The Purge: Anarchy

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: James DeMonaco/Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Keile Sanchez and Zoe Soul

On the heels of the silly The Purge comes The Purge: Anarchy which matches the first's silliness quotient but manages to be entertaining if one simply ingests the preposterous plot like marshmallow fluff. If you've come seeking biting commentary on the socio-political climate in America, you might be in for an interminable 103 minutes. I wondered near the end of the movie why the story had to be so heavy-handed and obvious about its political grudges but then I caught a glimpse of the producer's credit, which read: Michael Bay. I ceased to wonder shortly thereafter. If that name doesn't immediately subtract 50 IQ points when conjured, it might be because your brain is encased in protective lead.

The story takes place in 2023 America, some years after the first film. The Purge; the government's bizarre solution to cleansing America of its aggression and violence, is a ritual whereby all violent crime--including murder--is legal for eight hours, one night of the year.

As the film begins, we learn the Purge is but two hours away, which prompts everyone not participating to hurry home behind (hopefully) locked, reinforced doors and barred or sealed windows. Frank Grillo, an emerging action-movie star with tough-guy charisma, plays a mysterious man who keeps an arsenal in his apartment. Is he a former cop? Soldier? We don't know, but we can ascertain from his weapons and granite biceps he means business.

Also making haste to be home is Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo), a diner waitress who wants to hit up the owner for a raise, which will help pay for her father's medication. She arrives home to be with her teenage daughter Cali (Zoe Soul-great name!) and said father (John Beasley) who are busy preparing for what is called the Commencement; the beginning of the Purge.

Figuring into this multi-character salad are Shane and Liz (Zack Gilford and Keile Sanchez), a young couple about to announce their break-up to his sister (why this would be something his sister would need to know before the Purge is anybody's guess) when their car stalls on a bridge. The couple had earlier encountered a scary group of masked, African-American men who silently menaced them in a store parking-lot. The couple realizes, while stranded on the bridge, their car was sabotaged earlier by the masked men; an effective means to keeping the couple on the street.

While those not Purging barricade themselves indoors, the mysterious man sets out into the dangerous streets in a Mad Max-like armoured muscle car. Why he would deliberately expose himself to danger is revealed later in the film.

We see that Eva's father has left the apartment, then strangely enters a limousine. Sometime later we see him sitting in a chair inside the home of a wealthy, white family. A letter he's left behind explains that he has sold himself as a Purge victim for a substantial sum that will help his daughter and granddaughter.

Only a short-time later, Eva and her daughter's modest sanctum is violated first by the doorman; who is angry about being allegedly dissed by the two woman, then by men in military uniforms, who drag the two out into the street. As Eva and her daughter are being jerked toward the government semi-trucks, the mysterious man comes to their rescue, dispatching the armed soldiers. Shane and Liz happen upon the group while running desperately through the streets, seeking sanctuary from the the masked men. The mysterious man then finds himself the reluctant caretaker of the mother and daughter and Shane and Liz. Promising the mysterious man a car to replace his own, which was left incapacitated by armor-piercing bullets fired by one of the soldiers, the group makes its way to Eva's friend's home where a suitable auto awaits. To reach their destination will mean overcoming what the Purge promises; violence and death.

I thought this was a fun development; somewhat reminiscent of Escape from New York and The Warriors, as the group navigates through a deadly, urban labyrinth to reach their objective. It also gives us an opportunity to care about them as characters, as broadly-drawn as they are.

Though the group is mostly indifferent to the Purge, Cali is vehemently opposed, seeing it as a way to eliminate the poor to secure the wealthy elite's way of life. Again, the film's clumsily conspicuous way of managing this commentary on the economic state in America almost becomes a theme. The film's message always rings loud and clear, particularly in a scene where a white-collar Purge victim is crucified above the door of a city bank. One of the characters mumbles something about how he got what he deserved, which makes the scene more humorous than trenchant.

Question: if all crime is legal for eight hours, why bother murdering people when one could busy oneself removing bars and other obstructions from the doors of commercial establishments (with a tow-chain and a Ford F-150 maybe?), thus allowing one access to store safes and merchandise? In something as criminally permissive as the Purge, one could legally steal anything. If theft is legal, then it stands to reason one could reasonably claim money and items were legitmately obtained. Maybe the filmmakers thought this idea denied the viewers their fix of violence and blood. Too bad; it seems like it would be a more constructive use of one's Purge time.

As the film moves along, we learn the masked Purgers who were pursuing Shane and Liz earlier are not participants but a group who round up non-Purgers on the street for sale to the wealthy in the city, who hunt them for sport. We're also finally made privy to the military's interest in the Purge; leader explains that people were becoming unwilling to kill one another, which necessitated the government's violent intervention.

The story continues to a violent climax, as expected, where we finally learn the mysterious man's motive for joining the Purge, which is one of the few plot developments that makes sense.

I particularly enjoyed Frank Grillo's performance and wished his character would have been fleshed out a bit more. The performances, especially Ejogo and Soul's, were convincing and managed to remain untarnished by the plot-absurdities the film sometimes stumbled over. I think Grillo may have a future as an action star, or at least the lead in the next installment. Will there be a next? Some post-narrative subtitles on the screen hint as much.

The Purge: Anarchy certainly isn't a winner, but it was fun when not being unintentionally dopey. It has something on its mind, but how that message is administered is something akin to a piano dropping on a sidewalk from a ten story building. If the film were distributed in the welter of the late-year, award-grubbing movie season, its monumentally modest ambitions would be shockingly glaring. But in my abysmally low expectations of the Summer movie season, it has many peers, so it isn't exactly the worst of the lot. At least Michael Bay knows its place.