Haven't seen it, but what's interesting about this movie is that they made the thing for 3 million.  The producers "kept the cost low by eschewing high-end effects, getting the actors to forgo salaries for a cut of the film's back-end profits and paying the director guild scale."  Supposedly The Purge is on track to make over 30 million this weekend.  Guess this shows the appeal of a contained horror script with a hook.

Haven't sen it yet either, but will this coming week.

I too was shocked when I saw it was made for only $3 Million, as it looked like at least $15 Million or more in the trailers I watched.

I'm actually excited about it, and there aren't many movies that get me excited.

Not my type of thing but i was impressed with the clip and i don't see  a problem with the concept as long as everyone in the story accepts and buys into it.

No different to  a monster appearing out of the woods, or an alien arriving on earth,  for example.

If the figures are right, it just goes to show a low budget, contained script with high concept is a ripe target.

I didn't like it much.  I mean, this is the 1 day a year crime is completely legal, and it turns into a slasher flick like The Strangers.

The idea was good, but the execution, not so much.  If you're gonna make a movie based on a script, which states "this is the day murder is legal" then do something fresh.

It feels like The Stranger ala Hostage ala Home Invasion movies in general.  It offers nothing new and serves up a dish of spoiled meat.

Enjoyed. To have produced it for $3million and to have delivered a very commercially attractive film that deep down has an interesting premise is something to be applauded.

Ethan Hawke is a guy I increasingly like and would one day very much like to work with. He doesn't get the credit he deserves and his presence helped bring a solidity to a film that may have become rudderless.

When you consider this is essentially a one location script, it never really felt like it was running out of ideas, or that it was boring. The ending was a bit naff, but this isn't Lawrence of Arabia. Recalibrate your expectation.

Whilst I agree such a premise is laden with inherent potential greater than what this film realised, I think the pragmatist in any writer/producer must take over; for $3million, they did an excellent job. With a bigger budget, they could've achieved more, but unfortunately they didn't have that.

A solid, and enjoyable movie.

I concur with everything you said, Andrew.

My opinion is that they made 4 shit low budget movies in Paranormal activities series and  now they need to earn money with another cheap low budget slasher shit movie

If only it were that simple...

First movie I've seen in years. My son took me for Fathers day.

I loved the experience of hanging with my son. The movie however was a little bit of a mixed bag.

It was the suspension of belief that kept tripping me up. I got it right out of the bag what the set up was but as the kept explaining it, I kept questioning it which took me out of the story once again.

Full marks for pulling this off on the budegt they had and Ethan Hawk held it together almost single handedly imo.

All on all, it was pretty cool if you could get around the major pitfalls.

To be honest though, I could've been watching the worst movie on earth, but haveing my son treating me, and the time we spent together, I liked hanging through this one.

Shawn.....><

Just saw this finally this morning.

I liked it.  I definitely didn't love it.  But, when you've got a $3 Million production that will most likely gross somewhere near $100 Million WW, does it really matter?

The marketing campaign is what pre-sold this.  They did a great job with trailers and ads.  IMO, the finished product did not live up to what I hoped for and expected, but it was light years ahead of most of the garbage we're force fed.

As is typical of most horror/thriller theatrical releases, there are numerous issues with believability, but that doesn't surprise me.

What did surprise me was that I was able to completely predict the ending "twist".  Just too obvious, as far as I'm concerned.

The general premise is also flawed, but still very interesting and obviously very marketable.  It seems that the idea is that the haves are safe, while the have nots are on their own, but in reality, wouldn't the have nots be the ones to fear?

Murder seems to be the "crime of choice" during the purge, when in reality, I think the poor would have a field day in obtaining things they could never legally be able to acquire.

Some other issues I had...

The movie is too short.  IMO, it would have helped to develop our main Protags better and also build up tension as the purge approaches.

Our Antags were creepy cool based on the masks they wore and even their odd behavior made them chilling...BUT...why were they acting like they did?  Why would they suddenly be so happy about killing an innocent family that is basically, "one of them"?  I think it worked in the way it was supposed to, but when analyzing it, it comes up looking rather silly.

