The Purge - Anarchy is the best John Carpenter film that John Carpenter never made. If last year's home-invasion original was Assault on Precinct 13, the sequel touches on Escape From New York as the premise of Purge Night is expanded to follow an unsurprisingly mis-matched band of people stranded outside on the night when all crime becomes legal. Where this sequel scores is the mix of melancholy and uneasy threat (reminiscent at times of Monsters) with relentless and visceral action allied to a script that is spare, taut and very well-crafted. Frank Grillo is great in a well-deserved lead, and credit is due to Carmen Ejogo as his female civilian foil. Tension is maintained from the outset, the retro synth-led score is terrific and some surprises are introduced successfully along the way. Although widened out to the city and beyond, it appears that few people actually partake in the purging, but this is mostly a consequence of the very effective maintaining of focus on this limited band of people and their story. Anarchy shows that this is the little franchise that could, and a proposed third entry will need to work very hard to maintain this level of quality and entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment