The Closing Months of Cinema for 2014

It seems as though everyone’s eyes at the moment are turned to the big summer films that are to be released. We’ve just had Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as well as the latest installment to the Transformers franchise, and obviously just recently we’ve had Guardians of the Galaxy from Marvel, so it’s clear we’ve got quite a full on summer ahead of us. Personally, I’m looking past all of these films and looking ahead to the second half of 2014 to see what’s heading our way.

I’m not saying all of the action films of the summer aren’t important, I’m still a bit of a geek at heart so I’m always excited by the prospect of whatever DC or Marvel Comics release. Just recently in fact I rather enjoyed the new X-Men flick; it wasn’t brilliant but my inner film nerd was pretty darn excited to see James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender on screen with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. So it’s not that I’m a film snob who turns their nose up at every blockbuster the summer has in store, it’s just from looking ahead to the end of the year it’s clear that Bradley Cooper voicing a Raccoon that jumps through space and shoots everything has nothing on what’s heading our way.

There’s an interesting collection heading towards our screens, with quite a few films that have caught my eye. I remember this time last year incidentally in which I was writing about films I was excited about. There was quite a range last year as well, from The Fifth Estate which managed to disappoint, right up to Saving Mr Banks which as my blog post from a couple of weeks ago showed, I absolutely loved. So if anything that just shows how there is everything still to play for at this point in the year.

As it stands my film of the year so far is still The Grand Budapest Hotel from back in march, with Richard Ayoade’s The Double still a close second. Nothing has beaten it so far, Wes Anderson has made an artistic masterpiece that is superbly written and directed in a way that maintains the complexity and keeps the film running like a clockwork mechanism. Much like other Wes Anderson films there’s a knock out cast, outstanding wit, beautiful cinematography, and of course the use of colour schemes, making it a really outstanding cinematic experience. At the moment for me it is the unchallenged champion of 2014’s cinema, but there is of course still time, and with some of the films that are yet to be released it could all change.

So what I’ve done is I’ve gone through various lists online of the films that are coming out in the next couple of months and I’ve selected the ones I’m looking forward to. I’ve tried to find as much information as I can on each of the films that are listed below. The dates that are attached to them are their release dates in the UK so it may vary depending on where you are reading this from. I am aware that I have broken this rule at times and spilled over the edges in to 2015, but with early releases at film festivals for some titles it is arguable that they can still be considered films of 2014. Regardless of the technicalities, my list is as follows:

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (August 22nd) – now this one I may live to regret because I’m not overly fond of sequels being made of good films, but I still found myself intrigued by the trailers. I like the first film a lot and I think it was really well made to suit an impressive visual style. So with the addition of new actors and storylines I can only hope this second installment proves me wrong about sequels being bad.

Gone Girl – directed by David Fincher (October 3rd) – much like many other film fanatics I am a very big fan of David Fincher for obvious reasons (Fight Club, Seven, The Social Network) so to see him return to film after three years brings nothing but excitement. The film focuses on the disappearance of a woman and the impacts this has on her husband, and so it sounds like quite a delicate turn for Fincher. But with an impressive cast and Fincher himself at the helm I can only hope this will be another fantastic piece of film from a director who has proven himself to be a genius on a number of occasions. After his last film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this new film may see Fincher staying in a dark place but being more delicate, much like he did with Seven. 

The Judge – directed by David Dobkin (October 17th) – this is another one I’m hoping I won’t regret because looking at Dobkin’s history of bad comedy films I can only hope that this venture in to more serious territory is a step in the right direction. Based around lawyers and family connections I have to admit the premise of the film intrigues me. When films centred around court cases are done well then I absolutely love them; you cannot beat the tension created by fantastic screenplay. As I said before I can only hope this is a step in the right direction that is executed well. I’m also excited to see Robert Downey Jr stepping back in to more serious roles; he is a talented actor who is capable of doing more than just Tony Stark so I’m hoping he gets the chance to prove it here.

Fury – directed by David Ayer (October 19th) – there’s been a lot of talk about this film recently for obvious reasons, it has Brad Pitt leading the cast and it is going to be quite a heavy film so people are right to be excited about it. But the reason I’m excited about it is because it is set towards the end of the war. It’s all well and good making an action film based during World War II but I think by this point we’ve seen too many that focus just on all out war. I’m excited to see how Ayer manages to capture the struggle in the soldiers as they are working towards their final stand. I hope the film has that emotional connection that other films before it have failed to create. I really want this to be more than just an action film.

