The Purge: Election Year - movie review

The Purge: Election Year

Plot: Years after sparing the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.
Cast: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson
Director: James DeMonaco
Rating: 15 (strong bloody violence, very strong language)
Runtime: 1hr 49 mins
Release Date: Friday 26th August 2016

Have you ever been angry? Have you ever wanted to release this anger? No, you don't need a stress ball or therapy. All you need is an axe, shotgun or conveniently placed pendulum blade and you can injure, maim and kill until your heart's content. The Purge everyone. Their message; if ever you feel under pressure or unhappy, just murder some folk and you'll be right as rain. Of course I'm kidding. Don't kill people. Even if they are dickheads. I know it goes without saying but I don't know who reads my reviews. They could be deeply disturbed.

In the first Purge, Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey led the way and boy did it suck. It was just a crime against cinema and I wanted to curl up in a ball rocking back and forth whispering 'It can't be worse'. Then the director must have listened and scrapped those two and replaced them with Frank Grillo, made it more action orientated and The Purge: Anarchy was born. It was a step up from it's predecessor but it's biggest problem was that it was forgettable. It came out two years ago and I honestly can't remember a single thing that happened. Now, for the third time, The Purge has reared it's ugly head and the studio made the smart decision (literally the only one) by keeping Frank Grillo as the main star. The dude is a fantastic actor and is amazing in these action films (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Warrior). He may not be starring in a very good film, but he is the highlight. My only issue with Grillo this time round is that he wasn't as cold or hardened as he was in Anarchy. Instead, he seemed to take a back seat for the supporting characters to be seen but screw that. My only reason for even seeing Election Year was for Frank Grillo to fight these maniacs but he doesn't do that as much. He just ferries around the Senator from safe house to safe house and killing a couple of people on the way. Where was his moment to retain that Punisher-esque behaviour? So with Grillo taking this back seat, it meant that the focus could shift to Elizabeth Mitchell as Senator Charlie Roan, a politician looking to abolish The Purge. AT LAST! Someone with sense in this parallel universe where people thought this was a good idea. Don't start with that 'It will reduce crime throughout the year' crap. Mitchell as the Senator is fine. The role doesn't require anything that unique in terms of magnificent acting but she's completely watchable and didn't worsen the experience for me. In fact, she works well with Grillo and the pair made the film go from bad to average. 

But here's the real star; Mykelti Williamson. Who is that I hear pretty much all of you say? He played Bubba in Forrest Gump. How the mighty have fallen. He's hilarious in Election Year because he reacts in the exact way that I know most, including myself, would. If I saw three crazy chicks dressed like sluts with chainsaws coming after me, I wouldn't be thinking 'swings'. I'd be running the other way saying 'Oh Hell Nah'. That's exactly what Williamson is like and he was the most human of the bunch and someone that I legitimately felt emotionally attached to because of how real he felt. The rest of the supporting characters aren't horrible but they are so thick making the stupidest of decisions with the most disastrous of consequences and they're shocked by it. However, two specific individuals that I have to talk about are Raymond J. Barry and Brittany Mirabile. Oh my God these two cannot act. Barry plays the leader of the cult in charge of running the Purge. His voice is unbelievably deep and sounds like a cross between a dalek and Gandalf. Plus, almost every other word out of his mouth was, ahem, C U Next Tuesday. It got to a point where I started laughing at him even though he's meant to be this menacing figure. As for Mirabile, I'm lost for words. She appears in a group of Purgers attacking a convenience store for one reason and one reason only. She wants her candy bar. No, it's not a typo. She's willing to shed blood to get a Twix. Now I like my chocolate but I've never thought of scalping the freaking MilkyBar kid to get one. I had no idea that this was a comedy but watching her, I was laughing more than I have been at some of the comedies this year. Her eyes are constantly up, snarling at the camera and reminding me of The Goonies. Wait, Sloth got addicted to candy as well. OMG! She's his daughter.

Right, plain and simple here; The Purge: Election Year is just a stupid film that makes no sense. I will say that the action is pretty consistent and it's not just walking along the street talking about how bad this situation is. There's car chases, gunfights, fistfights and foot chases. I wasn't bored per say but the action sequences just blended into one giant mediocre fight. It is also very violent and that did surprise me. The previous two have been violent but Election Year took it in a direction I was hoping it would at the beginning. The violence in this film is really disturbing and tough to watch in places. As horrible as it sounds, I can see someone get shot on film and it's usually pretty basic and doesn't phase me. This time round, guys heads are being severed with a guillotine, lynching and even an arrow to the head and it got under my skin. Each of the Purge films have tried a different genre. The first Purge was made as a home invasion horror and the second seemed like a large scale action flick. This time round, it was a survival game of cat and mouse and there were elements that worked. There were also countless elements that really didn't. They've now exhausted all possibilities with this concept. It seemed like a good idea at the time but they've had three films to make it work and unfortunately, it seems uncrackable. I hoped it could have worked but now I just don't get the idea anymore. It doesn't make sense. The director and writer, James DeMonaco must have a bleak outlook on humanity if he thinks that we would all resort to murderous rampaging lunatics if given the option. Obviously, there would be some absolute idiots that would go on a killing spree but I'm pretty certain that most wouldn't just go around murdering innocents. Not once can I see myself going out for the night and if my mum or dad asks me where I'm going, I'd just reply ' Oh yeah, I'm just meeting up with the local psychopaths to burn a church down and kill some grannies.'

If I'm being honest, regardless of the horrendous acting from the Purgers and senseless concept, Election Year is similar to Anarchy. Infuriating at times and mildly enjoyable at others, I'm likely to forget about it by next week.

My Verdict: 5/10

What did you think of The Purge: Election Year? Would you partake in The Purge? (I'm hoping the answer's no). Post your comments below.

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