The Forever Purge - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Forever Purge



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I’m still amazed at how far The Purge series has come over the last 10 years (ish). The first film was an ultraviolent thriller penned by James DeMonaco that was sort of subdued and self contained. It wasn’t a big hit, but shot on only a $3 million budget, a sequel was a VERY enticing thing as it raked in over $89.3 million dollars. Thus the sequels were born, and James DeMonaco has been just using it as playground for gonzo violence and political commentary ever since.

I’m not going to lie. If you haven’t seen the films politics from the previous movies, then this won’t shock you. DeMonaco’s cynical and bitter look at America and politics has been the central focus of every one of the sequels. #s 2 ad 3 were both commentaries on the elites in our society. Something most general people can sort of get behind. The anger and frustration at political elites controlling the lives of every day Americans without consequence. As such it was a sort of a cathartic action/horror duo that united viewership, even though they weren’t what anyone would consider high art. However, with The First Purge (a sequel to them all) DeMonaco went a little bit divisive, and made the film about racial and class struggle. The movie ended up polarizing audiences quite a bit and garnered a ton of hate from right leaning people and left leaning as well. But with The Forever Purge, the mask is completely taken off and the commentary is laid on so thick that it feels like peanut butter over the entire thing. DeMonaco’s latest entry is a full on fantasy level commentary on his views of MAGA and white supremacy.

The story is pretty simple (duh, this is a Purge movie). The NFFA (the evil right leaning government who instituted the purge years ago) were kicked out of office at the end of the 3rd movie, but now they’re back in power again and re institute the national blood-letting day. The only thing is, things don’t go exactly as planned, as the New America is basically at a boiling point, and the Purge has only been fueling and/or masking the real issue underneath. Hatred and white supremacy. Now the purge night is over with, but the NFFA and the rest of society has come to the realization that while the night is over with, the Purge isn’t. Millions of violently rabid racists (seriously, every villain in the movie wear Nazi tattoos, say things like “we’re going to purify this nation and get rid of your brownies”, while railing against immigrants in literally EVERY scene) being what is know as the ever after purge. E.g., the start of a civil war as they begin a national purge of everyone who isn’t one of them.

Our main heroes focus around the Tucker family ranch and their Hispanic employees. Son Dylan Tucker (Josh Lucas) watches as his father is murdered in front of his very eyes by another employee (one who ironically is spouting your typical “eat the rich!” stuff) only to escape with the rest of his family and illegal immigrant employees Juan (Tencho Huerta), wife Adele (Ana de la Reguera) and T.T. (Alejandro Edda) in hopes of making it to somewhere safe and alive. Dylan is kind of a low key racist himself, showing prejudice against his hispanic employees, while never really hating them. However, he and his family are forced into the same blender of destruction as everyone else, and are forced to come to grips with this niggling character issues when his family and Juan's family have to go back to back in order to defend their lives

As usual, the politics are ridiculously over the top, and the caricatures will definitely make right leaning people bang their head against the wall. However, as much as I could rant and rail about politics all day, the movie is still a paper thin plot based upon one unifying factor. Ultraviolence. The movie could be described as using ultraviolent slaughter as a way to bring DeMonaco’s political vision to fruition, or it could be said that he’s using politics as a vehicle for gonzo violence. Either way, the film is ultimately the most devisive of the franchise, and about on par with the very painful The First Purge as a movie in general. I actually really enjoyed #2s and 3, but after that, DeMonaco sort of jumped the rails with the franchise. But with them being made on a $5-$13 million budget and raking in over $100 million each entry, the series is good for at least another movie or two (supposedly DeMonaco has plans for a 6th one tentatively titled as The Final Purge in store for us). At the end of the day the movie is just a bleak and bland ultraviolent flick that has brought a few interesting tidbits to the table, but ultimately buckles under the weight of what it thinks it's TRYING to say, with hilarious caricatures and mind numbing rehashed violence.




Rated R for strong/bloody violence, and language throughout




Video:

The 1.85:1 AVC encoded transfer does well for itself, with another great looking Blu-ray encode for the series. Digitally shot and edited, the movie tends to have a slightly weathered and toned down color range for the film (a gray and lightly LIGHTLY blue tinge is added to the image), but shows startlingly sharp clarity throughout. The outdoor shots of the Tucker ranch are sparklingly clear and clear, with amazing skin tones and a fairly neutral color grading. Greens and blues dominate with dusty browns thrown into the mix being that it IS a Texas ranch. During the night time shots we see a more grim and gray look, with only splashes of white or red here and there from their futuristic version of Nazi flags. There are some definite banding scenes in those darker shots, and right around the 22 minute mark as the scene goes completely dark the edges pixelate on the screen.







Audio:

The series has always had great audio, and unlike all the previous films, we don’t get a DTS-HD MA or DTS:X mix, but rather a Dolby Atmos sound track (found on both the 4K UHD and the Blu-ray). It’s loud, aggressive, and really immersive mix that makes great use of all channels in the room. Bass is powerful and punchy, but not aggressively so. As with several mixes these days, I’m noticing that mixing is going towards a more balanced bass track rather than a monster crusher. It’s soft and subtle when needed, but also ads plenty of slam when called upon. Surround channels are a buzz with the cackling and crowing of nasty villains, the roaring of motorcycles, and the general cacophony of bullets and mayhem that goes on in these movies. Dialog is crisp and clear, and except for a few accent issues (some horribly attempted Texas accents), I found it perfectly understandable and balanced at all times. Solid entry.





Extras:

• Alternate storyboard opening
• Deleted scenes
• Collapsing the System: Behind The Forever Purge
• Creeptastic Wardrobe

Final Score: ​

Originally slated to come out late 2020, the movie was shelved and had a few scenes re-shot during the downtime to come out this summer instead (obvious dialog changes too, as they make VERY clear to use the term “insurrectionists” at least once or twice). Is The Purge series good? No, it’s pure exploitative gonzo violence flicks with DeMonaco railing his politics behind the wheel. But they usually are pretty entertaining for what they were. Sadly I think the series has reached its tipping point due to the writer polarizing his audience a bit TOO much, and rehashing things a bit too much as well. Kind of like the SAW films, you can only remake the same thing a certain number of times, just substituting another class of people who are being hunted during the purge, before audiences get a little exhausted. And that’s about what I’d call myself after watching this final entry. Exhausted. It’s a movie that’s distinctly aimed at a certain political and cinema viewing demographic, and as such I’d label it “for the fans only” of the series.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Josh Lucas, Ana de la Requera, Tenoch Huerta, Cassidy Freeman, Will Patton
Directed by: Everado Gout
Written by: James DeMonaco
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 104
Blu-ray Release Date: August 28th, 2021

Recommendation: For the Fans only

 

[Asere]

This one looked promising. I will skip it. Thanks for the review.

 

[Michael Scott]

sadly it would have been at least palatable if the kills were good. Even the violence felt severly toned down this go

 

[Asere]

On another note. I hear Halloween Kills is really violent. Will be watching it on Peacock October 15.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm all-in on Halloween Kills. Love the franchise.

This one, however... the cover art is CRAZY! How can the movie be such a dud??