Birdman – directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu – now I have broken my own rule here because the UK release for this film is in January, but it has release dates in other countries that date back to October, so in a sneaky manner I will count that as a film from 2014. The only reason I’m going to break that rule is because I am really excited about this film. A film that is based around someone attempting to recapture former glory is an idea that interests me as it is, but when it’s coming from a talented director who brought us films such as Babel and Biutiful I can only get even more excited. Almost a year ago in fact I wrote a script for a drama competition that was based around a screenplay writer trying to recapture his former glory whilst dealing with issues with his family, so seeing a film that is based around the same idea is an exciting experience. I feel bad for breaking my own rule with this film but I honestly think it is going to be good.

St. Vincent – directed by Theodore Melfi (presumed release date in October) – I couldn’t find a UK release date for this film but in other countries it is released in October so I’m guessing we’ll receive it around the same time. Now the director/ writer of this one is an unknown to me but I’m going to take a risk because they’re bringing Bill Murray back to making comedy films, with this one being based around a young boy being helped by his old neighbour who is a lazy war veteran. It looks funny and the trailer did manage to make me laugh but it also looks as though the film has a heart. I really like comedies that manage to be engaging and thought provoking at the same time so I’m anxious but excited to see how this film turns out.

Wild – directed by Jean-Marc Vallée – again I have broken my own rule here because this film is released in the UK early next year but in other countries it is this year, so I’m going to break that rule again but it is again with good intentions. This is another film I am excited about, from the director of Dallas Buyers Club and with the leading role filled by Reese Witherspoon I have very high hopes for this one. I really like Reese Witherspoon as an actress already and to see her take the lead role in a film based around someone embarking on a solo hike to recover from past events I get the feeling this could another films that exceeds expectations. I think Dallas Buyers Club was a fantastic piece of film so I can’t wait to see more work from the same director.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies – directed by Peter Jackson (December 12th) – I know up until this point I haven’t been the biggest fan of The Hobbit as a series of films but I have to see it through to the end. I love the book and so I am excited to see how Jackson approaches the conclusion of a literary treasure. He cares about the source material as much as the fans do so I can only hope he does the right thing and delivers a film that is satisfying.

Exodus: Gods and Kings – directed by Ridley Scott (December 26th) – I am a big fan of Ridley Scott and I have admired his work in the past, so I can only hope his venture back in to more of an epic styled film is one worth watching. He is obviously known as being a pioneer of science fiction with great works such as Alien and Blade Runner among his previous works, but when Scott makes historical films they can go one of two ways. In the case of Robin Hood we’re presented with a film we would rather forget, but then with Gladiator we’re given a film that is a fantastic piece of art that we hold close to us and recognise as a masterpiece. I am excited about this new film that has obvious biblical overtones and I can only hope that with a strong cast and a heavy premise that Scott has not made a mistake with this one.

So those are the films I am looking forward to that are yet to grace our screens. I’m hoping my choices will not leave me disappointed but of course only time will tell. All that is left to do is present the three films that I am most excited about this year. There are three that have not been mentioned yet that I believe will be the three to potentially challenge The Grand Budapest Hotel and the title it currently holds. So in no particular order, the three films I am most looking forward to at the end of this year:

1. The Imitation Game – directed by Morten Tyldum (November 14th) – now this is one that I really want to be good because it has such a powerful story behind it. It focuses on the life of Alan Turing who helped to break the enigma code during World War II. I don’t know if it will delve in to what happened to him afterwards but I am hoping that it does so with the utmost sincerity because as shocking as the aftermath to the war for Turing was it is a story that people need to hear. The story still makes me feel angry because of how badly he was treated, but it is a story that should be told because it shows how times have changed and how ugly our country can be at times. I think Benedict Cumberbatch will do a fantastic job playing Turing, and I can only hope the film approaches events from the right angle to deliver the story in an honest manner.

