Once again it’s time to bear arms for the annual Purge where for one night all crime is made legal as part of The New Founding Fathers of America’s (NFFA) police state manifesto. First things first, if you haven’t seen either of the previous movies then I suggest watching them first as they give a background into the state of the country and the reasoning behind The Purge which this movie doesn’t take time to outline so while not essential to do so, some elements of this movie will be lost if you have no previous experience with The Purge.

The movie opens at one of the previous Purge nights and a family who has been tied up is in the process of a game where the mother must choose which family member survives. We then cut to eighteen years later where it’s only days until the latest purge and we are shown riots in progress with regard to the NFFA using The Purge for their own financial gain. The increase in the anti-purge movement may also have an effect on the latest Presidential race especially since the current leading candidate is Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) who was the survivor of the opening scene and wants to abolish The Purge altogether.

So in a spin doctor move to try and improve their standing with the lower classes the previous rule where Government officials were exempt from The Purge is revoked which leaves Roan wide open as prey. Her head of security is Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) who was a key player in the second movie and wants rid of The Purge as part of his own redemption but they are betrayed and the safe house that Roan is staying in on Purge night is compromised so Barnes must take to the streets with Roan in order to keep her alive.

At the same time store owner Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson) receives news that his insurance premium has been increased and without the means to pay he needs to protect his store on Purge night along with his friend and shop assistant Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) but before the night is through they will need to risk a lot more than their store in order to play their part in this year’s Purge.

Where the first two movies had some feeling of fluidity as the various groups or people came together to survive, this time it all felt a bit staged, some plot lines are opened but never developed and just felt tacked on to try and fit with the continuity of the movie. Plus, for me, it was all a bit too politically motivated and transferred from the genre of action/horror to action/thriller which was a shame as the selling point of these movies was always the transformation of people of Purge night, the depths of depravity people would stoop to when given free rein to do so and the lengths people go to survive. While this felt more like a group of people caught between two military groups fighting a political war for one night. Grillo still got some time to show his skills just much less often & Mitchell is believable as the senator who will risk it all, including her life, to get elected but the rest of the cast, including Williamson who could have been a major player but ended up a little more than light comic relief at times, all drifted in and out of the film until they became ex-machina in a lot of scenes and the last twenty minutes or so become a bit over ridiculous as the movie seemed to run out of ideas as how to best come to a resolution.

I will give the movie credit for its excellent use of iconography such as the moving shot past the Lincoln Memorial which is littered with dead bodies on the steps and the columns have PURGE written in human blood. These type of moments give the film a certain uniqueness and eeriness that makes it memorable but unfortunately they are only for fleeting moments in the movie.

There are also strong religious links in the film with the NFFA coming across as a fanatical religious cult and there is the use of martyrdom on both sides of the fence plus the obvious race divide which has appeared in all of the movies in the series is even further accentuated here. Yet, the irony that so many people died in the course of trying to keep the anti-purge senator alive was to always the fore in my mind which seemed a little like double standards.

It’s a decent action film but it’s not as good as either of the preceding movies in the series and while there was some scope left open for another movie in the franchise I hope that they take it in a different direction and perhaps create a look at the NFFA back story or something along those lines as The Purge itself seems to have run its course.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Risen starts Joseph Fiennes as Clavius, a Roman Tribune who is appointed by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) is investigating the local rumours that are surfacing about a new Messiah which coincides with the recent disappearance of a body from a tomb of a man called Yeshua (Cliff Curtis) which Clavius’ men were supposed to be guarding. When Clavius is unable to locate the missing body he turns to tracking down the supporters of this alleged Messiah for clues but when he finds the supposed dead man alive and well his faith is tested so he decides that he needs to spend some time with this man to establish what is going on.

It’s a religious tale about the resurrection of Christ so I’m hardly going to be giving any spoilers away in terms of the plot but it’s interestingly told in the form of a detective type tale as Clavius’ investigation lead him closer and closer to the one answer he doesn’t want to hear and Fiennes is excellent as the skeptic who begins to doubt his ideals and his ethos on life as he spends more time around the seemingly resurrected man

Director Kevin Reynolds does a good job of recreating a feel and vibe of the time and there’s some great orchestral scoring by Roque Banos which gives a great nod to the classics of its genre such as Ben Hur and The Robe. A big plus is that the movie stays away from glamorising the events, instead Clavius hears of the tales of miracles from eye witnesses and other locals so it’s not a visual spectacle, which was a nice touch and while it lacks the epic feel of other biblical movies it’s a different take which was at least refreshing. This type of movie is not targeted at my demographic but I will always give credit where it is due and I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the movie give the investigative route it took.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Based on the 2014 historical action book by American author Mitchell Zuckoff 13 Hours is film based around the events of an attack by Islamist militants on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 and looks at the event from the view of six members of a security team working in a nearby CIA outpost that supposedly doesn’t exist.

