The daft idea that truly works
Boss Level (R16, 100 mins) Directed by Joe Carnahan Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★1⁄2
For many years after the 1993 release of Groundhog Day, it seemed that even the shameless rapscallions who pitch scripts in Hollywood wouldn’t dare copy that film’s brilliant and unique central conceit.
The person-must-live-the-sameday-until-they-get-it-right plot was so simple and perfect that I’m only surprised no-one had come up with it before.
But, a quick trawl through Wikipedia yields the surprising news that Groundhog Day was not a rehash of an earlier idea. It was a true original. Hell, it may even be the last original idea Hollywood ever had.
And, for a while at least, the idea wasn’t revisited, remade or otherwise ripped off by the mainstream. At least until 2011, when Duncan Jones’ very good Source Code turned up, followed by the wildly entertaining Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow in 2014.
After which, it was on for young and old, with the enjoyable slasher comedy Happy Death Day and the self-consciously New York Netflix show Russian Doll all belatedly jumping on the Groundhog bandwagon.
Next cab off the rank is Boss Level, in which Frank Grillo (Zero Dark Thirty), playing the inevitable troubled ‘‘ex-special forces’’ veteran, wakes up to the exact same machete-wielding maniac and helicopter gunship every damned day.
Which is a state of affairs that will stretch into eternity, we are told, unless Grillo’s Roy Pulver learns why it is that a ramshackle crew of random psychopaths want him dead and exactly what his exwife – astonishingly played by Naomi Watts, giving new depths to the term ‘‘slumming it’’– is up to in the physics lab in which she works for the no-longer unemployable Mel Gibson.
I gave up paying attention to the pseudo-physics of the script pretty early on – and you probably should, too. Pulver’s quest to solve the riddle, free himself from the timeloop he is caught in and, by doing so, somehow also save the world, really is just a distraction from the main business of Boss Level, which, despite the hilarious new-age messaging of the final few minutes, is still the sheer number of fights, pursuits and blood-happy shenanigans that director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) can pitch Grillo into. And the answer is, a lot.
In fact, the secret weapon in Boss Level isn’t the script, or either of the Ocker-identifying marquee thesps. What really lifts Boss Level out of the sale-bin is the mahi of long-time journeyman and sidekick Grillo, here given a rare lead and looking like he’s having more fun than a puppy on a beach.
Grillo, in phenomenal nick for a 55-year-old, twinkles, mugs and snarls his way through the thin dialogue, tacked-on emotional stakes and copious action scenes like a man hoping to earn a sequel, at least, with which to inflate his retirement fund in these uncertain times.
Listen, no-one’s ever going to accuse Boss Level of being a great film. At times, it reminded me of the original John Wick and even Deadpool, although it’s not anything like as good as either.
But Boss Level also brought back memories of the Jason Stathamactioner Crank. Like that film, this one has an apparently bottomless reservoir of likeable stupidity to draw from.
So, while Groundhog Day is still studied and interpreted by religious scholars and pored over by film and theology students, it seems unlikely that Boss Level will ever suffer such a grim fate.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for a film that proudly commits to a daft idea and just goes with it, without worrying too much about pausing for breath or explanation. And Boss Level is unashamedly that movie. Bravo.