The Purge: Election Year

With the holiday coming up, the movie industry is doing its best to rope people into the theaters. You would think something patriotic like a war story, a biography of a founding father, or some type of political coming of age movie. But my first review is on a horror instead…that has to due with politics. My review is on The Purge: Election Year, the third installment in a series I never expected to have this much ground. Yours truly heads into the trenches to provide you another review and help guide your thoughts on how to spend your tickets in the theaters.

The GOOD: • Comedy • Semi Decent plot • Suspenseful

The first point has to be a surprise, but yes the Purge: Election Year has some decent comedy to lighten up the aggressively somber mood. I mainly laughed at the commentary from Joe, a local deli shop owner with an interesting background on his own. Joe's lines are a menagerie of one- liners, quips, and racial banter that had the audience laughing. Despite some of the intense moments, the writers made the lines very tasteful, making sure to add a fun edge that hopefully won't insult the masses. Some of the other characters have their moments as well, timed equally well to maximize the laughs.

But you didn't come for laughs, you came for suspense that the night of legalized murder has provided in the past. You might think that a third installment has lost its edge, but surprisingly Election Year keeps the same on the seat moments as the last one. Like its predecessor, this movie takes our characters onto the streets, each forging their own path through the chaotic forest of crazy violence. I was pulled into the movie not by the mindless killing, but by the wonder of which member of the merry band would bite the dust. Part of what helped this was a semi-decent, albeit rushed, plot that had a little more backbone than mindless murder. Election Year's plot brings us further down the rabbit hole as to the point of the Purge and fills into those pot holes left at the end of the second movie. It's nothing special, but the character profiles were what kept my interest and fostered a bond with all the characters.

The BAD • Pointless cursing/overacting • Violence substituted for plot • All the political issues it can drum up

No surprise, but a Rated R movie is going to have cursing, I get that I do. But as always the case, our writers get a little overzealous with dirtying the mouths of characters. Election Year unfortunately is not spared that fate as characters, mainly extras, fill their roles with overacted, dramatically-emphasized cursing that is more annoying than anything. I know it is to make you hate the character who will certainly die in the end, but they could have done it without such grandiose tactics. The silver lining of this, it is for limited run times so yay for that.

A second weakness for me, is substituting the violence for the plot. Now don't rip my head off, it is the Purge, a holiday that is only about violence and celebrating death, of course there will be violence. However, the Purge really needs to drop the glorified torture scenes and disturbing dances of craziness to provide more kick to their tale. That doesn't mean get rid of it all, after all there were plenty of jump at you moments where the violence was perfect, but Election Years tangents showing mask-wearing extras dancing or setting an elaborate trap that really doesn't work. This is another example of editing not eliminating all unnecessary scenes.

But perhaps the biggest weakness for me is the political issues this movie is sure to spark. Back in the day, you could make a movie like this and not start a revolution, but modern times have left our people a little more easily offended these days. The Purge's overdramatic antics, dialogue, and factions are certainly going to divide people and perhaps incite their own revolution on some level. All of the excessive violence, racial slurs, and political issues are over glorified, and I saw these effects take fruit in my theater with a few overzealous fans. So why did I bring this point up? Two reasons. The first is the political rants and corrupt speeches are cheesy, overdone, and eye rolling. The second is that if you are easily offended, no matter how much you like horror, you should not see this movie.

The Verdict

Despite being a third installment, The Purge Election Year certainly brings the same bite it always has. Yes, it is overdramatic and glorifies violence, and at times is certainly reflective of a mad man's mind. However, as far as horror movies go, it is surprisingly decent in terms of plot, action, and suspense that will entertain many of this genre. With interesting characters and a fast moving pace, you certainly won't be bored for the 105 minute run time. Necessary for a trip to the theater? Not really, but those who love the dive into the mad realm of murder, will certainly enjoy this tale.

My scores:

Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: 7.0 Movie Overall: 6.0

Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) is running for President on a platform of ending the Purge. Her family was massacred during the Purge in her childhood. The NFFA revokes the Purge rule protecting high rank government officials but Roan refuses to add security. Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) from the previous movie is now her head of security. Store owner Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson) is informed that his Purge insurance has been canceled. Roan is betrayed and escapes with Barnes into the streets where they are hunted.

This tries to add politics to what started out as a simple horror franchise. It's making social commentary. The world of the Purge continuous to be expanded. There are fun Purge visuals. There are some fun action although I wouldn't call it a scary horror. It goes down some weirder paths which is interesting. One thing holding it back is that there is only one possible good ending and the movie would ignore it to its detriment. Roan has to die.

Oh my God, I can't believe it. How Jim De Monaco could do such a garbage junk? How can this director, who gave us STATEN ISLAND seven years ago, how can he make this ? This crap is full of clichés and awful performances and also so foreseeable script. The kind of garbage stuff that monitors you to think in such a way that it is absolutely unbearable. Even if, from the side of me, I also hate all those hypocritical politicians who rule our cities and states, but the way it is shown is no way the best one to talk about it. This feature was made for brainless audiences who crave for gratuitous violence, meaningless story which leads to anywhere. Please, for your mental welfare, avoid this junk movie at all costs.

The original film in this franchise had a great premise but failed to do anything with the concept and I wasn't expecting anything with the sequel but was stunned by how much the production team developed the idea , so much so that I was genuinely excited to seeing the next film in the series which is a rare occurrence for me to get excited about upcoming film . As the trailers were released earlier in the year I did feel my excitement being negated and felt we'd be getting more of the same from a concept that with hindsight might not have much in the way of legs . Yeah the promos did feature some very topical satire about a female Senator and a right wing nutjob battaling for the future of America but seemed a little too obvious

The bad news is that's exactly how THE PURGE ELECTION YEAR plays out . You could say the studio has been honest and constructed a trailer that is refreshingly accurate and what you see is what you get but is a backhanded compliment really a compliment ? Worse than that the trailer is edited in chronological order and there's no surprises . One great thing about ANARCHY was that the story revolved around the mystery and the enigma of the mysterious violent anti-hero who had his own motives for trawling the streets during purge night . Here there's no mystery or character development . Here Sgt Leo is a knight in shining white armour saving the Senator from the fascist establishment and purgers thereby trying to save America from its extreme elements . Everything is black and white and painlessly simplistic . Everyone is good or bad with no in-between and no ambiguity involved

Being positive about this at least the dichotomy of the characterisation means no one is going to confuse the noble and genuine Senator Charlie Roan with any female politician running for President in 2016 so at least the film can't be accused of being cheerleaders for present American party politics . It also contains the occasional haunting image such as a body lying burning in a street , but there's nothing here that matches the impact of a burning bus driving along a road or the nail biting heart stopping tension of the hunting ground we saw in the second movie . Don't get me wrong ELECTION YEAR is still better than the original film and if you loved ANARCHY you'll probably like this one . The downside is that you had hoped for something a bit better and are left feeling rather disappointed by a rather predictable movie

Films don't always do so well when they mix stories with politics, particularly horror films, but in all fairness this one did the job surprisingly well. This feels like a good conclusion to the Purge series, with the upcoming first Purge explaining how it all started. This one had a story as well as the usual tales of hate and revenge. This was visually very good, some of the scenes looked great, the shop under attack scenes in particular was expertly staged. It was well acted once again, and the story was rather intriguing. It lacked some of the subtleties of the first film, and at times it did feel like we've been here before many times, but overall it was very watchable, I got the impression all involved were taking it very seriously. 7/10