This Sequel Gives the Crowd What It Wanted, But Still Falls a Bit Short: Our Review of "The Purge: Anarchy" (2014)

Directed By: James DeMonaco (The Purge) 

Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Kiele Sanchez, Michae K. Williams

Rating: R for strong disturbing violence, and for language

Run Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Synopsis: Taking place one year after the first film, The Purge: Anarchy follows 5 strangers from different walks of life - a nameless soldier with an axe to grind (Grillo), a mother (Ejogo) and daughter who were nearly kidnapped by an army, and a bickering couple whose car broke down at an inopportune time - as they try to avoid a masked gang and various Purgers while trying to make it to safety in downtown L.A. on the night of the annual Purge.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! So we know we've been a little lax here lately as we still haven't published our review of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but we're here with our review of the only film we saw this past weekend - The Purge: Anarchy.

It's the sequel to last year's The Purge, which had an awesome concept and did very well at the box office, but left a lot of its audience and critics cold. (I had a mixed reaction to it on my initial viewing, and frankly, this movie is kinda what I was asking for in my review of the first one.)

Sarah, we actually sat down and watched The Purge a month or so ago which was your first time seeing it. So let's start this review off by comparing what you thought of the first one and it's relatively small-scale home invasion plot, and The Purge: Anarchy's much wider-scale.

Sarah: First of all I want to say that these movies are silly. The premise really makes absolutely no sense. But they are kind of fun, in an extremely violent kind of way. The first one takes place solely in a Los Angeles mansion. It's in tight quarters and gives it more of a horror movie feel. There are elements of jumpiness and "who's around that corner?!" The new one is all over the city of L.A. It has a much more action movie feel to it, and I really liked that. It almost felt like it would be a great premise for a haunted house. I could totally see this as a walk-through at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights for sure.

Back to School and Better Than Before: Our Review of "22 Jump Street" (2014)

Directed By: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie) 

Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Wyatt Russell

Rating: R for language throughout, sexual content, drug material, brief nudity and some violence

Run Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Synopsis: After struggling to find success after their first undercover gig, police officers Jenko (Tatum) and Schmidt (Hill) are ordered back to the Jump Street division run by Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) to do the same kind of undercover mission they did so well the first time...but this time they're sent to college. Yup, just like the end of the first film said they would!

REVIEW

Sarah: Hello readers! We were back at the movies after a quick little weekend getaway to visit the family, and the other night we checked out this past weekend's big comedy blockbuster release, 22 Jump Street. 22 Jump Street is the much anticipated (by us at least) sequel to 2012's hit 21 Jump Street, the film reboot to the old popular television show starring Johnny Depp. 

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill once again star as undercover police officers Jenko and Schmidt, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returned to direct this, too. Andrew, this movie was packed with hilarious moments and even a little heart! What did you think of 22 Jump Street?

Andrew: Well first I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that 21 Jump Street was one of the earliest reviews we ever did for our blog. And back in 2012 we gave 21 Jump Street a 4.5/5 clapboard review. I stand by that grade because I still think it's a hilarious reboot of the old television series and was filled with great nods towards not only the TV show, but perfectly made fun of buddy cop movies, shoot 'em up action flicks, and subverting high school cliches while embracing all those things, too.

22 Jump Street does just as well by lampooning the idea of movie sequels, but it embraces it and all the college comedy tropes, too. I loved this new entry in the series and I want to say that I think they improved on the first one, even if a large part of this movie's success is that it's almost follows the first one beat for beat. What did you think, Sarah?