Getting its title from the frustratingly hard to get past sections of action video/arcade games, "Boss level" is more entertaining than the premise should allow and has fun with the concept, piling on the video game references. The basic plot, delivered in the style of a Deadpool film, starts off proceedings: our hero, Roy Pulver (played by Frank Grillo, who is new to me, so he doesn't stand out to me in the films which I've seen which apparently have him in it, like Minority Report , Edge Of Darkness, Zero Dark Thirty and Avengers: Endgame), a former US Special Forces member, wakes up every morning with a a conga line of suckholes (as notorious Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham would put it) trying to kill him. And succeeding. Every day. Despite his best efforts to stay alive. In this way, the film is a twist on the romantic comedy "Groundhog Day" (although the reality of video game boss levels predates that earlier film). In the way that video game players constantly have their character die, requiring them to play through that section again, in order to proceed the game, there is a lot of repetition in the film. However, this doesn't work against the entertainment value of the film. Like Groundhog Day, Boss Level has a few funny moments, making me laugh out loud. Unlike Groundhog Day, Boss Level has a lot of violence. I'll return to that point later.
What makes Boss Level a superior take on this concept is that the mystery of this phenomenon drives the story forward. Like Roy, we want to find out what on Earth is happening to make this bizarre reality. I'm not sure if it took me shorter or longer than average to have the gist of the answer to this mystery. There is a science fictiony explanation but, unlike last year's film "Tenet", it makes no pretence of being based on any sort of science or science speculation. And it's all the better for it. If you like your sci-fi serious, this film is probably not for you.
Returning to the topic of violence, there is a lot of graphic violence. Whether intentionally or not, the horrific nature of some of the violence didn't disturb me. In other hands, some of the violence would have been painful to watch. If you feel sympathy pain watching violence inflicted on people, this could be an uncomfortable 100 minutes to sit through. I had a really bad reaction to the implied violence in the flim "Law abiding citizen" and gave it a low score in my review of it here. Other films with ultra violence I've enjoyed immensely, like "Watchmen" and "Kick-Ass". Fortunately the violence in Boss Level is of a comic-book variety, not traumatising to watch.
Another aspect of the superior storytelling of this film is how new information is drip-fed to both Roy and the audience. It's these narrative additions which make the film richer to watch. Weak genre films lack these tricks. When I watched the horror movie "The exorcist" years later, I appreciated its attention to realism, which weak genre pictures eschew in favour of just getting to the next kill scene or what have you.
Returning to the topic of Groundhog Day, there was one striking scene in that, where Bill Murray's character tries to recreate a wonderful moment with Andie MacDowell's character. There is overlap as well as divergence between the two films as far as how these repetitions play out or evolve.
Naomi Watts doesn't exactly have a thankless role as Roy's ex.
Another (more or less) Australian actor with a major role is Mel Gibson.
I didn't mind the ending of the film. Maybe I should have been looking closely at Roy's eyes?
Random observations:
* I chanced upon a mention of this film somewhere and after looking at its Wikipedia entry for the reception to it, I took a chance on it after finding the premise interesting.
* Frank Grillo looks to have spent a LOT of time in the gym! Maybe he has looked like that since his work in the Marvel films?
* There is a dedication to Ros Grillo for the closing credits. I'm not sure who she is. Rio Grillo, I read, is Frank's son in real life, not just this film!
* Towards the end of the film, I had the feeling that Roy was being played by the man playing Roy #2 for some reason!
* I really enjoyed hearing a little bit of the terrific track "South American getaway" (from the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") in this...almost as much as I loved hearing "Joy" by Apollo 100 from the film "Boogie nights".
* Looking at my reviews on this site, I'm reminded of "Edge of tomorrow" which I'd forgotten about but maybe has a similar premise to this film. Another sci-fi film whose specifics escape me but which I scored very highly (10/10) was Source Code.
What makes Boss Level a superior take on this concept is that the mystery of this phenomenon drives the story forward. Like Roy, we want to find out what on Earth is happening to make this bizarre reality. I'm not sure if it took me shorter or longer than average to have the gist of the answer to this mystery. There is a science fictiony explanation but, unlike last year's film "Tenet", it makes no pretence of being based on any sort of science or science speculation. And it's all the better for it. If you like your sci-fi serious, this film is probably not for you.
Returning to the topic of violence, there is a lot of graphic violence. Whether intentionally or not, the horrific nature of some of the violence didn't disturb me. In other hands, some of the violence would have been painful to watch. If you feel sympathy pain watching violence inflicted on people, this could be an uncomfortable 100 minutes to sit through. I had a really bad reaction to the implied violence in the flim "Law abiding citizen" and gave it a low score in my review of it here. Other films with ultra violence I've enjoyed immensely, like "Watchmen" and "Kick-Ass". Fortunately the violence in Boss Level is of a comic-book variety, not traumatising to watch.
Another aspect of the superior storytelling of this film is how new information is drip-fed to both Roy and the audience. It's these narrative additions which make the film richer to watch. Weak genre films lack these tricks. When I watched the horror movie "The exorcist" years later, I appreciated its attention to realism, which weak genre pictures eschew in favour of just getting to the next kill scene or what have you.
Returning to the topic of Groundhog Day, there was one striking scene in that, where Bill Murray's character tries to recreate a wonderful moment with Andie MacDowell's character. There is overlap as well as divergence between the two films as far as how these repetitions play out or evolve.
Naomi Watts doesn't exactly have a thankless role as Roy's ex.
Another (more or less) Australian actor with a major role is Mel Gibson.
I didn't mind the ending of the film. Maybe I should have been looking closely at Roy's eyes?
Random observations:
* I chanced upon a mention of this film somewhere and after looking at its Wikipedia entry for the reception to it, I took a chance on it after finding the premise interesting.
* Frank Grillo looks to have spent a LOT of time in the gym! Maybe he has looked like that since his work in the Marvel films?
* There is a dedication to Ros Grillo for the closing credits. I'm not sure who she is. Rio Grillo, I read, is Frank's son in real life, not just this film!
* Towards the end of the film, I had the feeling that Roy was being played by the man playing Roy #2 for some reason!
* I really enjoyed hearing a little bit of the terrific track "South American getaway" (from the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") in this...almost as much as I loved hearing "Joy" by Apollo 100 from the film "Boogie nights".
* Looking at my reviews on this site, I'm reminded of "Edge of tomorrow" which I'd forgotten about but maybe has a similar premise to this film. Another sci-fi film whose specifics escape me but which I scored very highly (10/10) was Source Code.