Interesting idea, awful execution

Rating: 2/10 (22 January 2014)

Oh man. This was a really bad movie. Where do I even begin? On paper, this seemed like a really interesting and unique idea. The concept is unlike anything I've seen. Potentially, there could be a lot of loopholes. I mean, supposedly because of this thing known as the annual purge, where people can commit any crime they want to during one evening, crime is supposedly down to 1% or some other ridiculous number? Kind of an eyebrow-raising premise, which would pose a million "what if" questions. The damage done on this evening would be enough to destroy the entire country. The death toll would be high in the millions. Billions of dollars in damage. I don't see how this would be a good idea.
But I was curious to see what they would do with this idea, nonetheless.
The result? An extremely below average, horribly acted, predictable, not scary home invasion movie.
This stupid family has an excellent security system and they literally barricade themselves inside of their fancy suburban home during this year's purge. Fair enough. It wouldn't exactly keep someone from drenching your property in gasoline outside and setting things ablaze, but whatever makes you feel safe, right? So the stupid kid in the family looks on the security cameras and some homeless man is running through the neighborhoods begging to be let in. The kid, of course, opens the gates, and let's the man in. Turns out the man isn't much of a nice guy. Runs around the house and hides. And he attracts a huge pack of people wearing masks, trying to get inside the house.
So what starts with an interesting concept just turns into a boring home invasion movie. We've seen this all before.
The characters in this movie are extremely stupid. They are just so unlikable, not relatable, and extremely annoying that you're secretly hoping the bad guys will just get in there and kill them off so the movie can be over already.
The acting in this movie is extremely bad, as well. No much more is needed to be said about that.
The script was obviously awful. It seems as if it were written overnight, in a single draft. The character development is poor, and many characters in this movie are just filler characters, and no explanation for their existence is given. They are just simply "there".
Also, this movie is very predictable. There are a few so-called "plot twists" thrown in this movie, but they were predictable. I totally saw them coming. In fact, I knew where this movie was going and who the culprits would end up being pretty quickly, shortly after it started.
Overall, this movie was just awful. Sounded like an interesting premise when I first heard about it, but don't let that fool you. This movie is very bad and if you do happen to see it, you'll question why you decided to and plead temporary insanity. I literally felt like my IQ was dropping every second I was watching this movie. It really is an insult to your intelligence.
My score: I give it a mere 2/10. A 2 because as the premise may suggest, during production this film may have started out as a film of substance, but it was terribly executed. I can't believe I got through the entire thing.
The horror genre deserves better than this.