Movie Breakdown: Boss Level
Pre-Screening Stance:
Joe Carnahan is one of the most underrated action directors around. The A-Team, The Grey, Smokin’ Aces, Stretch – this guy is great at all things violent! I’m definitely excited to see what he does with the perpetually cool Frank Grillo.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Boss Level is a blast. It’s also 100% one of those films where the less you know going in, the better, so I’m going to keep this pretty short.
Frank Grillo is the wonderfully named Roy Pulver, a grizzled badass who is stuck in a time loop. This isn’t a Groundhog Day-type loop though, it’s more Edge Of Tomorrow in that his forever-repeating day always concludes with his death. As for these final moments, they’re entirely dependent on how far he makes it into the day because there’s a whole string of assassins that are looking for him. Eventually – after many, many entertaining deaths – Roy puts together that his former flame, Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts), is in need of his help, and that allows him to start making some progress towards figuring out why he’s in the situation that he’s in.
There has been a real run on time loop movies over the last few years, so if anything was giving me pause heading into Boss Level, it was the thought that it might not have anything original to offer. And well, it doesn’t, but that’s OK because director Joe Carnhan keeps things super simple – Roy is a character who is both very good at killing and at being killed. This isn’t a film with a deeper meaning or some twisty puzzle to solve, it’s just an all out action film, one that is meant to elicit high fives and big laughs, and that’s what it does. So, if you like pure fun, then this one is for you.
Boss Level will make its Hulu debut this Friday, March 5.
One Last Thought:
Will Sasso is in this film. The moment I saw him I just knew he’d deliver some big laughs, but no, not all. In fact, his role is barely a comical one – he plays Brett, the grizzled right hand man to Mel Gibson’s Colonel Clive Ventor, and it totally weirded me out the whole time.
