Boss Level - A Nice Combination of Time Loop, Good Old Fashion Action and Dark Humor

It's been a while since I watched an interesting new movie on HBO Go platform. This time I found out there was this action movie that I was intrigued and it was a 2020 film that did not make it to Indonesian cinemas. OK, will get straight to it now.

Brief Story Line

Roy (Frank Grillo - Reprisal, No Man's Land etc) was a former special forces soldier who was stuck in a time loop where he was constantly being chased and attacked by a group of mercenaries till he was killed. The day before the time loop, he met with his ex wife Dr. Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts - The Divergent Series: Allegiant, King Kong 2005 version etc) who was working on a secret project under her boss Colonel Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson - Force of Nature, Daddy's Home 2 etc).

Determined to find out why he was stuck in the first place and to break out of the time loop, Roy must do whatever it takes in the limited time of the day to do so.

And how would the story conclude? Find them all in this really fun and entertaining movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Now this movie once again prove that the time loop element is still a wonderful subject to be created. I enjoyed watching the film in almost its entirety, except during the middle part where the pace slowed down a bit. But once we got back to the events in the time loop, the story picked up the pace again and from that moment on, it was pure entertaining. This time around, the lead character was a very likable character named Roy Pulver (who was played brilliantly by Frank Grillo btw). The way he told his story to us was totally fun and there were some dark humor as well. 

Just like in other time loop story, this one also have some minor revelation in several loops where Roy was able to move forward a bit. There was even the sort of time loop which reminded me of the events in Groundhog Day, although if I have to compare, I think this one was more similar to Edge of Tomorrow type as it had a lot of cool action sequence. The movie was directed by Joe Carnahan whose prior experience was directing films such as Narc, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, The Grey and few others. 

Aside from the cast I mentioned above, there were also some support cast here such as Ken Jeong (Tom and Jerry 2021 movie, Goosebumps 2 etc) as Chef Jake, Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy, Mine etc) as Alice and Michelle Yeoh (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Crazy Rich Asians etc) who managed to give something extra despite her brief appearance. The one that surprised me though was the name Rio Grillo who after further checking on the internet, I found out he was the real son of Frank Grillo. Oh there were also plenty of actors and actresses who played the role of the assassins, but the one who caught my attention was Selina Lo as the most annoying one Guan Jin.

This movie to me was entertaining because of the nice combination of time loop, good old fashion actions and some dark humor.  There was also that part involving old video games which would explain the title Boss Level and some strong games feel. The ending was quite satisfying, however the final scene really caught me by surprise and frankly I wish it was a bit different. Overall though, I still like the film as a whole and would recommend to people who love the attributes I mentioned earlier. If you are interested, you can definitely give it a try. It's available on HBO Go and HBO channel in Indonesia and other platforms outside Asia.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars