It does feel as though some folks might want to just groan and ignore this movie for a number of reasons since there is toxic masculinity, there are troubling themes, and yes, there is a lot of violence. But these things are what make this movie worth watching since none of it was hidden in the trailer and none of it has been eliminated in the movie. But at the same time, none of it has been entirely excused either, since the main character admits that he’s flawed, that he has definite character issues, and as much of a pain in the backside as he is, the guy is still trying to make sense of everything and figure out how he can get out of this strange and unending death loop that he eventually finds out is going to end the world. Frank Grillo has been making a big push as a star in recent years and it shows since from coming up with roles in movies like Warrior, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and several others, he’s been getting steadily better with each one, and this movie definitely plays to a more masculine role, which Frank can obviously play and play well. But his role as Roy Pulver is one that isn’t all action, there’s actually some thought and skill put into this as well, and while he’s not the greatest actor in the world, Frank does manage to rock this movie fairly well.
The funny thing is that the movie starts out with Frank narrating the whole thing, which is great since otherwise, the audience might have no idea what’s going on or why unless they watched the trailer. But when he’s snapped awake by a woman screaming next to him in bed he just barely avoids being cut down by a machete and then proceeds to walk his way, as his voice is narrating off-screen each thing that’s about to happen. It’s when the helicopter comes in with none other than Rob Gronkowski on the machine gun that things start heating up quite a bit. But as Roy goes through the motions we eventually find out after many attempts to live and many deaths that he’s trying to figure out why he keeps waking up back in bed after dying so many times. The movie starts off on attempt #140, but the audience is treated to previous attempts, all of which end with Roy being stabbed, beheaded, shot to pieces, blown up, or otherwise killed in some gruesome fashion as he has to wait to wake up and do it again. Yeah, Bill Murray didn’t even get to this point right away, and he was trying to kill himself, not the other way around.
Watching Roy go through each death is pretty gruesome, not to mention cringe-worthy, but it’s when he finally starts to figure things out when he remembers what his wife told him about a present she left him, and when he starts trying to connect with their son, that he starts to figure things out. For instance, he finally realizes how all the people that are trying to kill him have been able to find him so easily, and he dispatches them after learning a few key skills, such as how to fight with a sword. Eventually, he reaches what you could call the boss level, where Mel Brooks and, of all people, Will Sasso, are waiting to take him out. When he learns about the Osiris machine, however, which his wife used to keep him in the death loop, he also learns that if he doesn’t do something then the world will end eventually, but he’ll still keep going back to the same day, over and over again. It becomes a little confusing after a while, but it sorts itself out as Roy realizes that he has to stay alive, keep his wife alive, keep his son alive, and get back to the boss level once again so he can integrate himself into the Osiris machine in order to set the world right again. This last time he can’t afford to die since it will be the last time, to which his response is ‘piece of cake’.
When taking as an action movie, Boss Level is something that one can’t help but enjoy since there’s plenty of action, enough variation to keep a lot of people entertained, and Mel Gibson doesn’t take it over as he nearly did with Expendables 3. Frank Grillo isn’t the world’s greatest actor, as I’ve already said, but he can play a tough guy reasonably well and does give the type of performance that’s easy to sympathize with since trying to imagine having to go through a day in which people you don’t know are trying to kill you over and over might be very taxing.
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