The Unique Idea wasn't enough to save it.

Rating: Null/10 (13 October 2013)

When I first saw this movie's preview on TV, I was very eager and interested in it. I mean, what would I do if anything was legal for twelve hours. I was hoping this would be a movie that made people question human nature and government structure all together. I was hoping it would be a film that I would walk away with i still on my mind for days. Unfortunately, this is not what i received. With a paper thin plot, two dimensional characters and unchoreographed scenes made this movie a pain to watch. The main characters made decisions unnaturally stupid to make screen spectacles. Like when Lena Heady got knocked down, but was saved at the last moment (preditctably), she dropped her fully loaded pistols, but didn't pick them up to continue her travels through her murderer infested house. Why, you might ask, would someone make such an unacceptable, irrational decision like that? So that when there pinned by the Joker wanna be near the end she can't shoot him and get out. They set up that scene so their scanky daughter has to hop in and save the day. The movie constantly set themselves up for scenes like that and it was painfully obvious. While we're on the subject, let's talk about the bad guy. The only guy who was remotely interesting got about three minutes of screen time. They set him up to be this inescapable obstacle, the bane of this families existence. But he turned out to be nothing more than filler. In this version of America, they have a low crime rate, great economy and the Purge. But what they didn't tell you is the fact that in that world, people can be shot in the stomach with powerful revolvers at point-blank range and function properly without any troubles. I don't know if maybe when they had that homeless guy tied up during the entire movie and left him alone for no reason even though they wanted to save him he escaped and got magic medical attention or something, but when he jumped in to save everyone (minus the dad), I literally laughed out loud. The one scene that I didn't mind was the part where Ethen Hawke beats the crap out of four goons and kills them right before his predictable demise. Compared to other scenes in this snore- fest, this one seemed Oscar worthy. Also, just remember that this was a horror movie. Yep, believe me, I had to look on the back of the case just to make sure. Horror movies don't scare me. A shadowy figure peeking around a corner, bed sheets moving by the selves and low-quality footage of dark hallways aren't frightening to me. But what i do expect to make me jump are the cheap jump scares. You know, like when that stupid cat kept hopping out out nooks in Aleins. Jump scares usually make me jump, but this movie completely ruined those by literally zooming into the spot where the "scary" girl in the white dress was going to hop out of. The only thing I was afraid of was the possibility of "The Purge 2". And after reading IMDb's trivia section for this movie, it appears my nightmare has become a reality. In closing, the Purge proves that a good idea does not do the work for you and can't carry the dead weight of the rest of the movie along this 80 minute waste of effort.