James DeMonaco directs Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell and Mykelti Williamson in this continuation of the dystopian night where all crime in America is legal.
I love The Purge Franchise. Visually inventive, unrelentingly dark and filled with full on bursts of violent mayhem – it ticks a lot off from the shopping list of a lad raised on The Warriors and Mad Max. This might be the least streamlined , least daring one (there is certainly not the gleefully expansive upgrade that occurred between so 1’s home invasion “bottle episode” and 2’s Escape From New York inspired city wide adventure) yet… but it still delivers exactly what the true believers want. We get masked up nastiness both glimpsed in passing rear view mirrors and leaping right up on us in immersive set pieces, we get several mini plots tee’d up (more like the first act of a disaster film than a sci-fi horror) at the start knowing that not many will end with their bubble unburst by the morning, and we get another serving from Grillo – possibly my favourite current B movie star. Striding through the chaos like Humphrey Bogart with an oilslick for hair has learnt mixed martial arts, any plot that has his him front and centre, gun out and calling people he has just bled out “Motherfucker!” can just take my money. More please.
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