Thursday 13 June 2013

REVIEW - THE PURGE


Home invasion movies are supposedly scary because they prey upon our fear that what we regard as our shelter and our private world can be the most dangerous place in the whole world. It's the relatability that spooks us - the fear remains with us even when we arrive home, as we start checking behind doors and under beds and inside closets. The Purge's central nice white affluent family live in an American suburban alcazar, it seems, with more rooms than Buckingham Palace and more corridors and staircases than hairs on your head, but that's not where it's missing that crucial relatability. No, that's missing in the basic concept, which you will discover if you google the film so I won't need to describe the depth of its inanity here. It's such a damn stupid idea that the script can't help but trip over it once every few minutes, firing another synapse in your brain reminding you of just how implausible it is. And I'll forever fail to understand why films such as this, which depend altogether on a clear sense of spacial awareness, sheathe their labyrinthine sets in shadow and thrust their shaky-cams half-way down the actors' throats. Ethan Hawke plays the ignorant, sexist (the filmmakers don't know he's sexist, but I do, and you will), indecisive, irrational patriarch whom you'll probably want to meet some sad demise, and Lena Headey provides the film's best moments when she has a tantrum near the end then clouts some smug bitch in the face. The sickeningly self-satisfied bad guy is played by Rhys Wakefield, whose performance is so infuriatingly bad that you may wish this film's concept were a reality and you had his home address. He's not helped by atrocious dialogue, granted; you know when an actor's so good you say you could listen to them read the phonebook? He'll make you wish you could listen to him read the phonebook instead. Writer-director James DeMonaco probably thinks he's a real smart cookie raising questions like 'Does one respect the law or respect one's personal moral code?', but he neglects to develop these to any extent. This is a bland, thankfully forgettable piece of weapons porn, with political pretensions that it doesn't even understand.

2 comments:

  1. 'Ethan Hawke plays the ignorant, sexist (the filmmakers don't know he's sexist, but I do, and you will)'

    but will most of the people that made this film huge think he's sexist ?? ah...

    i'm not gonna see this ok i never see anything. but i hate being scared and i'm pretty much an ultra wimp. i mean who is gonna help me look under the bed when the film is over. ha ha...

    hmm paddy you better run to borrow something i read seems we could have a new franchise on our hand. you know another cheap to make horror film to trot out every year. hell they could do different city each.

    ok you weren't wowed by the film but did the was the audience you saw it with wowed ??

    good film or nor i love that it made more in first weekend than 'after earth'. ha ha...

    'This is a bland, thankfully forgettable piece of weapons porn, with political pretensions that it doesn't even understand'

    but it's not gonna be forgotten by some members of the tea party and the nra/fox news. ;)

    was the trailer better than the film ?? the trailer did look abit spooky.

    and was tthe idea of this film really more insane than the usual suspend your everything for super hero fighting/talking animals stuff ???

    ah ha...

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    1. No, it wasn't any less realistic than superhero movie concepts, but they don't tend to try to pass of their idiotic premises as conceivably possible. The Purge seeks to thrive off of that notion, and it bungles it right from its inception.

      Didn't see the trailer so I can't say whether it was scary or not. But, since you seemed to think it was spooky, I'll let you know that even you probably won't be all that bothered by this film. It's not even remotely frightening.

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