Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Written by: Chris Borey, Eddie Borey and Joe Carnahan
Produced by: Joe Carnahan, Frank Grillo, Randall Emmett and George Furla
Starring: Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Annabelle Wallis, Ken Jeong, Will Sasso, Selina Lo, Meadow Williams and Michele Yeoh.
Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo) is stuck in the death loop of a never-ending day.
Sounds a little familiar (couldn’t help thinking back to Happy Death Day, etc). But, Boss Level has the tone of an 80s arcade game, opening at Attempt 139.
Complete with 80s rock and muscled martial arts (Roy a former Delta Force captain, of course) and macho voice-over, I cringed a little with the dialogue when Roy’s apartment was getting shot-up and he nonchalantly says, ‘I’m never getting my security deposit back.’
But as this guy gets killed over and over again, sometimes in a sequence of yeah, this is me missing the back of the truck, and where is that bus? As he crashes through the glass, pieces of glass patterning his face like a porcupine.
The voice-over dripping with sarcasm grew on me:
‘I think you have a better chance of growing a penis on your forehead.’
There’s some great tongue-in-check here which is such a classic layer to an action movie.
And by action, there’s car chases and sword fights, harpoon through chest and attached by rope to car that drives while being dragged behind…
Mel Gibson (is back?!) as the villain, Clive Ventor, shines as he tells an apt tale in warning to Dr Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts).
Now this is where it gets a bit flimsy, the doctor is Roy’s wife. And she works somewhere on something top secret and time altering… And there’s not much else to that side of the story:
Bad guy.
Time machine.
Threat to end the world?
Basically, it comes down to Roy fighting to get to the end of the game, each fight like a level to get to the end, to the Boss Level.
I could get philosophical and say the story’s a metaphor for growth to overcome selfishness, to fight to get to what matters in life. And there’s some of that here. But mostly, Boss Level is a fight-em-up, cheeky action movie that felt a little undercooked but still tasted OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vRtfeUW_CU&t=6s