2. Inherent Vice – directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (January 2015) – again I am going to count this film as being part of 2014 because it is unveiled this year at various film festivals. Regular readers of this blog will know I admire PTA and the work he has done for cinema, so I cannot even express how excited I am to see him writing and directing a film based around a drug-fueled detective in the seventies investigating the disappearance of his ex-partner. PTA is very good at writing scripts that have incredible weight to them, for example There Will Be Blood and The Master so I intrigued to see if he has continued his legacy in a similar fashion or if the film will be completely different from previous works. Not much has been released in terms of first looks, all we have to go on is a picture recently of Joaquin Phoenix mid scene, but this only makes the film more intriguing. The cast looks incredible with Joaquin Phoenix once again leading the way so I know the film is going to be good, if not better. PTA’s previous work has impressed me a lot, and in fact four of his films currently hold a place in my favourite films of all time, so he has a lot to live up to but I know he is more than capable of exceeding my expectations, every time.

3. Interstellar – directed by Christopher Nolan (November 7th) – Christopher Nolan writing and directing a science fiction film based around a team exploring interstellar travel because the Earth is slowly dying. Nothing more needs to be said about the film because it sounds phenomenal as it is, and yet I could easily talk about it all day. To describe how excited I am for the film all I would need to say is that I have watched the trailer countless times since it was released, including an entire afternoon in which I kept revisiting it because I was so excited. The cast looks incredible, much like with all of Nolan’s work, but I think it’s the idea of it that excites me the most. Just to see Nolan directing a science fiction film based on exploring different universes and planets, it just makes me think that although it is a bold statement I think this could be a film that is on the same scale as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is a bold statement, but based on what we have seen so far of the film and how talented we already know Nolan is as a film maker, this could easily be his greatest film yet, and indeed his masterpiece.

So there it is, the completed list of the films I am most looking forward to in 2014(ish). I can only hope that they do not disappoint and that in the months to come I will not regret choosing them, however after last year’s results I think it would be safer to say it will be another mixed bag. Risks have indeed been taken but that’s what this process is all about. I would rather speak up and be proven as an idiot than not speak up and let people assume.

I am aware there will be some I have missed and that haven’t been addressed so if there is a film you would like to me to comment on then please leave a comment and I will get back to you. Equally if you would like to leave a comment on any of the films mentioned along with your thoughts then I welcome anything you have to say. This is a topic I am very open about so I’m interested to see what other people think. Any comments left will be responded to as soon as possible, and thank you for taking the time to read this post and possibly comment if you did so. I’ll hopefully follow up these choices with reviews in the future as they are released.

Thoughts and Analysis of ‘Shame’ by Steve McQueen

It’s always a refreshing experience for a film fanatic to watch a film that they know very little about and find that it is a diamond in the rough. It is my pleasure to say that I experienced this just last week when I sat down to watch Steve McQueen’s 2011 masterpiece, Shame, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. For those who don’t know the film is basically about a man who lives alone and enjoys a successful life at work, but then in his spare time he partakes in substance abuse and is sex addict. His world is changed when his sister comes to stay with him for the foreseeable future, causing his life to be altered to suit the new context. My mind was completely open and I didn’t know what to expect of the film, which allowed this hidden gem just enough time to creep in and take me completely by surprise. It is fantastic.

It’s odd because the film is one I could only describe as problematic. It deals with subject matter that is dark and it reveals a soul behind the film that is black, but it approaches different problems with the utmost sincerity, without ever idealising them. It reminded me to an extent of the period of film in the seventies and eighties in which cinema became problematic, with films like I Spit on Your Grave, Straw Dogs and even A Nightmare on Elm Street at the helm of this time period. They all dealt with complex issues based on the human mind and the human body. They focused heavily upon character and the way the human body is treated, and in some cases destroyed or defiled. That is what Shame feels like. It is a problematic piece of complex cinema that feels as though you are crawling through sewage, but you don’t necessarily mind.

The best thing about the film is that, like many other good films, it is extremely thought-provoking. The sign of a good film is that it makes you think; you become so engaged in this fictitious world that you are intrigued and filled with questions and thoughts. One of the original purposes of cinema, like literature before it, was to tell a story, so it is refreshing to still see films that can capture an audience like that without being real. In this case also the film is one that focuses heavily on the idea of language and how as humans we can use language for an all manner of different purposes. I really like films that focus on humans and language because it takes skill in writing and presents just how much delicate screenplay writing pays off.

