Frank Grillo gets shot, stabbed, disemboweled, and exploded in the rowdy trailer for Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level, the latest entry in Hollywood’s ever-burgeoning “time loop” subgenre. This one, in which a former special forces agent is forced to relive the day of his murder, looks like a silly, ultra-violent cross between Happy Death Day and Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming Free Guy. Also, it has Frank Grillo, star of the Purge sequels. Frank Grillo makes every movie better.
In addition to co-writing and directing, Carnahan, the action guru behind The Grey and The A-Team, has cast “Mad” Mel Gibson as the movie’s villain, a shady colonel desperate to keep Grillo in a perpetual state of splatter. Naomi Watts and Michelle Yeoh co-star as Grillo’s lost love and prime tormenter, respectively.
Watch the trailer below:
Here’s a synopsis:
Trapped in a time loop that constantly repeats the day of his murder, former special forces agent Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo) uncovers clues about a secret government project that could unlock the mystery behind his untimely death. In a race against the clock, Pulver must hunt down Colonel Ventor (Mel Gibson), the powerful head of the government program, while outrunning skilled ruthless assassins determined to keep him from the truth in order to break out of the loop, save his ex-wife (Naomi Watts) and live once again for tomorrow.
Boss Level shoots its way onto Hulu on March 5.
50 Comments
Frank Grillo: Yay!Mel Gibson: Ugh. If “cancel culture” exists, like all the Republicans on Twitter constantly claim, why does Gibson keep getting work?
Once again, I am begging to be cancelled. Sure seems like a sweet gig.
People who are really concerned about ‘cancel culture’ are probably just unhappy about consequences for saying things that people don’t like.But people who say that it doesn’t exist are just unhappy that it isn’t as effective as they’d like it to be.
The whole “Groundhog day” as a genre thing is starting to get old but this looks like stupid silly fun so I will probably give it a watch
Ahem, I believe the genre should be credited to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Caus
Actually, I believe the genre should be credited to the 1965 Japanese novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which was one of the very first instances of a time loop being used in fiction.
Sure thing, Captain Fraiser.
You say that every day, ironically.
That’s ambiguous. But seriously, IS that ironic? I don’t know anymore!
It feels like it should be getting old by this point, but somehow it never actually does. “Edge of Tomorrow”? Great. “Happy Death Day”? Great. “Palm Springs”? Great. Maybe this is the movie that breaks us out of the loop, but so far it looks fun as hell.
“Russian Doll”? Effing Fantastic.
I’d also recommend the 2nd season episode of Twilight Zone “Try, Try.” Few people watched it cause it was the second season of a pretty underwhelming anthology series and its exclusive to CBS’s streaming service, but nonetheless its a good addition to time loop stories (though giving away its a time loop story takes away the fun surprise of finding that out n the episode).
*Groundhog Day as a genre* isn’t spent until we have a Dark Souls show.
Seen it, not that bad. Not too great either though.Someone from A.V. Club should check out Fatman starring Mel Gibson as Santa Claus trying to rescue his business. Being targeted by a hitman played by Walton Goggins. Hired by a affluent asshole child who was pissed to get a lump of coal in his stocking from Santa.No I did not make it up, yes it is real, and yes I am high! Incidental!
I saw the trailer for that. It looked weirdly self-serious for a movie with the premise you just described.
It’s really hard to tell if it’s taking itself seriously or not. I mean, at times, you’re like “This is so goofy!” and then other times you’re wondering if what you see, them taking parts seriously, is really happening. It’s very contradictory in that way.Worth a watch though.
I think I will. Thanks!As for the AV Club looking at it, if nothing else it sounds perfect for a Home Video Hell column entry.
From the trailer Michelle Yeoh stars as Grillo’s mentor and not tormentor, I think?
I think that maybe Randall confused the two Asian women in this movie? They are not the same person…really not even close…
That would make a great twist on the time loop genre: get your opponents to help you before they realize they’re your opponents.
Not sure I’ve ever met a time-loop film or TV episode I’ve not enjoyed. Really speaks to something basic, and makes it surprising that it was so obscure an idea before Groundhog Day.
It had been used as far back as the Boer War era officer’s guide “The Defence of Duffer’s Drift”, which in turn inspired copycats like the WW1-era “Battle of Booby’s Bluffs”.
Heh heh. “Booby’s.”
A comment that reflects the maturity of the protagonist of the story (at least for the first few iterations).
Same. Would time-loops be considered a subgenre or a microgenre? Either way I love them. Even the weakest one I’ve seen recently, Before I Fall, was still pretty enjoyable to me.
For me, it depends on how monotonous the day reset become, or if they manage to change things up sufficiently.The recent episode from S2 of Twilight Zone “Try, Try” was a great twist on this trope, by showing us the story from the perspective of someone outside the time loop.
Wouldn’t you figure out how to beat the boss on the, like, 4th reincarnation?
Maybe it’s a Dark Souls game
YOU DIED
Contra would like a word.
Just dodge Mel Gibson’s attacks until the red spot on his torso starts flashing, then shoot at that.
It’s a fun movie. And Mel Gibson is a VERY convincing villain.
Yeah, it is a fun, forgettable movie. Looked like they had Mel for about two days of filming, in between his other auteur projects, like Fatman.
It leaked late last year, and yes it was a really fun movie, and most definitely worth watching.
This leaked online a while back, and eh, it’s okay, but there’s long stretches that are surprisingly dull, which is a shame as the action sequences are great but there’s just too much filler.
Mel Gibson eh? Pass.
>Race against the clock
>Time loop
I know what they actually mean, but that’s funny. To me. No one else.
Unrelated but Frank Grillo’s best work is on the MMA drama Kingdom. I was actually shocked at how good it was, and Grillo is fantastic in it. He only plays these tough badasses in movies, but that show proved that he has some genuine dramatic chops. I mean, he still plays a tough badass, but one with a lot of depth and vulnerability
Watch, this movie will end with the princess being in another castle.
Whenever I see him in a movie I think, “Who is that guy playing Frank Grillo? He looks very familiar.”
Oh shit. Frank Grillo AND Mel Gibson? Two racist and bat shit New Yorkers in one film?
Mel Gibson? New Yorker?
Yeah, he’s originally from NY.
There’s more than miles between the city and Peekskill
Joe Carnahan film. I’ll pass.
Everything sounded great (Michelle Yeoh!) until I got to Gibson’s name. Damn it. Why?
Feels like it’s got shades of Live. Die. Repeat. in there too. Like others are saying, the time loop trope is getting a little played out, but this still looks fun.
You had me until “Mel Gibson”.
the girl on the right is Jennifer Morrison and Anna Kendrick she’s the character Roy Scheider played in the movie where he was a Las Vegas casino worker she was a Russian agent who worked in a Las Vegas casino who you had raped tortured and murdered guess how many girls like her in Hollywood will be murdered in reply perhaps Joseph Biden will show the American people the film that you sent back to Russia of her being raped tortured and murdered during his first speech as President although if you are following the Nazi Germany model he like Adolf Hitler won’t have actually watched the film to give him plausible historical deniability he never knew it wasn’t him it was those other people he was a wonderful Fuhrer the same isn’t true for Kamala Harris who has watched the film and enjoyed it perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger would care to skip the next four years and say now that he’s known Kamala Harris for decades and that she’s a sadistic Nazi cunt who should never have been allowed to hold any elected office in California or the United States of America
Wow Naomi Watts. In a Frank Grillo and 2021 Mel Gibson movie. Like PJ Cole levels of fallen.