The Purge: Anarchy
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 18, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
13
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
The franchise is a low-risk work-in-progress, but DeMonaco is improving as a shotmaker. Read full review
50
TheWrapInkoo KangJul 18, 2014
Ultimately, “Anarchy” is too cartoonish in its politics to gain the allegorical resonance it clearly strives for — and worse yet, it's just no fun. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJul 18, 2014
So weak on a basic storytelling level that it makes you want to nitpick everything about it, from characters' generically illogical decisions (ex: Why are you running towards mounted guns?) to its cheap-looking, jiggly hand-held cinematography. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramJul 17, 2014
In The Purge: Anarchy, unfortunately, grim and brutal is pretty much all we get. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 17, 2014
The Purge: Anarchy is a good deal bloodier, but also — gulp — a good deal better than its predecessor. Make no mistake, a good "Purge" does not equal a good movie, but the post-apocalyptic thriller is slightly more interesting because it takes itself, and its menace, more seriously. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 17, 2014
The Purge: Anarchy improves upon the original, but it's still a long way from being the sort of smart, savage satire it would have to be to fully exploit such a socially charged hook. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJul 17, 2014
The new film pokes heavyhanded fun at extreme conservatives and has a "power to the people" sub-theme, but it's full of ultra-violence and is dragged down by standard scare tactics, thin characters and the absurdities of the premise.
50
Boston GlobeLoren KingJul 17, 2014
Give credit to writer-director James DeMonaco for at least attempting to give his action thriller some heft with a plot that concerns our obsession with violence, ham-fisted as it is. But The Purge: Anarchy is still just an excuse to bombard us with high-powered weaponry, armored vehicles, vigilantes, and masked marauders in creepy Joker-like makeup. Read full review
50
The DissolveAndrew LapinJul 16, 2014
It needs to be emphasized again for the record that The Purge: Anarchy is a tremendously stupid film... But there’s an almost-camp quality to how DeMonaco takes this stupidity to greater heights, building a complex mythology around the plot like a giant moat around a pillow fort. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernJul 19, 2014
When the situation is played totally straight, as it is for eighty percent of the running time, the message is boring: We'd all commit murder, theft and anarchy if only we could. With a narrative as depressively simplistic as that, we do find ourselves identifying with the characters in the movie—counting the minutes until the Purge is over. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 18, 2014
Mainly, though, this is a humorless film that skimps on the delicious opportunity for spousal retribution. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelJul 17, 2014
You'd expect the sequel to be an improvement based on production values alone, and you would be right, but not by much. Read full review
40
VarietyGuy LodgeJul 17, 2014
For all the philosophical and metaphorical shortcomings of his script, however, DeMonaco is an efficient orchestrator of action. Read full review
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