10 Movies From 2016 That Really Shouldn’t Have Been Boring
3. The Purge: Election Year
The original Purge was a total bore, featuring a second act composed entirely of Ethan Hawke wandering a dark house with a torch. Anarchy was an improvement, upping the scale and introducing Frank Grillo’s badass hero.
The third movie promised to combine crazy political satire with wild action, but it fails on both counts. The satire is so broad and cartoonish it fails to connect, and the films modest budget means the action is unremarkable too. The film brings back Grillo to lend it grit, which has the unfortunate side effect of killing tension, since you know he’s going to make it through.
Election Year had the chance to make some timely political commentary in addition to being a gonzo b-movie; instead, it’s a forgettable entry in a series that has yet to fully live up to the wild premise.