10 Insane Character Decisions That Totally Ruined Movies

1. Basically Everything Charlie Does - The Purge

The original Purge movie is often cited as a giant missed opportunity, taking a neat concept - murder is legal for 12 hours - and bungling it with a confined, low-budget approach that scarcely hints at the wider mayhem taking place across the U.S.

But what truly drags the film down is the characterisation of the Sandin family's son, Charlie (Max Burkholder), who effectively sets the movie's primary conflict in motion through his multi-faceted idiocy, ultimately getting his own father James (Ethan Hawke) killed.

After The Purge has begun and the Sandins are safely locked down in their fancy home, Charlie notices a wounded man (Edwin Hodge) calling for help outside, and rather than maintain the safety of their family fortress, he disables the security system and lets the man inside. Remember, this is Purge night and he has no idea who this man is.

This leads to a gang of murderers demanding they send the stranger outside or risk having their house broken into.

While the rest of the family tries to track the man down, Charlie actively helps him hide within the house, almost getting his mother (Lena Headey) and sister (Adelaide Kane) killed in the process.

Finally, even when James captures the stranger, Charlie guilts him into fighting the attackers instead, which inevitably causes his death.

There's compassion, and then there's blindly doing something without even remotely thinking about the consequences to yourself and others. It's just not very believable, and underlines the film's general dramatic disappointment.

Thankfully the first two sequels ramped up both the action and social satire, and added Frank Grillo for good measure.