Purging your system is a much better experience

Rating: 2/10 (7 June 2013)

It's nice to know that in just nine short years - at least according to this film's opening narrative - that unemployment will be just one percent and the crime rate will be practically negligible. That will certainly be good news for our next president during his or her second term.
Of course, the reason for these statistics is that once a year all heck breaks loose and all criminal activity is allowed, including murder, rape, arson and assault. Evidently, top scientists have claimed that such annual mayhem has curbed the natural human instinct for violence the other 364 days of the year.
Directed by James DeMonaco ("Staten Island, Little New York"), "The Purge," sort of a "Straw Dogs" meets "Panic Room" amalgamation, tells the tale of events in the not too distant future where "the new Founding Fathers" (whatever THAT means) have established an almost Utopian society based upon this logic that if "the Beast" is released, then the basic good of the individual will shine through (after he has bludgeoned his neighbor's family to a pulp, however).
After the explanation of the 12-hour event, we are introduced to the Sandin family, dad James (Ethan Hawke, who once was nominated for an Academy Award for "Training Day"), mom Mary (Lena Headey, "Game of Thrones" TV series), slutty daughter Zoe (Adelaide Kane, "Goats") and dimwitted son Charlie (Max Burkholder, "Friends With Money").
A wealthy home security system expert, James is quite busy this time of year and has just been named the top salesman of his company. His daughter could care less, however, as she has secreted her goofy boyfriend, Henry (Tony Oller, "Beneath The Darkness") - who seems to have sinister plans of his own - in her bedroom. Once the crime spree begins, James locks down his home and bolts his family in and expects to ride things out as the bloodletting run its course.
However, a movie like this cannot just run its course and soon enough, the dullard Charlie violates every precept of intelligence and credibility by letting a possible victim (Edwin Hodge, the remake of "Red Dawn") of the night's carnage into the home. This causes a series of unfortunate events to take place, including the arrival of what looks like cast members from a community theater troupe of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" led by the "Polite Leader" (Rhys Wakefield, "Sanctum") who now demand the escapee be turned over or the family faces certain death.
This is because the group somehow has the means and equipment to break through all of the Sandin's sophisticated and intricate security systems and blockades. This revelation then begs the question, that if the villains can do this to the Sandin home, why not just pull down everyone's walls and barriers and really do some damage in the exclusive neighborhood instead of chasing down a solitary homeless bum.
Film then turns from a quasi-political statement on left wing tolerance of crime and right-wing paranoia into your basic home invasion/slaughter flick with James arming everyone in his clan (with several convenient weapons) and making his stand against a dozen or more crazed psychopaths.
Here, the brutality reaches fever pitch with shotgun blasts, stabbings, beatings with pool cues and other assorted cruelty handed out full measure. Thank goodness many of these scenes were filmed in Ray Charles-Vision, coming out so dark, grainy and obscured by quick-cut and confusing camera action that few viewers could tell just what was going on anyway.
And, despite an interesting concept, the execution falls flat, the direction becomes substandard and the acting approaches "Paranormal Activity" level (although Wakefield seems to have a little fun with his too short villain's role). Especially at fault in that last department is Burkholder, who spends most of the picture playing with a remote control tank/video camera contraption and starring expressionless into the camera.
Yet, I suppose if there is one positive thing about "The Purge," it's that the picture runs a mercifully short 85 minutes, allowing the cinema patron to see this mess as quickly as possible before moving on to more important and interesting diversions - such as washing dishes, picking up after your dog had an accident and watching beige paint dry.