Way too easy to get into the fortified house.  It seemed like the Antags had access to any and all entrances, including windows, which I thought were all heavily barred.  That didn't make much sense.

Our Protags did a very poor job of trying to hold out the Antags.  Walking around the entire house separately is downright foolish.

Sure it's a big beautiful house, but the various gunfights going on in different locations would alert everyone in the entire house where the action was, and it sure didn't come off that way.

Both our main Antag and main Protag both were taken out too quickly and easily, IMO, which made for a rather lackluster finale.  Obviously, the "twist" at the end played out as the actual finale, but it lacked the power and tension that could have been conjured up with some stronger writing.

So, I wasn't thrilled with what I saw, but I wasn't pissed either.  I had heard about how graphic the violence was, but IMO, it was pretty tame, actually.  I expected much more and there sure were loads of opportunities that, IMO, were missed.

2 final notes - the hand to hand fight in the basement was good - there needed to be more of this.  Many have applauded Ethan Hawke's performance, but IMO, it wasn't great.  For me, Lena Headey both stole the show and also carried it.

Glad this made a bunch of cash, as the genre is deserving of so much better than we continually get.

I'll give it a solid C+, but that's as high as I can go.

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Saw this today. I didn't hate it, but I had a difficult time getting really invested in it, and that is primarily because the characters were not only unlikable, but displayed some downright annoying character traits.

Obviously the story is a redemption story of people overcoming an evil societal norm, and I have no problem being engaged by a character with some character flaws who eventually redeems himself. No, what annoyed me were the two ridiculously stupid children. Both of them needlessly and thoughtlessly imperil their families in ways that seem far too dumb to be forgivable or chalked up to "thinking like kids". What compounds this problem is that the boy is kind of chalked up to be the moral hero of the story. The message fails to resonate with me when the "hero" is a character I think is an idiot.

In addition, the "1% vs the 'poor'" message was absurdly heavy-handed. The ultimate irony: they demonize the main character for profitting off the violence of the culture by selling security systems to his community, and yet that's exactly what the producers of this film are doing.

Anyway, it wasn't horrible, but featured performances and "thrills" equal to a really good episode of NCIS. Wait for it on RedBox.

C-

HATED It! I knew I would. Who would honestly buy into this concept except movie goers with nothing else to do?

SPOILERS!

The first half hour is a snooze fest. Then there's the hunted dude who the son lets in for no reason.  Zero motivation from our Antags except wanting to kill a homeless guy, and yet smiley face shoots his own friend outside the house for dancing like a fool. Just shoot all your friends and go home! Purge away!

Then the twist. Oi Vey! The neighbors come to kill them as well because Ethan Hawke made too much dough off of them for selling them their security systems!!

The movie did its job though. Twenty fold on its budget already. I guess I'm a moron when I see nothing but hatred for Man of Steel and some mild praise for this pile. Not even sure why I'm posting this. Seems pointless.

James.

Quoted from jwent6688 HATED It! I knew I would.

Did you honestly "hate it", or were you less than thrilled with it?

Did you go into it, expecting to hate it?  Did you really give it a chance to deliver what it set out to do?

And, James, don't get me wrong at all, I definitely didn't love it or even close to that, but IMO, it's far better than most of the horror garbage that plays at the theaters or DVD.

I hated it. We're just on a different page, Jeff.

To me, horror or thrillers work in two different ways. My fave is when I care about the main characters so much I feel tension for them. This didn't have that IMO.

The second is when it's so brutal it makes me squeamish to watch. I didn't get that either. I'm sticking by my guns. I found nothing believable about it.

And yes, I will admit I went into it expecting to hate it. Maybe it's my fault for not giving it a fair chance. It was an original concept. That's what sold it. The story just didn't work on any level for me. Was honestly surprised to see this get 38% on rotten tomatoes. Makes me feel as if I missed something. I thought this should have rated in the teens.

James

Last half hour was terrible, really brought a decent movie down to a bad one. I thought the action was nice though, way way better than some 100 million dollar films.