Boss Level

SWITCH.

March 8, 2021

5/10

At its core, the model is still the Phil Connors self-improvement plan. In trying to finally make it to tomorrow, will Roy become a better father, a better ex-husband, a better version of himself? 28 years ago, Murray and writer/director Harold Ramis wrung this ingenious conceit for everything it was worth. All a diverting riff like 'Boss Level' can do is throw a few sword fights and bazookas in with the recycled pleasures and hope they look like its own. It's inchoate, but mostly fun. - Jake W…

Didn’t really know what this movie was when I got it but I have to say that it was a quite fun action romp and although I am usually very much against time travel stories this one worked for me. As the name implies the movie kind of plays out like a first person shooter game. Start, run and shoot, die, rinse, restart and repeat. I know, it sound rather boring but it actually works. There’s enough variation in each run to make it interesting and each iteration advances the story and adds anoth…

What simultaneously saves and sinks Boss Level is that co-writer/director Joe Carnahan handles the material as if it were a video game, so that the conventions of the time loop genre suddenly make perfect sense; for example, whenever the hero dies, he respawns at the previous checkpoint while retaining the knowledge gained from previous attempts (any gamer will tell you that sometimes the only way to beat a level is knowing beforehand what’s coming). Thus, when Roy (Frank Grillo) needs a vehi…

RobMcJ

November 6, 2023

5/10

"Live Die Repeat" with less sense and more beheadings. The movie had us, lost us, had me, lost me... but I stuck it out till the end. The name of the Big Bad company is DYNOW Industries. If that makes you snort, you know what type of movie this is. I did break my "No-Mel Gibson Movie" streak. On the plus side, you get to watch Mel Gibson die more than once. Much prefer the Joe Carnahan Frank Grillo film "Cop Shop" - see that instead.