Customer Reviews

The Purifiers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What happens when you rip-off the plot of the Warriors and combine it with a future world and cruddy kung-fu action scenes? You get the Purifiers; an even more cruddy allegory about a street gang who performs good moral services that becomes the target of every other street gang under the order of Moses (Kevin McKidd of Trainspotting and HBO's Rome) who is basically this movie's version of Cyrus from the Warriors, only he doesn't die in the beginning. Moses has his sights set on Purifiers leader John (Gordon Alexander, who also did the fight choreography) since the both of them have a past together, or something like that. The saddest part of the Purifiers is that it seemed like there was an actual interesting (somewhat) story to tell here, but it all gets lost in the mix of annoying quick-cut editing, terrible acting, atrocious dialogue, and lame slow motion fight sequences that we've seen thousands of times before, and done much better as well. If the film has one thing going for it, it's that it's a low budget movie, yet it doesn't always look that way. That aside, there's nothing else redeeming about the Purifiers one bit. Lord of the Rings and Lost star Dominic Monaghan appears on the cover of the DVD, and he's in it as well, but he's not the main attraction here (and appears to sleepwalk throughout much of the running time), so even his fans will be disappointed.

Ok, You tend to get films where you watch them and you get so in to the movie that you dont realise where the time went...how I wish this was one of those films. This is one of those absolutely terrible films where you wish you could reclaim the last 2 hours of your life so that you could waste it on something much more productive like watching paint dry.

First of all the script is so predictable that all of us managed to guess what the actors were going to say before they said it. The script is about as complex and thrilling as spitting chewing gum out in the street.

Ok, now that we have established that the film is terrible and the script is a complete waste of paper and ink I shall move on to the fight scenes.

Considering that this film uses martial artist with absolutely amazing abilities Ashley Beck, Shane Steyn, Chris Jones and Silvio Symac to name a few, it just really lets you down when the fight scenes do not involve these skills to be shown. Instead the fight scenes are totally unbelievable with a chubby biker chick in a white pvc outfit back handing a man and woman about a field. If you are lucky enough to be treated to a nice bit of kicking the director decides not keep the shot wide enough or at the right angle so that you may view the grace of the martial artists.

As one fellow reviewer stated this is a B-movie, however I believe that even B-movies would be ashamed of this film. The budget to this film makes Xena Warrior Princess look like it had the budget of Lord of the Rings.

This film fails where Kickboxer 4 somehow managed to get a few things right. If the director and editor were not laughed out of this business then it proves the World is not fair.

There are two reasons why you should buy this film :-
1. You wish to laugh yourself to death with the bad acting.
2. You wish to use the DVD as a shiny mug stopper when you realise you just wasted your money.

Overall I would give this film 0 out 5 however I have to select 1. My opinion... dont waste your life and paint that wall that your parents want doing.

Yep this film sucks. Saw this at Cannes two years ago and was bored rigid by the whole affair.

Whilst the idea is okay, it feels little more than a cheap , poorly made remake of the far better 'The Warriors'.

Gordon Alexander (the real star of the film), Brandan Carr, Cecily Faye and Jamie Choo are all superb if all under used where as Chris Jones, Silvio Symac and Shane Steyn (as well as many other great UK action stars) are pushed aside for the less talented Monaghan.

What bugged me the most was the over use of sloooooowwwww mooootioooon for EVERY fight.

Jobson, former rock icon and solid director in his own right, is well out of his depth here and generally does a really bad job of making a poor film better.

Please avoid. It may make them Stop them making pap like this.

"The Purifiers" is one of several bosom projects of director/writer/producer Richard Jobson (16 Years of Alcohol), but as far as I know, it's the only martial arts-themed film he's done. Ambitious beyond its presumably meager budget, it's practically a retelling of The Warriors with a cast comprised almost entirely of promising young superkickers and is, without a doubt, one of the artsy-est karate pictures I have ever seen. It seems to have gained some notoriety in small circles on the internet, some of which is exaggerated but that's not to say the movie doesn't have overbearing faults. I don't know whether this one will fill a niche for anyone, but I can definitely see why it never made the mainstream.

The story: in a city ruled by gangs and fear, one of them - a six-person ensemble known as the Purifiers, led by an idealist called John (Richard Jobson, Sucker Punch) - refuses to join the crime conglomerate founded by a kingpin (Kevin McKidd, Trainspotting); they subsequently find themselves the target of the other gangs and must attempt to escape the city with their lives.

"Purifiers" does not look or sound like the countless other direct-to-video action movies of the last decade: to differentiate itself from the other schlock, the movie makes ample usage of musical cues, slow motion, narrative voiceovers, post-production inserts, flowery dialogue (e.g. "the moon is like a bullet - silver, smiling, deadly"), select camera angles, split-screen effects, a frequently subdued or absent soundtrack, and at least one dream/memory sequence. While this does make you sit up and take notice of the movie at first, it's all delivered ad nauseum, in such frequent quantities that the style often overtakes the substance of the film and you wonder whether you're watching a movie or a music video with the wrong music playing. Worse yet, none of this is called for: neither the plot nor its characters are creatively-penned or weird enough to make any of this seem natural, giving you the impression that the director was being artsy just for the sake of it.

