The First Purge (2018)

[baumer]

Discuss

[ainsleyb]

Almost on par with the first film as being the worst in the series. It’s political message is so heavy handed that it’s pretty much pandering to its target audience. One of the characters shouts “don’t grab my pussy”, the ‘hero’ is a black murdering drug dealer and pretty much every white character is a stock evil racist.

 

The story itself starts off slowly and doesnt follow up with any of its ideas. Some of the masks used are creepy and there’s a handful of inventive death and chase scenes but it’s overall a poor effort.

[baumer]

8 hours ago, ainsleyb said:

Almost on par with the first film as being the worst in the series. It’s political message is so heavy handed that it’s pretty much pandering to its target audience. One of the characters shouts “don’t grab my pussy”, the ‘hero’ is a black murdering drug dealer and pretty much every white character is a stock evil racist.

 

The story itself starts off slowly and doesnt follow up with any of its ideas. Some of the masks used are creepy and there’s a handful of inventive death and chase scenes but it’s overall a poor effort.

 

Most politicians are white, so if the Purge is targeting low income communities that are mostly black, then how else do you want them to portray the white people that are in power?  This is the beginning of the Purge.  From here out, it goes nation wide, but to start, it goes for a low income/poor black community.

 

I thought it took a bit too long to get into the Purge and it kind of suffers because of it but once it happens, it's well done.  I thought the lead character was really well done and he has a striking resemblance to Chadwick Boseman.  I was disappointed in how they show it all starting.  They explain things as they go, but for a film that is supposed to show the origins of the Purge, they just kind of stick us in the middle of the idea and let us watch it from there.  I think it would have been better to show how this became an idea.  Take us inside the room where the first person suggested it and how percolated from there.  That was a missed opportunity for sure.  

 

The killings were inventive and the soundtrack was used to the films advantage as well.  I liked it for the most part because of the two leads and for the last 45 minutes.  I'd like to see Frank Grillo in the next one, if there is a next one.  However, with the state of the US, this does seem like a very well timed film and I think it will play well to audiences.

 

7/10

[ainsleyb]

23 minutes ago, baumer said:

 

Most politicians are white, so if the Purge is targeting low income communities that are mostly black, then how else do you want them to portray the white people that are in power?  This is the beginning of the Purge.  From here out, it goes nation wide, but to start, it goes for a low income/poor black community.

 

I thought it took a bit too long to get into the Purge and it kind of suffers because of it but once it happens, it's well done.  I thought the lead character was really well done and he has a striking resemblance to Chadwick Boseman.  I was disappointed in how they show it all starting.  They explain things as they go, but for a film that is supposed to show the origins of the Purge, they just kind of stick us in the middle of the idea and let us watch it from there.  I think it would have been better to show how this became an idea.  Take us inside the room where the first person suggested it and how percolated from there.  That was a missed opportunity for sure.  

 

The killings were inventive and the soundtrack was used to the films advantage as well.  I liked it for the most part because of the two leads and for the last 45 minutes.  I'd like to see Frank Grillo in the next one, if there is a next one.  However, with the state of the US, this does seem like a very well timed film and I think it will play well to audiences.

 

7/10

 

Come on, they literally have the white people in this as either evil rich politicians or klansmen. There is no inbetween. The only white woman in this gets to have her ‘I’m changing my ways’ moment before she gets killed by white men. I thought the main klansmen in the final scene was wearing a Reagan mask at first he had such a striking resemblance. 

 

Theyve gone sledgehammer first at the ‘whitey is keeping us down’ crowd and it might work for them but not for me. Bring back grillo. 

 

 

[baumer]

Tomei didn't have a change of heart at all.  She wanted the experiment to involve killing she just wanted it done organically.  What the politicians did was start it in ways that were unintended.  So she really wasn't redeemed at all, imo.  

[That One Girl]

Easily the best Purge movie.

 

Also put Y'lan Noel in more movies (he plays Dmitri), he's so good.

[baumer]

23 minutes ago, That One Guy said:

Easily the best Purge movie.

 

Also put Y'lan Noel in more movies (he plays Dmitri), he's so good.

 

He was terrific. He's got screen presence for sure.

[Viktor Vilotijevic]

It's really horrible. Corny and offensively stupid. We have Trump for a president, boohoo, cry me a river. But Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes and even Obama were much better. Give me a break. I'm not an American, but I have been living here for years, but also worked for American embassy for years back home. Apart from that I studied film and I still publish reviews. This film is so lame that it can only make you laugh if you are sane and have your facts together. Screenplay is cringe worthy, and I think agitprops had more sense back in war days. This kind of propaganda can only insult someone who has common sense.

