Do you guys remember the original “Purge” film? The first one?
The 2013 classic was something new and exciting. A true home invasion thriller with a neat concept and some real unpredictability.
Eight years and some bad sequels later, another Purge film is here with “The Forever Purge” where one lame producer with dollar signs in his eyes said “Let’s just make the whole movie a purge”.
And that’s what we get here. This time it’s Josh Lucas (Glory Road) and Ana de la Reguera (Army Of The Dead) trying to get their families to safety after purgers decide to keep the party going after the original 12 hour span.
The movie sputters because more is not always better.
It’s everything we’ve seen before, but in Texas, and with a predictability involved that supersedes everything we’ve seen in the previous movies. There is little character development and you’ll see everything coming here. No risks are taken. And that’s bad because this whole concept used to be a risk.
There is some light here. Both leads leave it all on the field and the manage to roll over their likeability to this movie. Blink and you’ll miss a Will Patten who earns his paycheck, and director Everardo Gout walks us up to a few set ups where we get some neat old fashion gun fights, but the premise of the movie doesn’t let us enjoy them.
And while the political message is honorable, it’s thrown in our face the entire last chapter of the movie and it chooses to jump on a soapbox rather than make us feel something and that’s unfortunate.
Retire this franchise. And instead of watching this. Watch the superior original instead.
The Forever Purge
GRADE: D+
Rated: R
Running Time: 1 hour 43 minutes.