Full disclosure: I dislike The Purge film franchise intensely. In particular, the sequels have expanded on a potentially good genre idea and just become absolute dreck. So, a comedic satire of the whole thing contained strong possibilities for me. I’d 100% be on board with something of the sort. At the same time, to only partially tackle the concept would just lead to a mess, and that’s where we are with The Binge. At times, this is an amusing lowest common denominator comedy. At other times, however, cringingly unfunny, almost disregarding its own premise in the hope of capitalizing on a joke that’s never going to work. Dropping this weekend on Hulu, it’s far too hit or miss to recommend. The movie is a comedy that satirizes The Purge and its central conceit. Here, a time period in the near future has descended into such chaos that the government has stepped in to combat addiction. Now, alcohol and drugs are only legal for one 24 hour period a year, resulting in a wild success. At the same time, it also creates one wild day that’s a huge party situation for high schoolers. This year, Griffin (Skyler Gisondo) and Hags (Dexter Darden) are planning to attend their first binge party. Prom is coming up and the former is hoping to ask out Lena (Grace Van Dien) his longtime crush and the daughter of the intense Principal Carlsen (Vince Vaughn), while the latter wants to compete in a competition held each year that could make him a legend. When they need to acquire an extra wristband to the party, they recruit their weird former friend Andrew (Eduardo Franco), setting off on an all-day adventure that will introduce them to drinking, taking various narcotics, as well as getting into ridiculous amounts of trouble. While they slowly make their way to the huge party, Principal Carlsen is on the hunt for Griffin and Lena after seeing a poorly typed out text message. The first act is basically just a high school comedy, with the second act being a race against time. Then, the third act turns into something just a bit weirder. Jeremy Garelick directs a screenplay by Jordan VanDina. Matt Bowen composes the score, which Andrew Huebscher handling the cinematography. Supporting players include Esteban Benito, Tony Cavalero, Hayes MacArthur, and more. To be sure, there are funny moments here. By and large, any […]