Mild Spoilers
An American tradition
Written and directed by James DeMonaco.
AKA
12 horas para sobrevivir (12 hours to survive)
Anarchy: La noche de las bestias (Anarchy: Night of the Beasts)
American Nightmare 2: Anarchy
The Zone
Same writer and director as the first film, good; film’s a 15, not so good. I liked the first one so I could not resist.
It’s Purge Night again and everyone’s battening down the hatches, well, except the Purgers of course. Waitress Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) hurries home to her daughter Cali (Zoë Soul) and father Papa Rico (John Beasley) before ‘commencement’. Couple Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are stranded downtown when their car is sabotaged by Purgers. Sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) heads out purposefully into the mayhem in his car. Different lives caught up in the Purge.
Eva and Cali soon find themselves in trouble with disgruntled maintenance man Diego (Noel Gugliemi) who has targeted them for his own personal Purge. However, Diego’s interrupted by some paramilitary men who work for big-time Purger Big Daddy (Jack Conley). The paramilitary men drag Eva and Cali into the street. Luckily Sergeant Barnes is close by and comes to their aid. Couple Shane and Liz are also in the area and the five end up banding together and taking off in Sergeant Barnes’ car…
Out in the streets as opposed to trapped in the home is the main change here and this sequel is a very decent action flick but then so was the first one. Fans of the first film pined a little for more of the Purge itself and that’s what this delivers, to an extent. The dark streets look great and the action sequences are exciting enough. It’s also a fairly tense film in that you’re never quite sure what fate awaits the main characters amidst all the violence. It’s good fun, I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking but it’s fun.
It’s well-plotted too so you’re never bored as each stage unfolds. I was reminded of other films in places including Escape from New York (1981) and Hostel: Part III (2011), even The Warriors (1979), so I was happy with the general workings of The Purge: Anarchy as a yarn but if you’re looking for something along the lines of what a real-life Purge might look like on the big screen you might be disappointed, this is glossy action cinema and little else.
All in all though a very watchable flick that never really tires and reaches a fairly satisfying conclusion. Should there be a third entry? I would watch it but I think they’d have to come up with something pretty original to keep the momentum of the series.
Also stars Vick Sabitjian as Mr. Sabian, Justina Machado as Tanya Barney, Roberta Valderrama as Lorraine, Niko Nicotera as Roddy, Michael Kenneth Williams as Carmelo Johns and Edwin Hodge as Dwayne.
Other films Purgers might like:
The Warriors (1979)
Escape from New York (1981)
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Hostel: Part III (2011)