[That One Girl]

5 hours ago, Viktor Vilotijevic said:

It's really horrible. Corny and offensively stupid. We have Trump for a president, boohoo, cry me a river. But Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes and even Obama were much better. Give me a break. I'm not an American, but I have been living here for years, but also worked for American embassy for years back home. Apart from that I studied film and I still publish reviews. This film is so lame that it can only make you laugh if you are sane and have your facts together. Screenplay is cringe worthy, and I think agitprops had more sense back in war days. This kind of propaganda can only insult someone who has common sense.

 

...are you okay?

[WrathOfHan]

As someone who hasn't seen any other Purge movies, I enjoyed this. The action in here is fun and saves a weak story and unsubtle political commentary. 7/10 | B-

[Viktor Vilotijevic]

Political commentary that is so cringe worthy.... And not completely accurate. I am not an American, but very politically educated, ans this is the cheapest left propaganda. Trump, pussygraber, KKK, fire, racism, aaaaaaa... Give me a break.

[That One Girl]

On 7/8/2018 at 9:33 AM, That One Guy said:

 

...are you okay?

 

[baumer]

Why does political commentary have to be subtle?  If you have something to say, say it loud and clear.

[baumer]

8 hours ago, Viktor Vilotijevic said:

Political commentary that is so cringe worthy.... And not completely accurate. I am not an American, but very politically educated, ans this is the cheapest left propaganda. Trump, pussygraber, KKK, fire, racism, aaaaaaa... Give me a break.

 

So, none of these things exist or have at one time existed?  

[Viktor Vilotijevic]

Of course they do... But come on - pussy grabber... That's so cheesy... And I don't believe there were so many anti-Reagan or even anti-Nixon films... Wait, not even with Bush... So please, give me a break, this country had bad president for decades. Nothing depicted in film is new or 'just started happening", it's just a cheap attempt to make people panic or to quote the Uber driver, a circa 55 year old white woman, in LA the other day - "We are living in the worst times ever". Bitch, learn your history please...

 

And even if everything was spot on with commentary, film is still really cheap and bad.

[Jmart]

On 7/13/2018 at 12:36 AM, Viktor Vilotijevic said:

Of course they do... But come on - pussy grabber... That's so cheesy... And I don't believe there were so many anti-Reagan or even anti-Nixon films... Wait, not even with Bush... So please, give me a break, this country had bad president for decades. Nothing depicted in film is new or 'just started happening", it's just a cheap attempt to make people panic or to quote the Uber driver, a circa 55 year old white woman, in LA the other day - "We are living in the worst times ever". Bitch, learn your history please...

 

And even if everything was spot on with commentary, film is still really cheap and bad.

There were. See more movies between 1975 and 20**, well today really. And this is just the beginning for anti-Trump films.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Jmart

[Jmart]

Fire.

 

It can’t travel through wooden closet doors.

 

It it can turn night into day in a second.

 

(I know they blocked the windows, but the apartment scene starts in the middle of the night, couldn’t have lasted more than 45 minutes in real time, and now it’s suddenly bright out though cloudy.)

 

Other than to save face, based on the events of this film, why would the government implement the Purge nationwide a year later? What was so successful about the first attempt?

 

Also, according to the first Purge movie, the first Purge occurred in 2014. This series might have a continuity problem. That means Election Year takes place in 2032.

 

And this movie dared to have a commercial in it during the credits. Not at the end, but in the middle of when you’re supposed to be processing the film. I know people get annoyed by Marvel-like credits sequences and how they’ve taken over certain films, but this is a new low. A Purge TV series! Hasn’t this concept been milked enough. We got to drag it over to the USA network? Where characters are welcome?

 

Okay, I’ve seen all four of the films now and I’ve come to the conclusion that these movies aren’t for me. The second one is the closest to what I’d call a good movie and it barely scrapes over mediocre for me. The other two, and now this one, have tried my patience to put it mildly, and it’s a shame, because the basic premise, if it had been executed properly, could’ve made for an intriguing film. Or at the very least, a sleazy entertaining film. Give this premise to John Carpenter in his prime and I think you’d get a classic. Instead, you’ve got a series that I think is supposed to be cathartic or enlightening for some people. For me, they’re anything but. They’re obvious and cloying.

 

The only positive thing I can say about this series is that it’s success has allowed Jason Blum and Blumhouse to branch out and make whatever films they want and if that means we get more films like Get Out and Halloween (please be good...also, this movie takes place in 2014 yet a poster for the new Halloween movie is hanging up in the kids bedroom?) then maybe it will have been worth it.

 

But in the meantime these movies just suck.

 

D

 

Why hire Marisa Tomei if you’re barely going to use her and when you do you just wind up wasting her? Her character could’ve been a goldmine for scene-chewing villainy. Instead, those lines are most passed off to some douche, and she’s unceremoniously killed off on a security camera. That scene is done so poorly (and it’s clear they used a double for her) that I was convinced she was going to pop-up alive again somewhere towards the end. Nope.

 

This movie sucks ass.