Boss Level (2021)

– right back at ya!

Directed by Joe Carnahan. With Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, Annabelle Wallis, Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts. A retired special forces officer is trapped in a never ending time loop on the day of his death.

Source: Boss Level (2021) – IMDb

9/10

A lovely romp of groundhog day insanity with all of the trimmings complying more than adequately with the genre tropes and maybe a little bit overdone head chopping, but which other result could possibly satisfy sword aficionados?! Also saw (a glimpse of an uncredited) Frank Grillo in Skylin3s yesterday (more of a photo cameo, really, in an otherwise insufferable, badly scripted film), and he is a fast growing clown fighter in my book – god timing, lovely body, sarcastic grin, and straight up undiluted in this role as a man fighting to live, alternating finding and losing purpose. And characteristically beautiful, Naomi Watts, though with a somewhat diminuative role, fills any role she does – above and beyond duty and this one to with the credible mix of intelligence and sensitive longing, but the biggest surprise: Mel Gibson – still the rascal, still Mel Gibson, even after anti-semitic slurs and a host of bad scripts, but boy how he won this role, fought for it nails and talons, razor sharp diction, THAT was impressive. A solid 9 for doing this lovingly and with great persistence and musicality.

And BTW: More than a loving nod to all of that simple, yet endearingly time consuming arcade games of the 80’s.