The First Purge (2018)

Directed by Gerard McMurray. Starring Y’lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Jovian Wade, Patch Darragh, Marisa Tomei, Rotimi Paul, Mo McRae, Jermel Howard. [R]

Fourth in the Purge franchise goes back to the beginning—and for a good portion of the runtime, back to its more down-and-dirty horror roots—by showing how, after taking control of the White House and federal government, the New Founding Fathers tested a “sociological experiment” on Staten Island by making all crime legal for a 12-hour block of time in the year 2014 (whoopsie!). For a moment, it looked like the filmmakers (including new series director McMurray) were going to make their otherwise thuddingly obvious screeds on politics and class a little more complex by having the “hero” be a drug kingpin (Noel) who even takes advantage of the Purge by conducting a little homicidal payback on one of his enemies. But, alas, ambition ultimately isn’t in the cards, as the second half surrenders to the formula dreck and a series of increasingly unbelievable episodes and shootouts. I’m not sure what Marisa Tomei is doing here—in a blonde wig, maybe trying to collect a paycheck incognito, since I didn’t even recognize her during her first scene?—but her exit from the picture is handled so clumsily, if not for the hair color as an indicator, it would’ve been hard to guess what happened to her! Contempt for the audience only earns contempt from me. Premiered a couple months prior to the debut of the cable TV series (“The Purge”); a fifth film in the series, The Forever Purge, would follow in 2021.

32/100