Meet the Blacks (2016)

Elevator Pitch: Carl Black has come into money illegally and so has moved his family from Chicago into a luxury mansion in a gated community in Los Angeles. The family consists of a new blonde wife, a teenage daughter with, unknown to Carl, a boyfriend in tow, a son who wants to be a vampire and a cousin, who is a constant irritant. It is the night of the Purge, but Carl believes that there will be no threats within their expensive environment. It is only when the boyfriend appears with a revolver and starts shooting that he is proved wrong, and as the night passes they find themselves faced with more house invasions, mostly by people to whom Carl owes money. 

Content: No nudity or sex, although it is implied that the boyfriend is masturbating at one point, while viewing Lorena, the wife, who wears a vest pretty well. There is some smoking. If there was any drinking I don’t remember it. There is a lot of supposedly smart black comedian style chat. I’m not being racist. It is a thing. Once the purge gets going people invade the house with all sorts of weapons, and are mainly accidentally killed, while the family creep about in the dark being frightened. 

A View: It is estimated that this movie cost less than a million dollars to make, and since it made four million on its first weekend it might be considered to have been a hit. But it was almost universally panned by both profressional and amateur reviewers. I am joining them. I started watching it, but after ten minutes had to turn it off, fortunately having it recorded, then took a deep breath and saw the rest. I am a bit of a fan of The Purge, but it is not a universe you can make a joke out of. You can’t really have a comedy where people are killed – well not intentionally. So for me it is a ALMOST DON’T SEE.  

Additional Info: The Blacks had only just moved into the mansion, so everything was in boxes. It occurred to me that this was the one clever thing the producers had done. They had packed the contents of the real mansion, so nothing would be damaged.