TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Speaking of Mad Max, the Iowa State Troopers are trading in their Impalas for Chargers. 

Not a lot of back seat space for passengers. 

Do Chargers have particularly small back seats?  I've never ridden in one (HA HA), so I dunno.  You're not thinking of Challengers, are you?  SCHP has some Challengers, iirc.

[garbon]

Wiki says NYC uses Dodge Chargers as highway patrol vehicles.

[Ideologue]

I mean, they're just sedans with big engines.

[Ideologue]

The Purge (2013)

Written and directed by James DeMonaco
With Ethan Hawke (James Sandin), Lena Headey (Mary Sandin), Lena Headey's extremely lovely asymmetrical bob haircut (itself), Max Burkholder (Charlie Sandin), Adelaide Kane (Zoey Sandin), Rhys Wakefield (Polite Stranger), and a black man with four lines (Black Man With Four Lines)

In the year 2022, control of the United States government has been seized by a group of radicals, whose philosophy combines elements of intense religiosity, fascism, and anarchism.  At some point, they changed their name to the New Founding Fathers.

The first undertaking of this revolutionary cabal was to establish, nationwide, the Purge.  Between dusk and dawn, one evening a year, everything gets all Thriller for twelve hours, as ordinary citizens are permitted and encouraged to slake their previously unspeakable desires for violence upon their fellow Americans.

The plot is relatively simple.  In the post-Purge America, James Sandin is in the business of home security and business is booming.  He's equipped his neighborhood with the newest in home safety solutions, which, when armed, are vaguely reminiscent of the precautions the citizens of New New York take when faced with Robot Santa, and it would not surprise me to learn that DeMonaco came up with the idea while enjoying a Futurama Christmas.

When the night of the Purge comes, the Sandins intend to ensconce themselves in their steel cocoon and watch some TV.  Others have different agendas for Purge night, and when the kids from Omega House show up in pursuit of a "homeless pig!" whom the Sandins have, by accident, granted sanctuary, their leader, "Polite Stranger" Rhys Wakefield--who has clearly watched both Funny Games several dozen times apiece in preparation for his role--makes it clear to James that he does not abide homeless people, nor nerds, the Assault on Precinct 13 begins.

The real goal of the Purge, it is suggested, is the elimination of the poor, who can afford neither the Sandins' McMansion fortresses nor serious armament, by the action or inaction of the murderous rich, who can afford either or both.  The results speak for themselves: violent crime is limited to one night, the economy is booming, and there is 1% unemployment.  And despite the somewhat raw, unnuanced presentation, and the failure to grasp of the importance of keeping the economy above the NAIRU, I appreciate the sentiment.  At least in the New Founding Fathers' America, it's over quick.

Believe it or not, Andrew Niccol had nothing to do with this movie.

A premise like this is bound to have enormous problems, so it's best to take it all in stride.  The Purge's most effective moments are early on, as the sickening mundanity of it all is established, and we see and hear glimpses of violent ambitions: a radio show interviewing a caller about his big Purge plan to kill his boss, the neighbor sharpening his machete in his front lawn, or the two heavily armed, camo-clad neighbors seen on security cameras stalking the streets for prey, and the dull surprise of James Sandin, who remarks with a shrug, "I didn't even know they were friends."

These are the more inspired fragments of DeMonaco's fever dream, and you get the sense you might be watching a really interesting movie, until you recall the trailers, and say to yourself, oh, right, Straw Dogs In Space.  One's mind wanders a little, then, wondering how cool it would be to see this world painted by a broader brush than could be purchased with the sub-$5 million pittance allowed DeMonaco for his movie; one suspects that the now-stale home invasion micro-genre wastes the premise.  There are crimes other than murder, after all; and there were moments early on that I wondered how the high concept might be applied to other, less limiting genres--say, a heist film.

DeMonaco seems to want to break out of this straightjacket; The Purge is more an action thriller, a siege movie with only a slight horror bent.

As such, it's an extremely qualified success.  It has some surprises.  Keep an eye out for the daughter's boyfriend, and from the opening through the scenes where the Sandins are considering handing over their refugee to the fiends outside, The Purge is actually pretty excellent--the "letter opener" sequence is, well, damned good, and features Ethan Hawke's best moments.

When the action begins in earnest, however, it's unfortunately not handled nearly as well as you'd hope.  It becomes almost immediately apparent that DeMonaco needs to learn more than one trick (bet that at any given moment of theoretical suspense that there is someone just out of the frame with a gun). The Purge rapidly exhausts its supply of interesting action set-pieces, and perhaps its budget.  And it begins to bore.

So, the film builds toward its climax, with the antagonists far too incompetent to be good villains, and as Ethan Hawke blows these meatbags away, a hope grew in my heart that DeMonaco might still turn this around.  Is James having fun here?  Is he getting into it?  There would have been something cruel and subversive to that notion--jump cut to 2023 and next year's Purge night: James and Mary hunting frat boys and sorority sisters across a college campus covered in their victims blood.  I'm pretty sure that's how John Carpenter would have ended it.  I'll point out that John Carpenter also would have given the movie an awesome score, rather than--did this movie even have music?

But some other stuff happens instead.  It's not, by and large, very surprising, nor as interesting as it could be.

I was still hoping, a little, as the rosy-fingered dawn approached, that someone would at least realize that you don't actually require Purge rules to be in effect to gun down an intruder in your home with legal impunity.

