I hereby swear that this is my first Purge and I vote *A+*

All satire is like a funhouse mirror in that it can make it's subject appear either comical or grotesque. We're very accustomed to political comedy satire from late night TV, but The Purge: Election Year doesn't employ the usual humor. Instead it's a political horror satire. And a brilliant one! Really. It's brilliant. Right up to date, yet speaking to the ages. The excellent lesser known actors have been chosen with precise racial casting to further hone the sharpness of the satirical blade and allow dialogue that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Excellent use of the classic Bowie song on the closing soundtrack. It's perfect. (Now, I've got to go back and see the first two!)

The Purge franchise improved significantly with its second entry, Anarchy. It exploded the high concept—in near-future America, crime, murder included, is legal for one night every year—on to a fairly large stage, showing an evolving group of survivors encountering numerous threats whilst navigating nocturnal L.A. Most of the ground gained, alas, is lost in Election Year, a third film which foregrounds heavy-handed, wafer-thin political allegory at the expense of the franchise's real strong suit: psychedelic, John Carpenter-style scenes of urban mayhem. The few absurd and frightening antagonists—sadistic teenage girls blasting "Party in the U.S.A." from their carnage-mobile; European murder tourists donning Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty, and Abraham Lincoln costumes—come and go far too rapidly, and the spotlight is instead focused on a bland team of mercenaries hunting an anti-purge presidential candidate (Elizabeth Mitchell). The Mitchell character is unconvincing, soft and a tad stilted when she should be a firebrand, and it is hard to believe the totalitarian, purge-creating "New Founding Fathers" would ever allow a free election in the first place. Compared to Anarchy, Election Year also does a fairly poor job maintaining momentum and a sense of dread. The anxiety-inducing alarm announcing the purge's start is underutilized, and it is frequently hard to discern how much of the night has elapsed.

C

Also: the audience loved him, but I found the Mykelti Williamson character's comic relief a bit overbearing. Every other word is "negro" or "deli."

Whoa, I was certain the head of the white-nationalist mercenary team was Anthony Michael Hall.

I couldn't stop laughing at that chick that needed a candy bar. Like, really, after killing your parents this is what you need to do? It was one of the more memorable scenes of the movie though.

These movies are forgettable but entertaining.

I thought it was really entertaining and on par with the second movie. Really liked Elizabeth Mitchell's character and the action sequences were well-done. The candy bar girl was hilarious and one of the highlights for sure. B+

It's entertaining, but completely disposable. I liked Elizabeth Mitchell's character and Frank Grillo was a badass, but outside of Mykelti Williamson the supporting cast here was pretty horrible, especially the candy bar girls. Also, there wasn't nearly enough actual purging in this movie which was weird and it kinda had too much of a DTV feel IMO.

This is entertaining on its own but missing a step in almost everything from the last movie. Surprisingly I found Grillo much more tamed this time, mostly because its a team this time and everyone aside from the Mayor is a badass. Mitchell's character is good and she comes out the best of the lot in the whole movie. I found the candy girl very annoying and over-acted but it still fits the movie well. These movies need to move to more gore, they are becoming more smart survival thrillers than horror movies. I mean for a horror/thriller I really wasn't even once scared not even jump scared.

5/10

favorite movie so far!

Anarchy was a hair better but I still really enjoyed this. Very entertaining.

8/10 (B+)

The Purge: Election Year

Better than Anarchy, but still not as good as the first. It is an average thriller with a tired concept. Mykelti Williamson was annoying and shit, and none of the purgers were particularly creative or scary. The Uncle Sam purger (the Russian dude) by far had the best guise, but was wasted to a small thug role. Grillo and the white supremacist's final fight was an anti-climax, as was the win by Roan. I'm glad this will apparently be the final Purge film.

C

Final film? The box-office suggests otherwise.

Well, I don't know or care, but...

I am aware that they said it would be. But then it made a shitload of money.

Yes. Here's hoping they stick to their guns.

I thought it was him too. That sucks. I was going to come in here and say how that was inspired casting. That's out the window. It was also pretty much the only positive I was going to bring up. The baddies are lame (the teenage girls especially), the action sequences are lame (the final hand-to-hand knife fight is kinda good), and there should've been way more carnage in the church. Guess we've got to save some bad guys for the sequel.

It'd be nice if such a great concept wasn't this wasted. The first was garbage, the second one was okay but completely forgettable, and with the third we're now back towards garbage. Such a waste.

C-

The Purge was lame, Anarchy was better but still kinda trashy. So I almost gave up on this franchise, but a reminder from HBO Go that Election Year was leaving made me change my mind. And while this one starts in the same way, especially with the teen girl who WANTS MY CANDY BAH, everything after the first break in is exhilerating. Reminded me of 80s action sci-fi pics like The Running Man, Assault on Precinct 13, etc... A strong style with likeable characters who have a mission we can all root for. And while Anarchy did go a little bit into this, its nice to know most normal people find The Purge as upsetting and absurd a concept as we would.