The film was actually so thought-provoking I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in a very long time; I actually had a pad and pen in front of me so I could be making notes. It sounds like something a professional film critic would either hate or encourage, but it was honestly the only way for me to capture the various thoughts and feelings that spontaneously burst in to my head. It was a rather interesting experience for me, so what I have decided to do is to transfer all of my hand written notes I made whilst watching the film in to a blog post, just to see what people make of them. I have spoken spoilerese to the best of my ability to ensure the film isn’t ruined for those who haven’t seen it.

So it is without further ado I present to you the original purpose of this post: my thoughts and analysis of Shame by Steve McQueen.

The screenplay takes time to become present – for the first eight minutes of the film we are only presented with a couple of words. Some people lose interest when a film does not have instant talking but if you think about it some of the best films take time to develop their screenplay. Wall-e famously had one character for the opening section of the film, and even There Will Be Blood took near enough nineteen minutes before introducing screenplay to the audience. Taking time is not a bad thing.

Fassbender’s character is made to be successful with women by not talking, whereas his friend talks too much and that is evidently his flaw – it’s almost a mockery of men who approach women in bars and try to smooth talk them, McQueen and Morgan clearly cared about the screenplay for this film and how is presents men and women. It suggests a connection between two people has to come naturally, it cannot possibly be forced to exist.

Fassbender is very happy with freedom and no one in particular, whereas his sister has someone she loves and yet she is unhappy – the film shows how the free spirit who is not tied down is happy with their life, but n the opposite side of the coin we see his sister who is fixated upon one person, which hurts her all too easily.

The cinematography is complex through fragmentation – it shows the mundane aspects of everyday life like train journeys, and then the physical nature of sexual activity without shying away from being too explicit. It only makes it more realistic by focusing on the details to make it more relatable for members of the audience.

Nudity – it is almost as if McQueen wants to show every single aspect of the characters. Not just the nurture side that has been socialised by external factors; the natural side is integral to his characters. The film is about the shaming of the body, so we have to see all of it in order for McQueen to put his ideas across. He is not afraid to show the human body in its entirety.

McQueen was previously an artist, which is shown through his films – it is as if McQueen cares about every single shot that is shown on screen, each one has to be a different piece of art. Even with 12 Years A Slave recently some shots of the natural environment were beautiful with an artistic feel to them. With Shame it’s shots of the city which shows how McQueen believes manmade environments can be equally beautiful. This in turn reflects how Fassbender’s character believes his manmade life is the ideal.

It’s a British film but it could be a critique of American lifestyles? – it’s a little farfetched but it almost feels as though McQueen is judging the lifestyle that the main character has by showing the inevitable destruction through his own actions and addictions, That’s what the film is about, he is slowly destroying himself because ultimately he is unhappy.

The themes presented are very different – it challenges the overused value of family by showing the opposite side that is unhappy. It’s not just childish sibling rivalry or just annoying each other, it is about recognising characteristics that are almost repellent to the other person. In the case of this film instead of showing how siblings have grown up together and are firm friends we are presented with siblings that have grown apart and never attempted to rebuild the bridge between them. Also there is a lack of poetic justice through showing just how dysfunctional the family is – it is fully dysfunctional, but does that make it more realistic? do other films idealise the happy family at the cost of neglecting how harsh life really is?

Isolation is a theme that’s presented, but the two sides of it are shown – Fassbender idealises isolation and is happy with it, whereas Mulligan’s character fears it. One of them is running away from isolation but the other one is running towards it. With Fassbender we are shown someone who is happy through isolation and not needing anybody else to be a constant presence, whereas Mulligan’s character could see destruction through isolation because she needs company.

The use of white in the colour scheme – this not only contrasts Fassbender’s darker personality (much like with Christian Bale in American Psycho) but it contrasts with the colour of blood just to show the true impact the sister has on his life.

Clinging to youth leads to the destruction of the mind and body, but also the soul – The film shows how Fassbender is clinging to his youth and engaging in all of the activities you would expect somebody young and off the rails to partake in, like the drugs and the sex addiction. This only increases and increases until inevitably it begins to destroy him. Because he is failing to move on from this young style of living and to move on to maturity it begins to break down his character in an all manner of different ways. We not only see his mind wither but also his body, he is broken down towards the end of the film, which adds real weight to it.

So there you have it, my notes that were made during the film. I have added to them and glossed them up a little bit just to make them more reader friendly for everyone, but if you make it to the end of this entry then you’ll see I’ve added pictures of the original notes for those interested.

