The Purge

Every year for one night of the year all crime is legal. For anyone wondering, yes this includes murder. This is called the Purge and seemingly keeps the economy stable, crime rates down, and the country and society happy overall. The Purge had a ton of potential to be a taut and tense crime-thriller, but it falls just a bit short.

Instead of following just one perspective on the annual Purge, this film should have focused our attention on every aspect. From the "poor, homeless pigs who are not contributing to society," to the rich and protected, and finally to the hunters, the sociopaths, the people with an insatiable need to kill. Their hate being suppressed for 364.5 days of the year only allowing the beast to surface for 12 hours out of the year.

With a lot of potential wasted The Purge was still an entertaining movie experience. The idea behind the purge is how cathartic it is for everyone in the country and that seemed to translate to much of the audience as well, cheers and claps were heard throughout the film when certain deaths occurred. The acting overall was good.

Ethan Hawke has been out of major films for awhile, aside from last year's Sinister, which should have a sequel sometime in the near future, (I think). He showed that even a man who sells security systems and lives a life of luxury can still protect his family when he needs to. Lena Headey hides her anger and aggression well, with fleeting glances towards her husband. Max Burkholder and Adelaide Kane do a good job playing the kids, albeit fairly unintelligent ones. However Rhys Wakefield stole the movie as the "polite neighbor" (aka the leader of the crazy "hunters"). He was very similar to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight including many of the facial expressions. He was terrifying. The other hunters really bring the crazy to life as well.

The storyline was overall, fairly basic. It was often predictable for the first half of the film. I kept waiting to be rewarded and brought around full circle with a few plot points, but was left hanging. While there were shortcomings in the plot, it made up for them in many entertaining ways. Whether it was the dialogue, the disturbing hunters, or the family dynamic, as a whole the story was thrilling.

Worth seeing if you have some pent up aggression, anger, or resentment and it's even worth seeing if you don't. It's a fun summer movie.

6.5/10

Looper

Have you ever had that movie experience where your mind is completely blown? Like Memento or Inception or even The Dark Knight (Heath Ledger's performance, whew!)? Would you like to have your mind blown again? Well look no further this year, for in the realm of science fiction, one movie reigns supreme: Looper. (My apologies to Christopher Nolan for not supplying pop culture with a mind destroying film this year)

Before this movie I could only fathom what seeing Blade Runner for the first time in theaters could have done to someone. It would have been mindjarring (my personal combination of mind blowing and bottling). As was my experience with this film. Rian Johnson has done what he did to film noir with Brick (2005): flipped it on it's head.

I thought I knew sci-fi movies and knew the kind of movie that Looper was, but whatever thoughts I had in my mind were changed because of this movie. The story begins with us following the life of Joe played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. His narration draws us in slowly and gently, but ever so subtly and we are transported to another world (or dimension depending on how you look at it). And after that we are given the conundrum: "if you were to meet your future self, should you kill him or her if you were a looper? "The sci-fi genre has not seen the likes of this movie since Alien or the aforementioned Blade Runner. The script is written so beautifully with subtle mentions of different topics that we never get a full explanation of, but have to fill in with our minds, and keeps reminding you that Bruce Willis is from the future. (Most of the movie I had to remind myself that he was)

But nobody likes a good story without a great ending. And Looper does NOT disappoint. Four little words in the film are all it took to blow my mind this time around. I walked out of the movie, drove home, and immediately asked my roommates if they wanted to see it tonight. The acting is incredible for the genre. And the special effects/make-up used to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt look different are unbelievable. He is transformed into a younger Bruce Willis with no visible changes at all. I could barely believe my eyes.

Whether you like sci-fi movies or not this is an absolute must-see. (Do you like Christopher Nolan movies? Yes? GO SEE THIS MOVIE TOMORROW!)<--Said in your Billy Mayes voice. This is a movie that could turn non-fans into die-hards (no pun intended Mr. Willis).

9/10