Reviews

The Purge is set in the near-future. Where crime is at an all-time low and unemployment is at 1%. This is due to the annual purge in which all emergency services are shut down and American's are granted the freedom to commit any crime to anyone for 12 hours. A family, who does not participate, must come to terms with their own morality as they allow a homeless man into their home, it just happens that a local group of people who target one person and kill him, are after him and provide the family with an ultimatum: All of them, or just the stranger.

The Purge stars Ethan Hawke, Lena Heady, Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane and is written and directed by James DeMonaco.

To be honest, I found the concept of The Purge to be incredibly absurd. However, I felt it contained potential in terms of maybe portraying the difficulties of being human and I also wondered if it would focus on the morality tale as well as providing some well required social commentary. What I received was all of them, however they were delivered incredibly poorly you could almost overlook them.

I think the directing suited the film and was appropriate, however I felt the writing was lacking. It just appeared, to me, like DeMonaco was unsure of what genre of film he wished to depict - Horror/Thriller/Sci- Fi - so he happened upon the conclusion that he was going to unite all three and make something spectacular. It just felt sloppy and disorganized.

In addition to the poor writing, a major factor of it was defiantly the dialog. Also, the stupidity of certain characters was amazing, especially the daughter. It was just ridiculous. Everything it was attempting to portray was undermined by it's obviousness. There was no vacant space for you to fill with your own personal interpretations. In other words, there was no subtlety.

It actually began promising, surprisingly enough, but then went completely downhill after about 20-30 minutes. It appeared like it would really address the societal issues of our innate thirst for violence, but alas it didn't. It just decided to be a generic thriller with horror incorporated. And also include obvious "twists". And that's purely the writing.

The acting was decent, it was pretty generic and each actor was interchangeable. Ethan Hawke did a decent job, however it seemed a little too familiar to Sinister in terms of how he acts. I also found Tony Oller to be completely underutilized. If you're going to make a horror/thriller film, at least include a good villain, which they did to an extent, however he was incredibly underutilized. The character and the actor.

5/10. Began promising, progressively became a generic horror/thriller. Very poorly wrote in terms of it's approach to the concept and it's intelligence. Simplistsically, it could have been handled better in better hands. Wasted opportunity. However, is still somewhat enjoyable if you look at it from a horror/thriller perspective and are willing to overlook it's all it's insane obviousness.

Byzantium is the story of a mother and daughter vampire duo who evacuate a town they have been inhabitants of for years in the search of somewhere else they can situate themselves as they have been tracked down by a member of the brotherhood bent on killing them. While in this new town, they find love and prospects, however the past can never be altered.

Byzantium stars Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arteton and Caleb Landry Jones. The film is also directed by Neil Jordan and written by Moira Buffini, who also wrote the play this film is adapted from.

I am unfamiliar with the play, as I am sure the majority of people who view this are, so I cannot compare the two in terms of how true it stayed to the original material or how well the transition worked from play to screen. However, what gives me some sort of security in its transition is the fact that the woman who wrote the play also wrote the screenplay and I highly doubt she would alter anything that didn't need altering.

I approached this film for two simple reasons - Neil Jordan and Saoirse Ronan. I, personally, believe Saoirse Ronan is one of the best actresses of this generation as well as one of the best actors of all-time. She has the potential to the best actress of all time, she just needs to locate the perfect role. This wasn't it, however don't let that statement undermine her acting abilities because she was good. Just not great, and that's a compliment.

Gemma Arteton was solid. I felt she wasn't great, however nothing she did made me cringe or sigh so I will solidify my comment that she was solid. However, Caleb Landry Jones, I did not like. I'm unsure as to why I believe I don't view him favorably. Possibly due to the character or possibly due to his actual acting, it just didn't feel appropriate.

The directing was great along with the cinematography. However I can't help believing it needed a little extra. For some of the shots and overall tone of the film, I felt it required a little more visual flare, as a replacement to stationary, solemn shots. And that's one of it's flaws in my opinion is that it wasn't aware of what kind of a film it was. Tonally, certain aspects were appropriate, however certain aspects weren't.

Certain dialog seemed a tad bit forced also, however the majority of that is from Frank - Caleb Landry Jones - and as I previously stated I'm unsure as to whether that's a flaw in the actual writing or the acting. However, all things considered, the film is highly entertaining and 2 hours feels diminished. I just cannot help wondering that it had the possibility to be something more, it just felt like it would never reach it.

A solid 7/10. Tonally incorrect, however enjoyable and features solid performances. It just required a little extra work.