When a US ambassador Chris Stevens (Matt Letscher) is scheduled to visit the compound the security team inspect the area and are appalled to see a complete lack of protection on offer and when they learn that the supposed secret visit is to take place on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and is actually public knowledge to the immensely dangerous and unstable local populous they voice their concerns to their boss ‘The Chief’ (David Costabile) but he is dismissive in reminding the security team that they are here to protect the base and not the compound but when the inevitable attack occurs the security team decide to take matters into their own hands and attempt to rescue Stevens highlighting the fact that they are in the area which in turns the enemy eyes in their direction.

All the leads done their part plus it was nice to see John Krasinski as Jack Silva in a non-comedic role and he more than held his own as a co-lead but it was James Badge Dale who stole the show for me as Tyrone Wood, a man who wants nothing more than to return home to his family yet is filled with a sense of duty to protect his fellow countrymen above all else.

But at the end of it all I was still looking at a Michael Bay movie and while it is one of his best efforts, in the hands of another director this could have been a classic as there were elements which reminded me very much of Black Hawk Down, some of the action sequences were excellent and there was a sense of history and personality given to the main characters that is usually omitted from a Bay movie. However, despite all this the sense of desperation and dread which was undoubtedly felt by all those involved never really came across on screen to any great effect so unlike the classic movie of this genre I still always felt like I was watching a movie and it never dragged me in to where I left like part of the action, and yes, there are still a number of long, sustained, American flag shots, it is Michael Bay after all!

Although far from perfect and despite the supposed controversy of how close to the truth it may have been it was certainly one of the more enjoyable ‘war’ movies of recent times, off hand I can only think of Fury and Sole Survivor which I enjoyed more and there is a while a little long at nearly two and a half hours it is well worth a look if you missed it upon initial release.

DJ Speaks: 6 out Of 10

Based on the 2006 Stephen King novel of the same name, Cell sees Clay Riddell (John Cusack) returning home to his family when an unexpected event caused by mobile phones sends people crazy so Clay must escape with fellow survivors a train conductor, Tom McCourt (Samuel Jackson) and his neighbour Alice Maxwell (Elizabeth Furhman) to try and figure out what is going on and save his family along the way as they bump onto a couple of groups of survivors who’s sanity seems as precarious as the enemy they are facing.

Unfortunately it’s yet another case of a poor adaptation of a Stephen King novel, how that guy must be frustrated watching his good stories being destroyed on the screen, although I’m sure the money flowing in helps. When will Hollywood realise that a good novel horror/sci-fi does not always translate to a good movie?

With an antagonist made up for the movie and very reminiscent of Randall Flagg from The Stand book albeit, much less terrifying and monsters (if they are really that) who’s communication system is very similar to the aliens in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers the film feels like a mish-mash of ideas from other movies behind the story line except the ideas don’t work and the movie is neither entertaining or horrific. I never felt any semblance of caring or empathy for the survivors and I can only put that down to the movie as the book does a good job of it. The best credit I can give it is that it acts like a science fiction piece about technology turning on us (Maximum Overdrive anybody?) which is no doubt mean to be a moralistic, cautionary tale used as a metaphor for about how much we rely of technology and in particular our phones in modern life causing us to act like mindless zombies however, it ends up as nothing more than a cheap feeling B-movie that even an A-list cast that really should have known better cannot save and the disappointing, cheap story line ending was probably the most disappointing thing of all. 

DJ Speaks Rating: 4 Out Of 10

A young model Jesse (Elle Fanning) has moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a model and at her first shoot she meets make-up artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who quickly befriends her and introduces Jesse to fellow models Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and so begins Jesse’s trip into the strange, unsavoury world of the fashion industry where she meets a wide array of characters but all of which are only ever looking out for number one in a cut throat world in which Jesse must evolve and adapt if she is to survive.