But, in The Purge's defense, I did learn that violence is bad; I know watching that lesson unfold is the primary reason I came to watch a silly movie about Ethan Hawke killing the Strangers with a BFG in the objectivist future.  Still worth seeing when it shows up on Netflix inevitably, because it is still that silly movie, and its attempt to raise class consciousness is certainly credited.  Come for the violence; stay for the leftism.

B

P.S. The best part of The Purge was the trailer for ANOTHER movie featuring the greatest actor of the generation that is actually previous to mine, another B-movie type deal, called Getaway.  Look it up.  Ethan Hawke is back--in Pog form.

[Ideologue]

Cut to appeal to your tender sensibilities.  Also contains significant plot details.  But you probably aren't going to go see The Purge, you aren't the crowd.

[spoiler]Pacing is often ignored—for example, the Sandins' fortifications are overcome, Shaka, when the walls fell, with the simple expedient of some trucks and lengths of chain.  Sure, arguably this is a feature and not a bug, since James is the one who grew wealthy selling the same defective equipment to all his friends and neighbors; at the same time, I was looking forward to Omega House overcoming the barriers with cleverness and expertise, as the Sandins' fear mounted, rather than trivially tearing them down with no effort.  I guess I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself whether you want a little more message in a movie comprised of approximately 96.4% message, or whether you'd rather have a little more tension in a movie direly lacking in it.

One might expect, if not demand, that in this truly disturbing universe, everyone would be trained in firearms and the defense of the household, from the patriarch down to the littlest angel.  In this world, you would be doing Purge drills once a month if not once a week.  Game night?  Son, it is gun night.  So, do the Sandins' skills stand up?  With the marginal exception of James, not remotely.

And that's a shame.  I felt that something great was about to happen when the ten year old got a gun, and would have bet money on its occurrence once the adult Sandins separated.  No one would do something that dumb unless they were about to—oh, never mind.  Note to Lena Headey's character: Ma-Ma thinks this movie is kind of sexist, and she thinks you suck.

Yet as poor as the Sandins are at defending their home ground, Omega House, who indicate that they go out and murder people every year, is possibly the most inept band of killers ever seen in a movie.  Some aren't even equipped with firearms.  And is there any credible threat to a guy giving a constant piggy-back ride to his girlfriend,  full-on Master Blaster-style, one pistol and an ax between them, wearing masks that clearly limit their vision, when trying to hunt down opponents drawing from their personal paramilitary armory?[/spoiler]

[katmai]

P.S. The best part of The Purge was the trailer for ANOTHER movie featuring the greatest actor of the generation that is actually previous to mine, another B-movie type deal, called Getaway.  Look it up.  Ethan Hawke is back--in Pog form.

[Eddie Teach]

Why is it you often write a review that makes a movie seem like it deserves a D at best and then give it an A or B? 

[Ideologue]

Kat:

I'm not even joking though, that movie looks pretty fucking cool.  Ethan Hawke is a Cole Trickle-like racecar driver forced, I believe, to perform a Fast 5-like heist by a devious, Blofeld-like mastermind, which is complicated when some Juno-like urchin tries to carjack his sweet ride and he has to take her along.

Hawke looks like he has stuff to do in it.  I ain't gonna say he's wasted in The Purge, because Ethan Hawke is never wasted, that's impossible, but compare and contrast to Sinister, which is like 100% an Ethan Hawke acting showcase.  This looks more like Sinister.  Actually, it feels a lot like Training Day.  Right on, yeah?

Eddie:

Probably because I accentuate the negative, especially in movies that bore promise and betrayed it, but the final grade reflects the effort and imagination put into a movie, even if the final product is somewhat botched.  Edit: and a "B" isn't really an especially good grade.  The A-F scale and the 0-4 scale are not directly analogous, but a "B" would not be unfairly compared to 2 1/2 stars, especially if that 2 1/2 star movie had elevating aspects.

[katmai]

Sorry my comment was limited to the claim that Mr. Hawke is greatest actor of my generation.

[Ideologue]

Well, whatever generation.  ANY GENERATION.

[Eddie Teach]

He does do a pretty mean Ethan Hawke impression. 

[Ideologue]

Btw, Eddie, I dunno what you mean by As and Ds.  The As, from my records, from the past month or so, are Pain & Gain, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, Arachnophobia (too much, but justifiable), Gatsby (with a +, fully deserved), Days of Thunder (+, which in retrospect is arguably a + too much, but the A is fully earned), and Tron: Legacy (which I want desperately even now to give a +, but feel constrained due to my serious issues with how it handled its title character).

I gushed like Cytherea on a Sybian over each of them.  Are you turned on?

[Eddie Teach]

Ok, I may have just remembered it that way because you rewarded films that perhaps should have gotten D's (such as Days of Thunder) with A's. But anything below A you have lots of bad stuff to say about.

[Ideologue]

Few things are perfect; heck, there's bad stuff to say about most As (e.g., the occasional but on the occasion preposterously bad editing in The Ten Commandments--we cut live to... the same shot because someone flubbed a line I guess? WTF?).

But anyway, while I wish to share my enthusiasm for things I love, the long-form reviews* are attempts at genuine commentary and persuasive writing, so I must also communicate the flaws and inadequacies along with the successes and strengths in order to be objective or to provide any service.  Now whether I do that or not is surely debatable, but that's my goal.

*As distinct from the short-form reviews, which are by and large paragraph-or-two-long jokes with minimal critique and an honest, but not as-heavily-analyzed, letter attached, based on pure gut reaction, e.g. Days of Thunder.

P.S. added a line at the end to the Purge review to close it out in a manner more coherent with the grade.  I take the point.

[11B4V]

Savages: D+ only thing redeeming thing was Hayek, Travolta, Del Toro