Directed and Written by : James DeMonaco
Starring : Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Betty Gabriel, Joseph Julian Soria
Release Date : June 29, 2016
Truth be told, the whole logic behind "The Purge" is just fundamentally flawed, so there's a lot of suspension of disbelief required for this film franchise. I'm not exaggerating when I say "A LOT." With that said, "The Purge: Election Year" actually has an interesting idea of creating a satirical commentary about politicians' involvement with the Purge. Unfortunately, the movie itself wasn't too committed on making that interesting idea into an actual interesting movie. What we have here is just another half-baked story, that's filled with disappointment.
Even if this movie is just another excuse to show violence among other people, it's still executed in lame ways. The violence for one is very typical, with nothing you haven't seen before. If this is genuinely trying to be a horror film, well it's just not that successful in actually horrifying it's audience. It's a problem when this movie wants to shock you, but doesn't produce anything shocking at all. There are uninspired kills, boring deaths, weak jump scares, it's not that suspenseful, and there's hardly any real tension. Come on filmmakers, be a little bit more creative in showing how evil and twisted people can be on Purge Night.
The cast in itself are alright in this movie, but whether you actually care about their characters is another story. Elizabeth Mitchell's Senator Roan has a generally developed back story and character, so I can buy her motivation in this story. Everybody else's characters on the other hand are given just enough of a story for us to care for them. The problem comes when the characters in this movie do stupid things and illogical decisions just so the plot can move on to the next scene. There's a lot of eye rolling and face palm moments on my part, while I was watching this.
It's just unfortunate that "The Purge: Election Year" is unable to achieve the goal of actually being as disturbingly horrific as it thinks it is. All it can be is just another horrible movie.
loveditenjoyedititsokayitsmeh IT'S TERRIBLE
