Escape to the Movies: The Purge

[MovieBob]

The Purge

MovieBob lets it all out in his review of The Purge.

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[Daystar Clarion]

Damn, I was hoping it would deal with the issues you listed Bob, but it just turns out it's another terrible slasher fic?


Boo T^T

 

[Blunderboy]

Damn, I was hoping it would deal with the issues you listed Bob, but it just turns out it's another terrible slasher fic?


Boo T^T

Yup, like we don't have enough of this.
My other question is, if there is not going to be any repercussions for your crime why would you bother to wear a mask? Just to be 'spooky'? Sod that.
Everyday people doing horrible things is much scarier than that.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I wonder if the Purge would have been better as a tv series in which all the episodes focus on the sane day but from the wealth of different premises possible with the idea of one law free day. In such a series I also think it would be good to show the days leading up to the purge, to see how people prepare (besides the obvious) and the days immediately following to see how people move on from this day each year.

Edit - I was thinking about Bob's comment regarding smaller stores and it made me think that in the world of this movie there might be am additional Black Friday style holiday. The less stock a store has on the day of the purge the less it has to defend and the less it stands to lose. So I can imagine stores, especially the smaller ones who can't afford the security would be inclined to offer discounts on their stock the day before the purge so that they can make some money off of the stock that they risk losing and losing money on if it remains in the store for the dreaded day. In my mind the store owners and customers would take to informally calling this day "Binge Day"

Such a rich premise, such a shame to hear that it wasn't mined properly.

 

[MichaelMaverick]

My entire relationship with this movie step-by-step was finding out about it on Cracked, thinking it was a really smart and scary premise, briefly looking it up on Wikipedia and seeing it was produced by Michael Bay, then coming here to confirm it was a piece of shit. Too sad, really.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

CAPTCHA: hear hear

I think the Captcha agrees with you, Bob. So do I. There was a lot more this movie could have done, but it looks like it didn't want to (or couldn't due to lack of creativity) go to those places.

Off topic: Rule 63 Link?!? Whoo boy...bad enough Link actually did get compared to Legolas amongst some fans...

 

[themilo504]

This movie seems very stupid, maybe it makes more sense In the movie itself, but how the hell would a yearly event that I?m going to assume includes massive damage to the city itself, lead to a good economy, maybe if it was every 10 years but not every year.

also killing off the poor is incredibly stupid, without the poor your economy would crash, so unless this takes place in a world in which all laborers have been replaced by robots, this seems to me like a incredibly stupid and flawed premise.

 

[Lucane]

Yeah if it was shot like "The four rooms" , "Pulp Fiction" or "Crash" where the story all basically happens playing over each other with the killings being only a portion of the plots would of been a lot more interesting. Hell it sounds almost like they've could said lets become Bioshock's Rapture for 12 hours.

 

[Mr. Q]

Well, I've certainly got two reasons not to see a movie this weekend. I'd like to think Moviebob would recommend Much Ado About Nothing but its in limited release and it might be in your area if you happen to live in a major city with theaters that offers more than just the big releases. If you live in a small town like I do, you're SOL and JWF. -_-

So, what is coming next week?

Spoiler

Seven more days until the moment of truth, people. Until then, let us pray...

Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck!
Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck!
Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck! Please don't suck...

 

[thehorror2]

What's the "boyfriend subplot" that he mentions in the stinger? I haven't seen the movie and I have no desire to, but I'm curious what's going on with that.

 

[walsfeo]

It is the will of Landru!
http://www.startrek.com/database_article/landru

 

[hentropy]

I disagree on one point, Bob. When I first saw the theatrical trailer my first thought about the premise was "that is really, really dumb". I never even thought it was clever, maybe a bit original perhaps but certainly not clever. It's clearly not thought out, as you said. The thing is that making your house a fortress would be something only a very small percent at the top could afford, and it is hard to think that 90% of the population would ever think it's a good thing. Violence and most types of violent crime have a narcotic effect, which is why we put people in jail forever if they plan out a murder and go through with it. Nullifying laws for 12 hours is basically the same as nullifying laws in general.

But even with that the trailer showed it mostly being just a hackneyed masked intruder slasher flick, so I was never really interested in it. The assholes did like to advertise the living fuck out of it, though.

 

[Malisteen]

Yeah, I never had any hope for the purge. Right from the first preview I saw, it struck me as a movie that would think it was way smarter than it actually was. One that would say way more about the latent, unexamined prejudices of its film makers than of the society it was pretending to criticize in about the laziest way possible. Basically a 'Branded' sort of situation. "Pretentious". MB's review may not indicate that it's that bad, but yeah, I'm not sad I skipped this one.

 

[KeikakuKat]

More hating on Mitt Romney. I don't even like the guy, so why do I feel the need to jump in on people bashing him? I'm just a weirdo like that, I guess.
Anyway, still a good review. I already wasn't going to see this movie, but at least now I know exactly what's wrong with it. Oh and hey, another Robocop fan! Yay!

 

[Dangit2019]

Ethan Hawke is struggling and it's getting more and more obvious that he's in a downturn. His "American beauty" or "twelve monkeys" is not coming anytime soon.

I wouldn't say that; Before Midnight just came out and it was great. You can't blame the guy for signing up to an interesting premise when he didn't have anything to do with overall production of the movie.

OT: This movie would have been much more interesting from the viewpoint of a poor kid on the street running for his life and trying to find a safe place to stay, but apparently Hollywood can't make a horror movie about anything other than a white upper-middle class family being attacked in their house for dumbass reasons.

 

[kailus13]

This movie seems very stupid, maybe it makes more sense In the movie itself, but how the hell would a yearly event that I?m going to assume includes massive damage to the city itself, lead to a good economy, maybe if it was every 10 years but not every year.

also killing off the poor is incredibly stupid, without the poor your economy would crash, so unless this takes place in a world in which all laborers have been replaced by robots, this seems to me like a incredibly stupid and flawed premise.

If you think about it, only really bad crimes would be committed during the purge. Why would you risk your life over somethin minor like stealing or vandalism? Anyone around could murder you with no consequences.

Logically crimes would provoke a larger punishment outside of the purge then they usually would as well.

Damn, I was hoping it would deal with the issues you listed Bob, but it just turns out it's another terrible slasher fic?


Boo T^T

Yup, like we don't have enough of this.
My other question is, if there is not going to be any repercussions for your crime why would you bother to wear a mask? Just to be 'spooky'? Sod that.
Everyday people doing horrible things is much scarier than that.

I suppose it's like a gang tattoo that you can take off for the rest of the year.

 

[Jman1236]

Yeah when I saw the trailer on a youtube ad a few months ago, I knew that this was going to suck big time. The basic idea is the framework for a good movie, but they took it in the laziest most predicable route possible. Also not everything is legal in the purge, according to the wikipedia article, you can't use class 4 weapons and killing goverment officals is off-limits so staged uprisings are still illegal.

Also I totally didn't release that man of steel is out next week since I kept thinking ti was out july 14th not june 14th.