Painful to watch

Rating: 3/10 (4 December 2014)

If you want to wallow in a crazy and pointlessly violent alternate universe for an hour-and-a-half, this movie may be for you. It's way to insane for my liking. Why is Ethan Hawke attracted to these miserably dark, depressing and hopeless movies--"Sinister" was another--featuring a "normal" family, of which he is the patriarch, beset by ridiculous and inexplicable violence? Sinister and The Purge have the same gloomy look and feel and the same grim music. Both movies are unpleasant to watch. My advice is to skip it. I'm waiting for Mr. Hawke, fine actor that he is, to return to making intelligent movies with a message...and, ideally, a touch of hopefulness.