Review of The Purge

THE PURGE I have been waiting to see this movie for quite a while now. I saw the trailer a while ago and loved the idea. This is a highly anticipated movie for me. America is a peaceful country since a new law has been introduced… for one night a year, all crime is legal! The police, ambulance and fire services are not available for 12 hours. So during that night, as you can imagine is hell. The whole country has turned into a riot… murder, rape, arson, robbery… you name it… it is happening and is legal. One wealthy family lock their house down with really high tech equipment and everything is fine during the night of purging… until the young son hears someone screaming for help and decides to open the security to help him… now their house is targeted by a large group. It is a very good thriller and it did not disappoint. There were a few moments where it was very predictable… I saw a few of the moments coming before they happened… but there were also a few surprise moments. The ending is really good too. The movie stars Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane & Edwin Hodge. Everyone did a great job in their roles… but the only problem I have is with Lena. She did a great job in this, but unfortunately I think she has been typecast as a bad person. I have seen her in Game of Thrones & Dredd and she plays a mean bitch in both of them and she plays it well. I just didn't quite believe she was the housewife victim she was portraying in this movie. But the star of the movie for me was Rhys Wakefield. He played the leader of the group outside… and he was great. The way he played the character was actually really polite and nice, but with a very mean streak. I thought it was a nice touch and he did a brilliant job. The action is great and there are some nice twists. Seeing as the whole movie is set in one house, it gives it a sense of entrapment. You don't get bored either… it has a great suspense about it. Excellently shot and well made. I am so glad that this highly anticipated movie was not a disappointment for me. I was hoping to see it in the cinema, but I missed it… apparently it was in the cinema for only a week. It didn't have enough publicity really… this film deserved a lot more publicity as I believe it would have been more popular that it is. I will give it 7 out of 10. "Incoming reports show this year's Purge has been the most successful to date, with the most murders committed."