Boss Level Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Joe Carnahan and since there was a solid cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the whole concept of using the ‘Groundhog Day’ gimmick for an action flick and mixing it with some 8 bit videogames references got me sold pretty much within 5 minutes. On top of that, Frank Grillo was completely game and just pitch-perfect for this character. Unfortunately, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, pretty much like its ugly-ass poster, it turned out to be a rather weak cheap B feature after all, I’m afraid. The first mistake they made was that, instead of discovering his predicament with the main character, we start when he has already died more than 100 times. As a result, even though it was supposed to be super ‘fun’ for the viewers, in fact, at this point, the whole thing had already become a routine, even a chore for this guy and, in spite what the makers might think, it is not so entertaining to see a character going through the motions. What was also disappointing was the fact that even though the whole thing was made to look and sound like a videogame, the reason why this guy was stuck in some time-loop had eventually... nothing to do with a videogame after all which felt like a massive missed opportunity. Instead, they went for something seriously convoluted and not interesting or entertaining whatsoever. Finally, except for Grillo who basically carried the whole thing on his shoulders and pretty much delivered here his best performance so far, the rest of the cast (Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Annabelle Wallis, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong) was completely wasted with some really half-baked characters. Eventually, I think that the damned thing would have better worked as an actual videogame than as an actual live-action film like this one. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think that the concept was still pretty neat and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.