In summary I would recommend the film, I really would, it was a challenging and moving experience for me but it is really well written and terrifically shot so it is both a visual feast and an emotional journey. It isn’t for the faint hearted, and there is in fact a sequence towards the end that did cause some controversy in terms of political correctness and the message it sends out, so I would say be cautious of it. I personally really liked the film and I think it is well worth a watch, but you will need to watch it with an open mind and a strong heart. McQueen, in my mind, is proving himself to be a legend among modern film makers, setting up a legacy that will echo on.

As always if anyone has any thoughts they would like to share then please do not hesitate to leave a comment. I am open minded and I welcome any criticism, but I am certainly curious to see what other people made of this film. I promise to respond to any comments posted in due course.

Until the next time I shall leave you with my favourite quote from the film, taken from an argument between Fassbender and Mulligan:

“You’re always sorry…try doing something. Actions count, not words”

Problems with The Purge

As many of you will know there’s a new film out in cinemas now in the form of the sequel to The Purge. From the looks of it the film is going to be much what you would expect from a horror-thriller sequel; the trailer consists of violence, eerie music, quick editing, “deep” and emotional lines, references to relatives who are presumed deceased, and then an addition to the storyline at the end that wasn’t a surprise in any sense of the word. But then based on the nature of the first film, is there anything else we would expect?

I watched the first film recently in fact. I bought it for about five pounds on a sale section in a supermarket, but I didn’t buy it because I was looking for a good film, I bought it because I was curious. The idea behind it intrigued me. All crimes being legal for twelve hours. Just thinking about it is weird because I genuinely don’t know what I would do in that scenario. Furthermore I don’t even know if I would survive the night, I have annoyed many people in time on this planet so there could very well be a bullet or a blade with my name on it. Nonetheless I sat down with an open mind to watch The Purge, and found myself torn by the end of it. As a film it is a very mixed bag that inevitably does not hold together.

Before I go any further I will just say that I will try to speak spoilerese for anyone who hasn’t seen the film so it’s not ruined. It may just be a case of there being references that will be easier to understand if you have seen the film. So firstly I will say that I didn’t hate the film, but then again I didn’t particularly like it. The main element I like is the still the idea of it, the idea of crime being legal. As someone who studied sociology at A-Level, a proportion of which was on the subject of crime, I find the idea of all crimes being legal for twelve hours fascinating. It had so many questions going through my head, based on whether it would work, what I would do, what would happen in the town I live in and so on. So it’s thought provoking but in a rather unsettling manner, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but interpret that as you will.

Secondly I think it has proved itself to be a half decent piece of social commentary, based on the themes and messages. From the start there’s clear class struggle, with the rich and powerful even using pronouns to suggest that the purge night is theirs and exists for the benefit of them, and it develops to show that there is inequality and there is exploitation, which almost mirrors our society. Also what I like is how it comments on the brutality of human nature. It shows how the civilised nature of humans can quickly be stripped down to a violent and animalistic core. It shows how humans need a release, because if stress builds up for an entire year it could very well lead to the violent behaviour we see in The Purge, who knows? All I can say is that the writers at least considered what humans have the potential of doing.

However, despite the interesting set up and half well developed subtext there are still huge holes in the film. As much as I wanted to like the film there are problems with it that I simple cannot looks past.

Clichés – It’s a shame because the trailers made it look as thought it could at least have the potential to put a different spin on the usual boring modern horror flick, but then it just ended up falling in to all the usual clichés. So instead of a slightly different experience that you would want to see, we’re instead presented with a film which has all of the usual annoying features that everyone seems to love but I hate, such as: poorly executed fight sequences, annoying main characters, minimal weight in the screenplay, annoying lighting techniques, jump scares produced by sudden loud noises and no genuine scares. The entertainment never starts.

Unengaging characters – by the end of the film it’s safe to say there was only one character left that I only just liked and that’s because he wasn’t a complete idiot. The rest of them are all annoying. You have the family the story is focused on which consists of rich morons who are way too dysfunctional to warrant a sense of pathos, the group of young people who are purging who are equally morons by giving the family demands and then making them harder to meet, the person the hunters are looking for who I kind of have to feel sorry for but in some cases he really doesn’t help himself. Finally you have the ludicrously rich neighbours of largely white middle class suburbans, who are a disgusting concoction of the wife from American Beauty meets Straw Dogs, and they’re pretty much the ones in the film you want to see distressed. The whole ensemble of characters are cretins who I neither liked nor cared about, so I found myself shouting at the screen frequently for the duration of the film. In a horror styled film there has to be a character you like in order to feel engaged and scared. That character does not exist in The Purge. 

