As some of you may or may not remember, last year around July I reviewed the first two movies in the “Purge” series in “honor” of this movie coming out. You guys seemed to enjoy those reviews, so here we go… wrapping this shit up.
Ladies and gents… “The Purge: Election Year”.
Motherfucking badass Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) is back! Only this time he isn’t out for revenge, but he’s instead acting as security for a Senator (Elizabeth Mitchell) that is running for president. And her first act as president? Stop the “Purge”, just shut it down forever. And as you might predict, a lot of people are not too happy about that idea. And now we have an action-thriller where Barnes has to go on the run with the Senator while they encounter all kinds of strange of people. But it’s not just aiming to be a fun action-thriller, because it is also trying to have relevant social commentary and depth. And how does that turn out? Eh. I honestly think that they don’t mix too well. I was going along for the ride and I had fun with the silly plot and then it tried to be smart and deep and it kind of took me out of it. This isn’t exactly smart satire, so it couldn’t pull off having both the action-thriller stuff and the “deeper” stuff. So overall the plot is… meh. However, there was a brief moment in it that actually answered a question I had about this stupid franchise… so there’s that. But the plot overall like I said is kind of meh.
The characters in this movie… yeah, I don’t really like them. For the most part they are bland, forgettable, and not very interesting. Frank Grillo as Leo Barnes is pretty much the exception to this, because he’s awesome. He was great in “Purge: Anarchy” and he’s great here… he’s a motherfucking badass! Elizabeth Mitchell is also a character that I thought was kind of interesting. For one, her character was very adamant about shutting down the “Purge”, which is good because it’s like the stupidest idea ever. And she also worked because Mitchell gave a really good performance. She and Grillo actually had a little bit of chemistry in the movie, so that’s fun. We also got Mykelti Williamson as a store owner that gets fucked over by the insurance company and he was really good in the movie. The rest of that cast… who gives a shit? Most of them are bland, but there are also some that are INCREDIBLY annoying! Specifically, a couple of young woman harassing Williamson’s character. Seriously, I wanted to slam my face into a god damn wall every time they were in a shot. So yeah… the cast is a mixed bag.
The score for the movie was composed by Nathan Whitehead (just like in the previous movies!) and I think that he did a pretty good job. Now, his score here is nothing that I would listen to on a daily basis, but I do think that it was pretty well composed and it fit the movie very well.
This movie was (just like the previous ones) directed by James DeMonaco and he did a pretty good job with it. Now, I’m not gonna say that what he did was great, but for what it is… it’s not bad. Visually speaking, this movie actually looks pretty good. And the action in the movie was really fun. It’s not groundbreaking or even great, but it was really fun to watch. I also have to mention the writing… Jesus Christ, it’s bad. As I was watching the movie, characters continuously delivered really bad dialogue. At a few times it was fun, like when Mr. Badass (Grillo) delivered them or when Mykelti Williamson said them. So yeah… the writing wasn’t really that good (not that I expected it to be good).
This movie has not been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 54% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 55/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,0/10.
“The Purge: Elecetion Year” is a really dumb but also kind of fun action-thriller. It has a meh plot, okay characters, good performances, good music, and pretty good directing/action. However it is brought down quite a bit by the plot trying to be deeper than it is, a bunch of annoying characters/performances, and some really bad lines. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “The Purge: Election Year” is a 6,21/10. So it might actually be worth a rental.
My review of “The Purge: Election Year” is now completed.
It’s finally over! *Checks imdb*. Wait… “The Purge 4”? Coming 2018!? God damn it…
TheMarckoguy 
I loved it. Sure it was kind of stupid but it was still fun. The writing wasn’t good but it almost didn’t matter. I’m a big fan of the series but it should have ended here.
It’s fine that you love the series. No one’s stopping you. Hell, I think it’s great that you like them. I’m just saying that I don’t love these.
I found the first movie decent enough, not sure whether I’ll see this. Nice review though.
Thank you. I wasn’t really a fan of the first one. Just found it bland and a bit annoying.
Yeah I can get that. The first for me did have some jumps but I wouldn’t say it was anything special.
The second one (subtitled “Anarchy”) is an improvement over the first. It’s not great, but it’s definitely better than the first.
It’s unusual when a second film actually improves upon the first.
Yeah. Still, there are some genuinely great sequels out there.
Oh most definitely. The Godfather Part II is probably the best.
Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, X-Men 2, Aliens(maybe). Sometimes it happens.
Those are all sequels I hold in high regard.
Sometimes sequels surprise.
Got a laugh at the end with the “God damn it” about the fourth one coming.
Was just announced yesterday I think that they’re making it into a TV series, it’s never going to end haha!
Nice review though 😊 I personally loved it – I find the the films in this series keep getting better after a first outing that I thought was really disappointing.