I must say, though, I really like this cast. With the exception of Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), next to none of the main players have had any recognizable mainstream roles but almost all of them are surprisingly exciting British Gen-Xers with serious physical talent: the worst of them can throw a sweet sequence of flexible kicks, and the best of them do so while flipping and spinning through the air. For a single scene, Silvio Simac (Unleashed) adds his considerable abilities to the bunch. Almost every single one of the eight brawls had the potential to be great, but every single one of them is stunted through sheer overuse of slow motion and repeating camera shots; half of them suffer from particularly grotesque jump-cut editing. The very best of the fights - including the one wherein Richard Jobson and Kevin McKidd go through a long exchange of hand techniques - remain watchable despite these faults, but the disappointment remains. Why o why are filmmakers convinced that a fight cannot be *just* a fight?

I kind of like how editing was utilized to give the first speech of McKidd's character a rapid-fire delivery, but there's no extraordinary acting going on at all, and just about all of the characters are underwritten to the point that you can't even fathom some of their intentions. Personally, I'd love to see the film remade with the same cast but a different director, who won't let aesthetics and flashiness get the better of him en-route to making a potentially sweet martial arts movie. As things stand, this one's at least worth a rent; don't spend the purchase price right away.

If you listen to the director in the comments section, he says right off the top that this is a low budget B grade movie. Lots of cheap fixes for special effects, home computer CGI.. etc. etc... The plot leave a bit to be desired, its true! But what this movie does have is lots of experimental martial arts moves (without all the wire work!!) Just like Reboot the kids cartoon did so much for animation, I think movies like this will push forward the types of martial arts we see in the big productions... Just my humble opinion. Worth watching once :)

Can not believe I bought this, watched about half of title, couldn't take it any more, removed it from my DVD player, and right into the trash can.
Don't waste your money

I picked this movie up at Walmart of all places. I only bought it because Dominic Monaghan (Lost) was in it. This definitely isn't the best movie ever made but it does have some great fight scenes. The lead character does way too much voice over. However, the girls in this movie really kick butt. This is a good movie for a leisurely afternoon but nothing fantastic. Dom Monaghan did a pretty good job as a bad guy. However, it was hard to watch at times. Who can think of Merry as a bad guy? Overall a good B movie.

Excellent version of the contemporary "warriors." Good action sequences, fabulous acting.

I think the other reviewers should give it a rest and accept this movie for what it is; a fairly creative and entertaining action flick. I saw it by accident on Starz a couple a night ago and was pleasantly surprised. I've read other reviewers raving about "The Warriors". People, that was a long time ago and it was dumped on by people when it was initially released as promoting gang violence and some racial stereotypes. I think that we've become jaded as movie viewers and expect every movie to grab us. I feel that for the budget it had, it did a pretty good job. Anybody who compares this to the "Kickboxer" movies has got to be kidding. While I'm not saying it's a fantastic movie, I enjoy it in the same vein as I enjoy movies like "Boondock Saints". Let's lighten up people, a lot of the directors we rave about today started out with small flicks like this.

The Purifiers (John, Sol, Raz, Li, Frances...the other girl) have all been invited to a meeting held by the powerful Moses, played by Kevin McKidd (Dog Soldiers) who wants all the "kung-fu" gangs to join with him in changing new ways but if any of them dont want to join they have to leave quietly plus their in deep shiznot for not joining and will be either killed or get their asses kicked....so, that's what The Purifiers do, they leave because their leader John doesnt want this new change and what happens next was interesting because it looked like it was going to be a modern day THE WARRIORS, WHICH IT WASNT!!! Which is wasnt, it had some things, like "We have to make it to the station to get back" and they have some weird gang names like The Wolves and others I dont remember...I do remember the shiny crosses on t-shirts on that one gang but seriously what was with the frickin' slow motion fighting....this isnt Power Rangers and that's what the fight sequences looked like oh and we can thank Mr. Gordon Alexander (Pure Vengeance) for that...I'm not. Dominic Monaghan (Tv's LOST..watch him in this show..he's much better) betrays his own people, wow, too bad he wasnt a drug addict in here, that would of been fun...betraying his friends for drugs. Kevin McKidd, he's alright but he fights like a pansy. Rachel Grant (Die Another Day) and Amber Sainsbury (Channelling Baby, "Hex") are just eye candy....that other girl wasnt that good looking. I wanted a gang to rev up an engine and say "Purifiers...come out to playeyay!!", that's already been done (THE WARRIORS!!!!!) but it would of been funny if they did it.