Jesse is the ideal character as pure, untainted and virginal, almost always dressed in white or in innocent floral dresses against the harsh brash outfits of the rest of the cast. She is only barely sixteen and has forged her parental consent form in order to get a contract. She is the epitome of a blank page and that is why she is so intriguing to the designers but it is also why she is the envy of fellow models who were in her place once but no longer have the innocence.

While it all came together in the end there are some scenes which will leave you baffled in the context that they are used, for example there’s a scene where Jesse cuts her hand on glass and Sarah offers to help but, while I won’t outline what she does, her actions, at that time, make no sense at all. Also, there’s a speech from Gigi about cosmetic surgery and perfection which again at the time just sounds egotistic, and it is, but which makes much more sense later in the film and this is the real issue with the movie, there are lots of things going on but it doesn’t always seem relevant until later as things are revealed. While it might be construed as clever if the movie was more fast paced the slow development of the plot means that it was very difficult to stay interested in all aspects of the movie.

There were elements of Black Swan and another movie I watched recently, High Rise with perhaps a bit of a Single White Female throw in for good measure but it never got to the same levels as any of those movies. Both Fanning and Malone were good in their roles but these were the only two characters who felt like they had any depth or development and Malone probably outshined Fanning when on screen, all the other players seemed like place holders and pieces in a puzzle. Christina Hendricks only appears for five minutes and Keanu Reeves, while having a little more involvement was still  a bit of a bit part and both roles could really have been played by anybody so I’m not sure of their purpose other than adding an A-list name to the cast. I will credit the Cliff Martinez almost dream like musical accompaniment worked very well in adding to the surreal feel of the scenes and is one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a while.

Although he has a very unusual style, I love director Nicolas Winding Refn’s movie Drive which I thought was a very underrated movie and was superb both visually and from a story telling point of view, but this was missing something in terms of the plot development and pacing so instead of being gripping it seemed like it was designed to shock, and I’m sure in that sense it will shock some. Although it’s listed as a horror movie it’s more a thriller with some disturbing moments and while it’s not a bad movie, it’s just very strange which at times felt like it was a pet project for the director rather than making a movie for his audience.

There’s a line in the movie where Fanning states “Beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only things.” unfortunately, when it comes to movies a great looking movie doesn’t always make a good film but it felt like the type of movie that may be more appreciated after a second viewing as it was quite easy to miss subtle moments on screen which became bigger things so while I can’t see this being a hit with the masses it may become a cult hit.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Beginning with some back story about the division of the Congo to the colonial powers in the latter part of the 19th century and King Leopold of Belgium’s attempts to extract the rich natural resources, in particular diamonds, from the land but after his initial attempts prove unfruitful he decides to send his envoy Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) to take control of proceedings but when his exposition is wiped out a local tribal leader, Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), exchanges his life and the diamonds for the presentation of Tarzan in front of the chief as they have unfinished historical business.

Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard)  is living in England as John Clayton III or Lord Greystoke with his wife Jane porter (Margot Robbie) and his is invited by the Belgian king to visit the city of Boma in the Congo to act as an intermediary in the colonization of the area given that it was where he was born and raised. (I won’t go into the back story of his childhood, we all know it) He refuses but is convinced by George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), a consort from America to travel as he suspect that the Belgium King is using the local population as slaves, so begins the adventure when Tarzan must face Mbonga, save the locals, his wife and the creatures of the jungle from the evils of the Belgians and the unscrupulous Rom with a little help from Williams and some other, old friends along the way.

It’s an old story receiving a modern twist but the problem is that, despite the modernisation there’s nothing new. It’s a dated tale, told in older, very different times which does not really work in the modern era of movies. Tarzan and his friends are good, the Belgians are bad. Waltz plays a good villain, Robbie plays a tough, spirited damsel in distress, Jackson has the funny quips when needed and Hollywood still struggles with bringing racial stereotyping into the modern era. It felt that the only reason Jackson was even in the movie was to avoid the backlash the movie would have received otherwise. Swap Tarzan and the jungle for Spiderman and the streets of New York and we’ve seen the impressive swinging before. The CGI and interaction with the animals was good but was done better by the recent Jungle Book movie but some of the green screen scenes were unbelievably bad and I’m really struggling to find anything unique about the movie.

It’s not a bad film by any means and it’s two hours or so of decent entertainment so keep your expectations low and you’ll be okay but is it wrong that I kept wanting to shout out “Here come the Belgians” in a Stuart Hall, International Knock Out style all the way through the movie?

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out of 10