The Purge: Anarchy [20-06-14]

The Purge was another in the seemingly never ending line of generic home-invasion thrillers only with the added fun of some dystopian sci-fi thrown in for good measure. It was a rather stilted, dull and not exactly thrilling film that squandered a great set up. The Purge: Anarchy is everything the original should have been.

Anarchy keeps the set up and politics and actually does something with them. Much like Aliens significantly upped the ante, writer/director James DeMonaco takes a leaf out of Cameron's book and allows his sequel to play out on a much grander scale. Whereas the original took place almost entirely in one location, Anarchy has an entire city against which to unleash mayhem.

Following a group of strangers come together with the simple goal of getting from A to B, Anarchy is very much a stripped down B movie of yesteryear. It's pretty much The Warriors or any number of cheap and cheerful Corman productions but with some genuinely brilliant ideas in play. DeMonaco's script is jam packed with great ideas and explores a number of adult and interesting themes and issues. From the futuristic Black Panthers to the high society who pay to hunt the lower classes to the government sponsored death squads, there's a lot more going here than first appears and there's a real sense that we are following our heroes as they stumble from one exploitation film to the next.

Best of all the film never gets bogged down in trying to shove a message down the viewers throat. Simplicity is the name of the game here and there's never a sense that we are being preached to. Instead DeMonaco suggests much but never forgets that we're here for the mayhem and not the message. Visually the film is at times breathtaking and features some genuinely beautiful and haunting imagery. An early shot of a grizzled looking Frank Grillo cruising the city as a burning bus rolls down the road behind him is amongst last years most stunning compositions.

At the end of the day, The Purge: Anarchy is never going to set the world on fire. It's at heart a B movie, the like of which they don't make any more but it also explores some interesting themes and issues while never being anything less than fun. After the first Purge I would have been happy to see the proposed franchise not get up off the ground but Anarchy is so good that I can't wait to see where DeMonaco takes us next. Hopefully at least one of the proposed sequels will follow Michael K. Williams character aswell as bring back Grillo who would make one hell of a Punisher. In fact, it's quite easy to watch The Purge: Anarchy and recognise it as the best Punisher film we've ever seen.