The Purge: Anarchy

Life is not fair. At least for many families who are victims of brutal crimes. There are too much violence and brutality on the streets worldwide. In some cities women can't go on their own without a friend or partner,  because the risk of being a rape victim. It is sad to see that so many people can become victims for money, sexual desires, or sick fantasies. Just look at Mexico as an example, the drug cartel murder civilians every day, and have no remorse. But in all this darkness we need some hope, that justice have to be the best sollution. We need to have hope that criminals will be punished for their deeds. There are many motion pictures out there that take on criminals with disturbing ideas, just to please themselves. Last year we got a different approach on criminality in the motion picture The Purge. The idea is that every year, on one single night, there is a Purge night, approved by the Government, where murder and criminality is legal, but only until the next morning. The idea of this was fascinating, but the film itself had some problems. Ethan Hawke in the lead role was an advantage, but he could not fill up the mistakes the plot had and some of the poor script ideas. But now we have a sequel here, The Purge: Anarchy that is said to bedifferent from the first motion picture.Considering that the first motion pictures had some problems, is this sequel better than the first film, or are there still problems with the plot ?

March 21, 2023. It is time for the annual Purge night, and all over the city, civilian people are locking themselves inside their homes, until the Purge night is over. Waitress Eva Sanchez ( Carmen Ejogo ) is about to end her work shift and go home, before Purge night begins. She lives together with her daughter Cali Sanchez (Zoe Soul ) and Eva's father Papa Rico ( John Beasley ), who is ill and Eva takes care of him. Just as Purge night is about to begin, Paps Rico tell Eva and Cali he needs to rest. As he goes to bed, Eva prepare late dinner as she let her father sleep. But after quite some time, they discover he have left the building with a note. Since he is ill and probably will not live much longer, he decided to give his life to Purge millionaires, who pay to kill people. This way both Eva and Cali will have a lot of money, even if he is no longer with them. Shocked and incredibly sad, they dont know what to do. But an armed team is breaking in to their appartment building, it seems they are taken as hostages for some unknown reason. Just as Eva and Cali are about to be brought into a truck, they are saved by Seargent Leo Barnes, a lonely man who plan to murder the man who killed his son, driving drunk. He let them go with him into safety, including a couple, Shane ( Zac Gilford ) and Liz ( Kiele Sanchez ) who also need to hide. This is not what Leo planned, but decide to help these people as long as he can. The streets are filled with criminals, who are looking for fresh victims. The Purge distributors gather around and have sales on victims, just to have fun watching poor people die for pleasure. But there is a anti-Purge resistance group, led by leader Carmelo ( Michael K. Williams ). The anti-Purge resistance group save Leo and his friends from one of the Purge compounds, but the battle is far from over.

I can't think of many titles where the sequel is much better than the first film. In the case of The Purge: Anarchy, the sequel is better on every level in acting, script and better dialougue. In fact, i am a bit shocked that director James DeMonaco, who directed the first Purge also, have really changed all the mistakes he did the first time. It is like he realised he needed to make the sequel with the help of what fans wanted. As an example, online there was a forum of The Purge where people could write down what they wanted to be in the sequel. James DeMonaco listened to the fans request, to take The Purge on the city streets, not inside a single house. There is plenty of action here, reminds me of the 1979 motion picture The Warriors, but more updated and with a different plot. The fact that rich people use The Purge for fun, where you can kill people any way you like, is a disurbing idea. And i would not be surprised if this could happen, or already have happened, since some rich people find ways to spend money. Lead actor Frank Grillo is really good as the lonesome revenge seeking Seargent Leo Barnes, who goes out on the annual Purge night, and cruise the streets. One reason why Frank Grillo fit this role so good, is that he is not trying to be a hero or a role model, he does what he needs to do to survive. The massive brutality we get to see on the streets are disturbing, but we all know this could be reality, if criminals decided to gather around and make chaos. Director James DeMonaco really surprised me this time, The Purge: Anarchy is a great action motion picture that shows you how controlled the world is on money. There may not be much original ideas, but in this case i think the concept works much better than the first time. A prequel is coming out next year, we will have to see if it can stand up to the quality of The Purge: Anarchy, because this is the way a sequel should be made. I wonder if we will have a Purge night in Sundsvall ? Just in case, i need to go shopping,  anyone who have a shotgun and throwing knives for sale ? Just curious.....

Rating: DDD