Chock-a-block with old school mega stars, and a virtual who's who of in front of camera talent, the oh so very horribly titled "Boss Level" (a hat tip to the 8 bit video games of yore?) is a surprisingly entertaining take on the "time loop" tropes of "Ground Hog Day", "Edge of Tomorrow", "Source Code", and so forth.
I came across this unsung little gem purely by chance on a streaming site, and, was going to give it a pass, but upon looking at the all star cast, mostly in smaller roles, I became intrigued as to why they would "stoop so low" as to grace this film with their presence. Now we all well realize that Mel Gibson, as great of an actor as he is, has had more than his share of career ending faux pas, misspeaks, and errors of judgement, so, his appearance isn't that surprising, although, thankfully, he hasn't yet fallen to Bruce Willis' levels of derision and animosity among his fellow thespians. But Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts, Ken Jeong, and Will Sasso? If this were a "directed by Martin Scorsese" joint, or a Sci-Fi "Heavens Gate", I could get why folks would jump at the chance, but Joe Carnahan is better known for such "shoot em ups" as "Smokin Aces" "The "A" Team" and "The Grey" Movies.
The thing is, with a better title and a slightly altered cast, I really think this would be a bankable actioner rather than a Hulu "straight to streaming throw-away. Frank Grillo does a fine job as the reluctant protagonist, but, I could also see Jason Statham wheel kicking his way though this one. Swap out Selina Lo with Lisa Liu as Guan Yin, ("...who has done this"...) and things start to get interesting. In fact, if you squint just right, you can almost see the main tier stars the entire hit squad was substituting for. (Queen Latifa, Michelle Rodriquez, Peter Dinklage, to name a few)
Yet, it still WORKS, and also manages to bring a bit of freshness to a well worn genre. Plenty of humor as well as great action and practical stunts throughout. Also, the ending wasn't wrapped up with a bow, and even there, they aurally "paid homage" to the ending of "Inception", leaving the viewer to ponder what happened. I liked it, and I can whole heartedly give it a positive recommendation.
