OVERVIEW: “For one night each year, any and all crime is legal and violence rules in The Purge: Anarchy, coming to Blu-ray™ Combo Pack including Blu-ray™, DVD, Digital HD & Ultraviolet™ on October 21, 2014 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The second terrifying chapter of the disturbing and thought-provoking saga, The Purge: Anarchy takes to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for anarchy. With deleted scenes and a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie, The Purge: Anarchy Blu-ray™ Combo Pack offers viewers a thrilling and intriguing portrayal of humanity at its best and worst.

SYNOPSIS: The New Founders of America invite you to celebrate your annual right to Purge. The Purge: Anarchy takes it to the streets for the country's yearly 12 hours of anarchy, when all crime is legal. This new story follows an unlikely group of five strangers over the course of the night. As they fight to survive a night fraught with impossible decisions, these strangers will find out just how far they will go to protect themselves and, ultimately, each other.

FILM REVIEW: Last year’s The Purge turned out to be a summer surprise hit, despite my giving a low rating review (as if my opinion matters :-)). Furthermore, it apparently went on to solidify Blumhouse Productions (makers of the Paranormal Activity series and Insidious), as the ones to watch for rolling out sleeper hits in the thriller genre. It had a terrific premise, but in my opinion, the movie itself broke down into a run-of-the-mill home invasion thriller similar to the 2008 horror film, The Strangers. Needless to say, it [The purge] was very much a huge disappointment because instead of exploring an environment where all crime is legal (And what an awesome concept to get creative with!), it subjected audiences to having to endure madness in one house throughout the majority of the movie. On the other hand, “The Purge: Anarchy” ditches that seemingly over-done horror concept in favor of following the real chaos in to the streets and lives of all, allowing the sequel to delve deeper in to the concept with both hands.

The idea behind “The Purge: Anarchy” seems to not be simply that American society has resolved its crime/inequality/population problems with an annual free-pass-for-murder "purge." But it is more like this hell night came home to roost on isolated, gated suburbanites, superficially liberal people existing merrily above this annual bloodletting, immune to its impact, but benefiting and even profiting from the mayhem (until it invades their community and their homes). It basically abandons that heavily repeated and disturbing message of home invasions for a more straightforward concept that has much more of a philosophical under tone. Where society will evolve, survive and benefit even if it’s at the anguish of others.

I guess since many (including myself) complained about The Purge being a meager home-invasion thriller gussied up with hints of dystopian sci-fi, writer James DeMonaco, et al, decided to listen and come up with this more exciting version for as the follow up. It doesn’t have any real heavy-hitters in the casting; However, it is worth mentioning little known actor Noel Gugliemi (Training Day, The Fast and the Furious and The Dark Knight Rises) for his small role that is quite intense and showcases his range of talent. In a nutshell, I’d frame him as a scene-stealer, for the character he portrayed. He has certainly grown exponentially over the years and Hollywood should take notice. 

Anyways, here's a fun way to watch this flick. Pretend its "The Punisher" movie, and lead actor Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014) is playing The Punisher. Do this and the film gets sorta’ awesome at times. Grillo is actually playing a man with no name and simply referred to in passing as "Sergeant." His character is pretty intense and has one goal that makes him pretty dangerous. Consequently, this second “Purge: Anarchy” effort is very much worth seeing in theaters. Three and a half stars out of five is probably not doing it justice (It lacked recognizable star power), but is well deserving here.

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
English, Spanish and Francais DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1/DVS DD 2.0 (English)

Subtitles - English Spanish French

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away.

DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.

Digital Copy of The Purge: Anarchy (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)

Includes UltraViolet (Subject to expiration. Go to NBCUCodes.com for details.)

Deleted Scenes

Behind the Anarchy: Take a front row seat for the action and adrenaline of The Purge as you join the cast and crew on the streets during the madness of the annual ritual.”