The Purge: Anarchy (2014), R, ★★1/2

The small group trying to survive the annual purge.

The annual Purge commences again and the hope to survive begins again. Let's think about it again. How would it feel if 364 days of the year is crime-free and one day of the year you can kill anybody you want? Well, the 6th commandment is out the window and it is like a national Hunger Games. Everyone is almost looks like that they are on steroids or have high testosterone when this annual Purge is brought up again. This sequel is a bit crazier and is actually better than the first movie, even though, I would not jump up and down quite yet.

MARCH 21, 2033

Less than 2.5 hour before the Annual Purge begins. It is very difficult to review this movie without any spoilers, so bear with me. The movie starts in a diner where one of the waitresses, Eva (Carmen Ejogo), want to seek a raise from her boss to pay for her father's medicine. She goes home and tells her daughter, Cali (Zoe Soul), that "it's not in the cards" yet while giving the medicine to her father, Rico (John Beasley), as Cali is watching television of Carmelo (Michael K. Williams) try to band an anti-purge group. Rico hates the annual Purge.

Leo (Frank Grillo), a police sergeant, is arming up before the commencement, and a couple named Shane and Liz (Jack Gilford and Kiele Sanchez) are in a tense relationship and as matters get worse, their car breaks down before the Purge begins. He discovers that the wires were cut by the punks with paint of their face who were hassling them earlier. And as the Purge sirens start off at 6:00, it begins and all hell breaks loose again.

It could be one of those Purgers.

And, that's the beginning of the movie and I cannot really go into specific detail as what is going on and what will happen. But, when a few leaders emerge for the purge, they use women to rape and kill them, kill any other people and go and get auctioned. The auction scene does not do the narrative enough justice to clarify why they are doing it. It is argument between high-class society and lower class society. But, still, they never explain why they did it or how they start the auction. It should have been specified more, otherwise, it would have been a great way to put it as a climax. All the people who are left outside have reasons why they are left outside and a few reasons I cannot spoil.

Frank Grillo makes and creates a believable lead action hero. You would want to follow him from dangerous motives and bloodshed. I do like that all the actors are people we do not see from other horror films and actually, they all give pretty good performances.

The thing that is stopping me from giving this movie a positive review is the back half of the picture. It seems a bit rushed and brings in certain and important characters a little too late and those characters serve a purpose to the story and to the lead characters' relationships. Plus, they leave a few loose ends after the auction scene. The climactic shootout is a little conventional for my taste as it leads to a fairly predictable ending. But, this movie is better than the first Purge with Ethan Hawke. That movie had a great concept with a very weak reason as to why that family was betting attacked. This movie, we pay more attention to the action, which is the strongest element of the film, and to some of the characters' reasons as to why they are outside. It's not a bad film to watch with friends at midnight on DVD or on cable, but I would not recommend it to go rush to the theatre. Out of all the horror sequels, this is a fairly entertaining one. A mixed review from me.

**1/2