Purge" movie.
An equally effective, deliciously disturbing movie.
In a have, have-not society the script might have had less threat of gore and more depth as a genuine thought-provoking social commentary of our times.
While The Purge: Anarchy has some interesting ideas, like most of its victims, they're poorly executed.
A fascinating concept taken to a logical and engaging new level in this superb sequel.
This violent survival saga wears its angry politics on its bloody sleeve: Government conspiracies, black revolutionaries, 'the redistribution of wealth' and the 'worship' of firearms are among the topics broached (and sometimes bludgeoned).
"The Purge: Anarchy" takes place in 2023, and the surprise isn't that the American dream has become, "Fend for yourself, leave others behind." No, the surprise is in why this sentiment necessitates the film taking place nine years in the future.
In its social-warfare parable, The Purge: Anarchy crassly reflects a recognizable 21st-century America--where could-be neighbours would rather be me-first, shooting-sprees are practically sanctioned by the state, and $ often comes before community.
Director James DeMonaco redeems himself with an imperfect but very entertaining and bleak action horror film.
Fun with Cognitive Dissonance: it is possible for a sequel to to be a lot better than its predecessor, and still end up mostly a huge pile of s***.
The Purge: Anarchy is a superior horror sequel that once again shows how the disrespected horror genre can often better confront the issues of the day better than most major studio releases.
The passable, watchable atmosphere persists right up until the purge itself commences...
This sequel is better made, more exciting and considerably more thought-provoking. It's still not all that good, though.
...extremely well made film, a well-paced thriller with surprises popping up throughout, highlighted by top-notch directing by James DeMonaco and tension-enhancing music by Nathan Whitehead.
The result's a more satisfying, if not quite more substantial movie.
A nasty little B-picture, unashamed of its exploitation roots.
Everything you could want from a Purge sequel - absurd, yes, but significantly more ambitious and a lot of fun.
In the best tradition of sequels, writer-director James DeMonaco opts to escalate proceedings rather than repeat them.
The action sequences are well judged throughout. But we never get any closer to understanding which end of the fence the film-makers sit at.
After last year's break-out hit thriller, writer-director James DeMonaco is back with the flip-side of the story, which jettisons the irony and and thematic subtlety in favour of in-your-face brutality.
Writer/director James DeMonaco appears to have developed some delusions of grandeur since the first film hit paydirt.
A considerably less interesting but not altogether worthless exercise in ham-handed social commentary and wanton violence.
Audience Reviews for The Purge: Anarchy
With a plot that is more consistent than that of the unsuccessful first movie, even though still insisting on that ridiculous idea of making the Purge look like a cartoonish sect of religious fanatics, this superior sequel also offers now an intriguing Hostel twist to it.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Super Reviewer
More than worthy follow-up to The Purge, where this is a film that expands on the ideas expressed in the first, except the filmmakers manage to create something that is an improvement over the first. I felt that this film really gave more depth to the concept, and, in that regard, it offers much entertainment value for viewers that wanted something more out of the film. If you're looking for a skilfully crafted horror film, The Purge: Anarchy succeeds quite well at being a worthy follow up. The film is tense, thrilling and manages to grab your attention due to its fleshed out ideas that are explored more thoroughly in this film. The result is a much more impressive horror film, a film that manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. This is quite engaging from what it tries to accomplish, and though far from perfect, it's a sequel that works well enough to grab the viewers attention with its concept. For those that were disappointed with the original, and wanted much more, this sequel might offer up, what you're looking for. The film has its flaws, but nonetheless it works well enough to be an entertaining horror film that manages to make you feel uneasy throughout. As a horror film, this one has enough elements to appeal to genre fans, and like I said, it improves upon the first film, and really goes in depth with its ideas to create something that is quite unique. This is one of the better horror sequels that I have seen, and it works quite well to be an entertaining picture from start to finish.
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Super Reviewer
With a not so subtle "rich people bad, poor people good" motif, that gets pretty played out after the first hour. With graphics ranging from meh to not awful. With massive plot holes, such as: Is the city hospital really open on Purge night or did the nurses simply risk death by going into work a little early? Maybe since the Purge is a national holiday (of sorts) nurses and doctors get time and a half? ANYWAY, all of that would have been tolerable if not for writer/director James DeMonaco making it so I really never cared about any of the characters, their destination or their fates. It should also say a tremendous amount about the performances that I don't think it was worth naming any of the actors. Furthermore, by forcing a simple idea to stretch beyond its means, "Anarchy" seems to have lost all of the dystopian uneasiness which made its predecessor halfway intriguing.
Read the rest of my review at: http://www.examiner.com/review/the-purge-anarchy-was-i-the-only-one-who-enjoyed-the-purge
Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus
Super Reviewer
The Purge: Anarchy Quotes
- Sergeant:
- Look at me, you get over that fence you run. You don't stop, you run for your life, you understand? you don't fucking wait for me!
- Big Daddy:
- Only when their blood is spilled will we see change.
- Big Daddy:
- We don't save lives. Tonight we take lives. We can't have any interference. We can't have heroes.
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