Tense and enjoyable experience with a brilliant idea, has it weaknesses but generally a very good movie

Rating: 8/10 (4 November 2013)

the idea of this movie is just brilliant, it takes the theory of " Risk Reduction ", which is the method used in legalizing things like for example Cannabis or those pushing to legalize prostitution to reduce harm associated with not legalizing them.
here the writers take Criminal acts in general and legalize them once a year for 12 hours, where all criminal acts are legalized, in the aim to reduce criminal behavior in general in society. a very interesting concept and one that could allow for several plot lines and several films could be made out of it, no wonder there is a sequel in the works " according to IMDb ".
Viewers seem to be split in terms of the idea and some think it is ridiculous, i do not see it that way, you never know with how policies are moving, something like this might happen. my only take, is that people tend to be impulsive, and waiting several months to a year to take things into their own hands is a long time, people cannot wait, i would say it would be more logical if they made the purge once every two months or even less.
what ever you think of it, the idea is just brilliant and very interesting.
now the script and characters seemed a bit extreme, and some characters seem to make very silly decisions, but nothing that would make this movie as awful as some on here are saying.
Minor spoilers
the boyfriend of the daughter wants to take advantage of the Purge to kill her father just because he does not want them to be together was a bit too extreme, and why would that be a solution ? would the daughter approve of that or even want to be with him after killing her father ?
a silly part for sure.
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i continued watching because the idea was so intriguing and the director managed to create the right atmosphere to keep viewers interested despite the lack in certain areas in characters. and the movie did not let me down, was pretty good and kept getting more interesting as the plot moved forward and the family gets targeted by a group of Psychopaths.
there were of course several plot holes, for example, allowing for a purge, criminals might use that to take down a whole city down and so after the purge, chaos would persist. for example : destroying police property or cutting down communications.
another is people might kill outside the Purge hours and could still get away with it by lying about it that it was done during.
the movie also concentrated on the social aspects and took away all psychological aspects of human behavior, people are aggressive generally and tend to turn into animals in the absence of civilization, but not all people are that way. certain individuals just cannot kill because it is not part of their genes to do so. the film pictures all people as killers, i thought it was a bit of an over generalization.
Spoiler ahead
for example, the neighbors are feeling envy and jealous of the family because they are making profit and showing it off, but is that enough to justify killing them ? maybe robbing their house, destroying their property, stealing, but Killing ? that was another example of extreme.
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the movie does have many arguing points for discussion and you cannot find two people agreeing on it, but that is what is so good about it, it makes good for discussion and is interesting in many ways. the thrills, intrigue, and even some action and drama are all found here and gives and enjoyable experience.
do not listen to the negative reviews here, watch this original film and judge yourself. i certainly enjoyed it with its weaknesses. recommended and i rate it 8 out of 10