If you had one night to do whatever crime you wanted, what would you do?

Title: The Purge
Director: James DeMonaco
Writer: James DeMonaco
Release Date: June 7, 2013
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield

The Purge Cliff’s Notes

A family prepares for a quiet night at home with no visitors and the doors locked. You know why? Well how about this: for 12 hours a year, all crime is legal.

Lecture

I try desperately to not base my thoughts about a film on its marketing or films that are similar to it. The Purge, however, is trying to make me do so. The marketing, the posters, even the first act of the script are screaming, “All bets are off! This is going to be hardcore! You’ll never see it coming!” And what did we get? Well… Most of my bets were right on the money.

The Purge is an adequately handled home invasion thriller. Yeah, let that sink in for a bit. There’s a twelve hour period where crime is just fine, literally almost anything can happen, and we end up with a home invasion thriller. The first act of this script was writing checks that the second and third acts were never going to cash. It’s a bummer too; I would have loved to see what the rest of the world was like in the middle of the most fun twelve hours a person can have.

As for what we did get, it’s all pretty paint by numbers. There’s a family, the world outside tries to get them, they fight back. While it’s not super original, it’s all handled well. The pace seems effortless, the acting is just fine, and the events are (predictably) fun. Furthermore, there was just enough satire and cynicism to lift this puppy out of the muck that can be a pretty tired formula. I grooved to the family fighting the outsiders bits, and there were plenty of tense moments. There’s even a pretty solid WTF that the crew of bad guys pull that threw a smile on my face.

Downsides? The twist that gets us into act three is solid, but super obvious. In fact, most of the twists and turns in this puppy could have been seen from space. Rarely was there a surprise that wasn’t laid out or super tired. While the premise of this puppy reeked of originality, none of that originality made it into the actual flick. Despite some solid acting, there’s nothing that lifts The Purge up out of the muck of the tired and overdone invasion thriller.

Acting

The major players here, Hawke and Headey, do a solid job as a family in distress. As the clock ticked away, Headey brings a determination to the role that others would have left by the wayside. And Hawke is doing his dad in a horror movie thing. He’s done it a lot lately, but that’s because it works. But, the true workhorses here are Hodge and Wakefield. Hodge does the stoic loner bit like a champ. I was really pulling for him. In fact, I was rooting for him more than the family. Wakefield is just downright creepy in is main-baddie role. Dude gave me the willies.

Directing

DeMonaco builds pace and tension like a champ. The camera work is solid and the action bits well-choreographed. With a brisk run time, this puppy knocks in at 85 minutes, the speed of the flick is often one of its best assets. We’re moving along at a breakneck pace, which makes the events of the flick easier to swallow. Mostly because if you stop to think, The Purge makes little to no sense. DeMonaco also is able to take an act three that is surprisingly talky and make it just as intense as act two. Nice job!

Script

This puppy needed more than a rewrite. While the dialogue was often on point, all about that creepy Polite Stranger, many of the major plot points revolved around someone, usually a kid, doing something stupid. And not stupid like, “Oh I’m a teenager, I’m going to stay out with my boyfriend after curfew,” but more stupid like, “I have a death wish.”

“I’m going to explore by myself during the Purge,” said no one ever except for the idiots in this movie. Even the major point that moves us into act two, letting a bloody stranger into your house to help him, screams a big WTF! So much of the plot revolves around moving from one stupid idea to the next that I was often laughing at the screen and, generally, not watching the movie.

Effects

Nothing super remarkable. There were a few gunshots and some like blood. I thought this puppy was supposed to be rated R…

Highlights

There’s a shotgun fight! Wipe your smile off the floor.

Lowlights

Stupid character moves. I don’t know what these kids eat for breakfast, but it certainly wasn’t rich in IQ. These kids were trying to kill their parents, there’s no other way around it. Why don’t they just Purge like everyone else?

Final Thoughts

The Purge is really a case of missed opportunities. With a premise so out there awesome, I was begging for something new. Instead, I got a home invasion thriller. And a tired home invasion thriller at that. It’s not that I don’t like this flick. It’s just that there are about a thousand others I’d rather watch.

Grade: C