Inadequate usage of short running time – the film is very short I have to say, it doesn’t even reach the ninety minutes mark which for a modern film is very short. Now shorter films are not a problem as long as the time is used appropriately. In the case of The Purge the timing is very distorted. The opening to the film is good enough but then there is a very long sequence in the middle in which the family search through their house in the dark, which takes up too much of the running time and as a result leads to the rest of the film feeling really rushed. What follows is a series of action scenes and additions to the storyline but they all happen so quickly that it just doesn’t hold together. It just meant that ten minutes before the end of the film I couldn’t see how it was going to end properly. They did manage to end it but I won’t say that they did it well.

Structurally the film loses its way – this is tangential to the last point, but it feels as though the first half of the film is from one film and the second half of the film is from a different one altogether. It’s like the writers set out to make a film with a clear message and one thread in the plotline, but then halfway they abandoned this to make a Home Alone or Straw Dogs styled film instead. But then again, I can’t say I was ever happy with the first half of the film because structurally it is shambolic. And what I mean by this is that there is a clear and central plotline, I wouldn’t say it’s particularly strong but I won’t challenge its existence, and then they’ve decided to add extra elements around the edges, just little details to the story. In other films this would serve as an enhancement, instead in the case of The Purge what you have is conflicts and other occurrences that make you think “oh come on, really? this is happening now? why?” It doesn’t add depth or anything interesting to the film, it just makes it more annoying because you’re having to witness and deal with things you don’t care about because they simply do not matter.

Confusing villains – I don’t understand the justification for some of their actions. In a film the antagonist usually has an agenda, to make someone’s life more difficult for a particular reason, but in this film the antagonist doesn’t have a reason, so he just does whatever he wants. I understand the character is meant to be scary and so he improvises to create a sense of rebellion through violence, but there are points in which the film is no longer capable of convincing me the characters could be real people.

The film is very one sided (part I) – as I said at the start I like the idea of The Purge because it’s interesting to think about. The problem I have with how it is delivered is that it is one sided; it only shows one type of crime. The concept is described as “all crime is legal” so why does it only show violence? And furthermore why is this specifically people wanting to hurt the homeless? There are more interesting elements to human nature that could have been explored in the film, like greed. There were no scenes of people sat behind a computer committing fraud or attempting stock manipulation to get money and I just just think it shows a lack of discipline by those who made the film. Although upon seeing Michael Bay’s name in the credits under the production team this is hardly surprising. They had an interesting concept that could have explored a range of crimes and behaviours but instead they focused primarily on violence, and I don’t believe for one minute that violence is the appropriate solution to any problem so the film is very boring in that respect. That’s not to say that the opening sequence of various crime occurring to the backing music of ‘Claire De Lune’ wasn’t strangely artistic, but it’s just disappointing to see such an interesting concept go to waste.

One sided (part II) – it’s not just one sided in the sense of the crimes committed, it’s also the fact that the film focuses on the middle to upper class members of society. This made it harder to connect with because I didn’t care about the wealthy people. I didn’t want them to be safe. I’m hoping it’s an issue resolved in The Purge: Anarchy and from the trailers it already looks as though there’s a focus on people in the streets which would be more interesting to see. It was just annoying to have to sit through a film where the main characters are extortionately rich and never stop talking about it, the point where we have to witness them discuss their plans for their house on many occasions which is irritating and vomit inducing enough as it is, but then the film has the nerve to attempt to make me connect with them. Not something I am willing to do I’m afraid.

I could go on further but I think I’ve addressed the main issues I have with the film. It is a very mixed bad because like with any new film I wanted to like it, so the elements I didn’t like only brought me to bitter disappointment. There were too many factors that were weak so it is without remorse or sympathy that I say I did not like The Purge as a film. It was one that caught my eye but I’m afraid it did no maintain it. To ammend the words of Tarantino’s Calvin Candy “gentlemen, you had my curiosity, but you do not have my attention”.