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Old 01-11-2019, 08:55 PM
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Default Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either

The Purge

The premise of this movie is bone-headedly stupid. America has an annual Purge, where all crime is legal for 12 hours. Americans are supposed to use this day to let go all of their anger and hatred. Yet, if you accept that premise, it's not a bad movie.

Ethan Hawke is a top seller of security systems. He comes home to his wife (Lena Headey - her talent wasted until nearly the end), disaffected kids, and McMansion. Planning to spend a quiet Purge night in lockdown. Those plans get all messed up when the youngest lets in a homeless person who was attacked by a gang.

Not too much later, the gang finds the house, and gives the family an ultimatum: surrender their intended victim, or become targets as well.

The filmmaker doesn't trust the audience - the victim is black and homeless, the gang leader is a well spoken white man in a nice suit, but the script ensures you don't miss the implications. The gang leader assures the family that all they want is God given right to Purge their sins with their chosen target, and that the family are exactly the "kind" of people they want to leave alone.

Also, Ethan Hawke literally says, "We can afford protection, so we'll be OK." Not exactly going for subtlety.

So, the bad: The premise is patently stupid, the message is blunt, and the action is confusing at best. Hawke is firing off a shotgun at the same time Headey is stalking down a quiet hallway on some other floor/section? Not even in a house that big would the ruckus not be heard.

The OK: There's a few "twists" in the movie, but they're very telegraphed. If you accept the premise, the execution in this movie is reasonable.

The thing is does right, and I think why the series had some staying power: The visuals of the suburbanite Purge gang. Seeing a masked woman in a flowing white gown skip down a hallway with two machetes is a great, disturbing image.

So, it had its moments, I felt it was a pretty tense home invasion movie, which tickles a particular fear of mine, but I also spent a lot of mental capital trying to figure out how a Purge would *actually* work vs. how the movie showed it.
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