Better Late Than Never: The Purge (2013) Review

     The trailers for this film had me thinking it was going to be a city wide chaotic story of the night when the "haves"(versus the have nots) try to survive the annual purge of crime and rage that supposedly takes place every year in 2022 according to the films brief summary.  That is what I was expecting, that is not what I got when I sat through The Purge (2013).

I don't like it when a movie is made, with the idea that the audience and the characters in it are all stupid.  Who thinks up stuff like that?  (The answer is in the opening credits under the list of producers)  First, the characters in the film are the most unaware, disconnected people in any horror or thriller I have seen in a while.  Ethan Hawke is a good actor, so it bothers me when he puts himself in a film like this although he does have a nice little action sequence during the films climax.  But, his character is so unaware of his family and their situation in the film it's no wonder he gets cleansed through purge...or whatever you want to call it. His wife played by Lena Headey must have been really bad at hide and seek as a kid because her kids disappear from her multiple times in the film by simply leaving her in a room alone when she turns her head.  I'll leave out that she can't even find them in her own house, which is made to seem way too big even with trying to mention an addition to the house early in the film.  Lastly, the teenage daughter because why not have a home invasion story without a teenage daughter?  Who apparently likes to walk around in her skimpy school girl uniform because, why not?  I wonder who in Hollywood thinks that's the perverted case in American households?  (Answer is in the opening credits)  There is a young boy too, and of course he does a lot of stupid things to aggravate both his family and those watching the film.

I say "home invasion" story because that's what it is, "The Annual Purge" is happening all over America and somehow this makes the economy fix itself by allowing "all crime including murder" (murder is underlined in the film because we might be too stupid to know that) to happen once a year. I guess by creating jobs to fix all the mayhem that happens over one night for twelve hours all over the country but the focus is on this one family in this one house.  The movie was predictable, no real surprises and for some reason a sequel was made for it.  By the way, the answer that is in the opening credits is Michael Bay.   Had I known, I would have purged the film from my watch list.