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
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 18, 2014
It's also breathtaking to watch a throwaway studio sequel break its corporate chains before your very eyes and become something thrilling and dangerous and alive. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossJul 16, 2014
The story has a welcome sense of continuous momentum, and what’s more, DeMonaco has a better handle on both his skewering of the entitled upper class (not as pointed as Paul Verhoeven’s ultraviolent satire, but a start) and the righteous anger of the targeted lower class (personified by Michael K. Williams’ resistance leader, Carmelo). Read full review
75
Film.comJames RocchiJul 17, 2014
The Purge: Anarchy expands on its predecessor, but the excellent news is that the sequel isn’t just bigger and badder and bleaker; it’s also better, smarter, stranger and tougher. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJul 16, 2014
The movie's potential blossoms whenever it toys with the allegorical ingredients head-on. DeMonaco's script plays like a devious Brothers Grimm tale told through the filter of Occupy Wall Street. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael NordineJul 18, 2014
It's better than the first. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 17, 2014
Kill or be killed isn’t the official tag line of The Purge: Anarchy, but it fits. It would also make a more suitable title for this satisfyingly creepy, blunt, down-and-dirty thriller, one of those follow-ups that improves on the original. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJul 17, 2014
The Purge: Anarchy efficiently exploits its high-concept premise while delivering far more visceral thrills than its predecessor. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 16, 2014
Retains the original’s premise and politics, but actually puts them to use. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJul 18, 2014
Isn't a cheap knock-off but an equally effective, deliciously disturbing movie. It's bound to delight genre fans (and dismay critics, who attacked the first as heavy-handed and sloppy). Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 17, 2014
The result is an action-oriented survival tale, not unlike the kind of movie that Stallone or Schwarzenegger might have made back in the '80s. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 17, 2014
The film is at its best when it focuses on the more specific conflicts of five people thrown together on Purge night. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonJul 17, 2014
Like the first movie The Purge: Anarchy, is trash masking as social commentary, and its depiction of unrelenting, sanctioned violence can be hard to stomach. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJul 16, 2014
DeMonaco may doubly, sometimes triply, underline the story's governing theme of social power and how it's exchanged, but the rage and lucidity of these ideas resonate. Read full review
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