"The Purge: Election Year" review

Obligatory Election 2016 forecast joke.



Following Leo Barnes’ (Frank Grillo) survival of the annual Purge 2 years ago, “The Purge: Election Year” picks up with him as the head of security for Senator Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a progressive young political upstart running for president that will seek to utilize her political influence to end the Purge once and for all and offer the social help that its mostly middle class victims actually need.

On the night of what could very well be the final Purge if this is to happen, a betrayal forces them from the safety of armed forces and into the streets, leading them on a chase for survival to end the event once and for all while also demonstrating that despite the creativity that this series has thus far demonstrated, its legs may be short in the long term.

While the original film may have betrayed its inventive “Twilight Zone-esque” premise with a mediocre bottle thriller, 2014’s “The Purge: Anarchy” provided a surprising, albeit cartoonishly stupid thrill ride with a respectable attempt at sociopolitical commentary.

By no means was it a great movie but its pacing, direction, and Frank Grillo’s strong screen presence at least managed to carry its ambitions off the ground despite not quite reaching cruising altitude. It’s not as smart or insightful as its producers seem to want it to be but can nevertheless serve as a fun modern exploitation film for lower-middle class audiences, if you’re into that sort of thing.

To that end, “The Purge: Election Year” more or less serves the same purpose; if you liked the direction the series has begun to move in with “Anarchy,” you’ll probably find this one passably entertaining once the sum of its parts is measured.

Unfortunately, the sum of said parts is a step back from the vision brought to the screen last time around.

While the ambition of the filmmakers is on full display, the mass audience reaching and low budget nature of the series is beginning to catch up and in some places even overtake the efforts to make any sort of statement.

The once visceral, disgusting and reprehensible, yet sociologically relatable human purgers exercising a constitutionally granted right to pillage, plunder, murder, torture, and rape have become far more cartoonish than ever before.

I’m not saying that I’m blind to the very real fact that our apathy towards mental health standards have created an environment that may very well invite dangerous psychopaths into the open of society under the conditions of this film but the crazies in this movie would look like caricatures in a Rob Zombie film.

Roving scantily clad street gangs that would make comic book themed villain henchman look subtle is one thing but once it goes to the cultish levels of jingoistic white supremacist families dressing up as decent church folk to celebrate their god given right to break every commandment of their religion with unironic smiles on their faces, whatever plans this concept could have had as a cautionary tale quickly devolve into a full on farce of extremities.

“Election Year’s” hamminess ties into another of the film’s major issues with being unable to truly utilize the ideas that it brings to the table.

The concept of murder tourism is introduced, with foreigners coming into the country to take part in the “festivities” of the purge which amounts to nothing but a generic standoff that could have involved any domestic nut case with a weapon. One of the characters inconveniences themselves to explicitly protect a purger that she believes to be a “good kid” only for said kid to be unceremoniously killed off 5 minutes after bringing him up with no sorrow expressed for his acknowledged loss, begging the question of why they bothered to include such an afterthought of a scene to begin with.

The afformentioned scantily clad purgers, noticeably and malignantly the worst actors in the movie are built up as an actual threat to come into play later on only to be plowed through with no effort whatsoever by the halfway mark with such little impact on the rest of the film that it would almost be hilariously satisfying if the actresses portraying them weren’t so irritatingly terrible at instilling any sense of fear that the movie would have been improved by their removal.

These instances are littered about a production that sadly just doesn’t quite have the talent to take its own concepts to the next level; concepts that the production team are rightfully proud of and clearly working hard to nail down but to no avail.

Between the mountains of missed opportunities strung together by editing that would almost look at home on a television production, the only thing that saved “The Purge: Election Year” from being outright dislikeable when all of its good and bad is measured in tow is that it is mercifully short.

Its 2 hour runtime wraps up just before it begins overstaying its welcome, for an experimental, yet familiar thriller that proves mildly diverting but not demanding to be rushed out for.

5 Legal Human Sacrifices out of 10