The Purge: Anarchy

Here is all you need to know about The Purge: Anarchy - Frank Grillo is a complete and total badass in this movie.

Oh, you want more information? Fine.

The premise here is the same as the first Purge movie - about 15 years in the future, there is barely any unemployment or poverty and the reason is because the new government regime has set The Purge in place. One night a year, anything goes. There are no laws. You can steal and murder at will. You can stay barricaded in your house with your family or you can hit the streets and cleanse yourself of all your anger and frustrations. It's for the greater good. This, in my opinion, is a pretty great set up for a horror film. The big problem with the first film is that it limits itself to following one family trapped inside a house for the night. It's more a home invasion film than anything else. But Anarchy hits the streets and it's far and away a better film.

The sequel follows a group of people who find themselves stuck on the streets unwillingly after the purge has commenced. Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights alumni alert!!) and Kiele Sanchez play a young couple whose car breaks down and Carmen Ejogo and Zoe Soul play a mother/daughter who are forced from their apartment building after someone breaks in. These four, who are totally unprepared for the purge and would never survive a minute, happen upon Frank Grillo's unnamed badass, a man who is participating in the purge willingly for reasons we will discover lately. He takes it upon himself to protect the group and help them find their way to safety. The premise is more or less the premise of one of my very favorite movies of all time - The Warriors - but with way more violence. (Aside: if you haven't seen The Warriors, you have to do it NOW and then you can come back here and thank me and we can all plan our Halloween costumes based on the Baseball Furies and it will be awesome. /End aside.)

The great thing about Anarchy is how many more options there are now. This isn't just a few people stuck inside a house. The scope is city wide and we see so many different ways people participate in the Purge, so many different groups of people - the guys on motorcycles with the creepy masks and white face paint, the Black Panthers-esque group tasked to protect the cities poor, the man in the back of an 18-wheeler with a machine gun, the rich who bid on people and then hunt them in an indoor maze while other rich people watch for their own amusement. You get the feeling, suddenly, that the ideas for subsequent Purge sequels are limitless. You can keep moving from city to city with different groups of people and different settings and set ups.

Sure, The Purge: Anarchy is pretty basic as far as movies go - get from point A to point B and try not to die. This isn't an artistic movie (although the closest it comes to artistic is when the camera follows Grillo as he cruises the empty city streets in his bullet proof car), but that's not to say it isn't a fun movie. There are some continuity errors, the characters act stupid a lot of the time, but this is still a pretty thrilling ride. There are tons of great action pieces and lots of great costumes and creepy background characters. This is a bad ass movie, with an ending that actually is sort of heartwarming. This could have been another case of a great premise with a failed execution, but Frank Grillo is such a great actor - with his weathered face and tough guy voice - that he carries this movie on his very able shoulders. He is the rare kind of actor who can kick ass and also emote when necessary. Anarchy is largely successful because we believe he is the kind of man who is capable of all these crazy things. If the purge ever becomes a thing, I want Grillo looking out for me.

Grade: B