The Purge

For all its willingness to serve the viewer generous dollops of violence, noise, and terror, The Purge is oddly lacking in energy.

... though the film struggles to flesh out this rather Dystopian concept (something nearly every futuristic film has these days), it succeeds in its gripping suspense and romantic eye for violence.

An entertaining and deeply unsettling premonition of the state the US's obsession with guns may leave it in.

What should be a taut thriller stretches into an overextended slog with periodic scolding lectures.

DeMonaco clearly hopes to make a significant moral statement on the level of Shirley Jackson's literary masterpiece The Lottery. Alas, his aim at political conservatives who support the gun lobby falls flat before he can pull the trigger.

If The Purge is as far-sighted as Network proved to be, we are in for very ugly times.

The big thing with this film is the same thing with every film in this genre; it's extremely predictable and the characters do things they would never do in real life.

Introduces an entirely fresh and interesting premise and universe, only to completely squander that potential with a generic home-invasion thriller.

Whereas DeMonaco tries to say something is deeply wrong with a society that needs to purge its violent impulses, it’s unsettling to sit in a crowd that completely misses the point.

“The Purge” is never boring and it does create some frights and intensity..