Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 41% (Critics) / 59% (Audience)
Directed By: James DeMonaco
Written By: James DeMonaco
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder and Edwin Hodge
Studio: Universal Pictures

Synopsis: A family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized. (Source)

The Good:
I loved the idea behind this movie. The idea of a society that willfully allows one night of consequence free criminality in order to maintain the illusion of peace and prosperity is intriguing and worthy of an in-depth examination (not saying that is what we got with THE PURGE but the idea is a good one).
Of the cast Ethan Hawke stood out as a suburban dad who during the course of the night taps into his inner bloodlust to defend his family.
And those masks that the marauders who attack Hawke’s family were wearing were creepily cool.

The Bad:
Aside from Ethan Hawke’s performance as the head of the Sandin clan the rest of his family were just awful and I didn’t care about any of them. The children were obnoxious and annoying while Mrs. Sandin was devoid of any interesting character traits which was a shame because Lena Headey is capable of much more. I pretty much didn’t care if any of them lived or died.
And the movie failed to go balls out in its execution like this type of film needs in order to be successful.

The Ugly
The attempts at social commentary were heavy-handed and clumsily executed while also being shallow and vapid at the same time.

Final Verdict: A cool concept that was in need of a better movie. There were some thrilling moments sprinkled throughout the movie but not nearly enough to counteract the barely developed characters and social commentary or the mind-boggling restraint that writer/director James DeMonaco showed.

Grade: C-