Director:
James DeMonaco
Cast:
Frank Grillo
Carmen Ejogo
Zach Gilford
Zoe Soul
Rated: R
A sequel to last year’s film “The Purge,” “Anarchy” follows a new cast of characters and once again takes place on the night where, in the United States, all crime including murder is deemed legal. In this movie, the story follows a man simply known as Sergeant (Grillo), who seems to be on a quest for nothing but revenge on one person.
However, upon his travels he meets four people in need of help. Sergeant decides to assist them and has to lead them through the city on the most dangerous night in America.
ATMR readers will probably know that I more or less hated the first “Purge.” In that review I wrote about how it was more or less a home invasion movie with annoying characters and an implausible concept that wasn’t fully realized.
Besides the concept still being implausible for the most part, the filmmakers fixed every other problem the first one had. This time around, the movie switches tones, going from a horror to more of an action thriller, and it really works.
The action is intense, gritty and in your face and the story has just enough turns to stay suspenseful and somewhat unpredictable.
The star of the movie without a doubt is Grillo, who was the perfect actor for this role. He is stoic and firm, representing what an audience would expect from this type of character. However, at the same time, he sells the more compassionate side where he actually helps some of the people out in the Purge.
The other characters who were following Grillo, while not having the same level of screen presence in the picture, never got to the point of being annoying, which sometimes happens in lower grade horror movies. This usually occurs from the characters bickering every minute with each other and falling into stereotypes.
And while the characters here show frustration, they are still just simply trying to survive.
There were flaws in this flick, for example the dialogue was weak in most areas and there were some unanswered questions.
Despite those flaws and having a premise that is still very hard to take seriously, “Purge Anarchy” is still very entertaining thanks to its action and Grillo’s performance. 3 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 