BEFORE: All right, I'm going to stick with action movies on streaming platforms for a while, at least this will get my Netflix list reduced by a bit. But tonight's film is on Hulu, so I'm glad we're paying for that service for at least a few more months. Boy, when they say "A Hulu exclusive", they mean it, this one's not even on iTunes, so it's really Hulu or bust tonight.
Michelle Yeoh carries over one more time from "Gunpowder Milkshake".
THE PLOT: Trapped in a time loop that constantly repeats the day of his murder, a former special forces agent must unlock the mystery behind his untimely demise.
AFTER: Oh, it's so easy to see where this film came from - "Groundhog Day" is the most obvious touchstone, but "Edge of Tomorrow" (which was called "Live Die Repeat" in some markets - both are terrible titles, but I guess the original sounded too much like a soap opera) is another influence. "Source Code" too, I suppose. But if you mashed up that Bill Murray time-loop film with that Tom Cruise time-loop film, and threw in a little bit of "Deadpool", especially the way that he'd break the fourth wall, then you'd have something like "Boss Level". Another similarity to "Deadpool" is how often the main character gets injured and recovered, of course Deadpool and Wolverine have special healing abilities, tonight's hero keeps DYING in horrible ways, but when he keeps repeating the same day over and over, the effect is the same, he might as well be invulnerable.
The question then becomes - can you take this formula, which we've seen before, and do something different with it, can you make something new? I think somebody accomplished that here, because Roy Pulver's not fighting aliens, and he's not stuck in an idyllic Pennsylvania town, either, he's just being killed by assassins, again and again and again. Each time, though, he learns a little bit more about their moves, or a tiny bit more about the situation he's in, maybe each time he'll try a new way to kill somebody or he'll learn to jump out of his apartment a few seconds earlier so he won't get blown up next time. Yeah, there's a lot of trial and error, but after a few hundred deaths and some experimentation, Roy starts to figure out a few things, like how the assassins are tracking him, and then after a few more tries, maybe he can start turning the tables on them. Before that, though, there are a LOT of wasted afternoons spent drinking in a bar, because Roy has his periods of giving up, wondering if it's all worthless if he's just going to die anyway. Maybe there's a pandemic metaphor in there somewhere, what's the point of getting up each day if you're not going to go anywhere, your work's on hold and you're just going to die someday?
But hopefully you find your motivation, eventually, like Roy does. He's inspired by the son that he doesn't have much of a relationship with, the kid doesn't even know that Roy is his father - so he spends a few days getting to know his son, and this turns out to be a great idea, for several reasons. One of which is that his son likes playing video-games, and there's an e-sports tournament in the basement of the mall, so Roy accidentally learns that the assassins can't track him while he's underground. Oh, yeah, plus Roy gets to know his son, which is good, too. He gets to live a little longer, but he also finds out that even if he makes it to the end of the day, the world basically ends thanks to a machine his ex-girlfriend helped build, so that might explain the constant resetting. So it's not just him, the whole world is stuck re-living the same day, he's just the only one who's aware of it happening.
But now he's extra-motivated, he's got to dispatch the assassins more quickly next time, get to the compound of the evil military guy, get through all the security somehow, save his ex, stop the machine and defeat the big villain, in some order. This leads to much more trial and error, many more deaths, but I guess if he keeps trying everything, eventually something's going to work.
Nice placement for Michelle Yeoh, she plays a master martial artist proficient in katana, who just happens to frequent the same underground bar that Roy drinks at. Remember how many days Bill Murray's character spent learning to play the piano in "Groundhog Day"? Yeah, it's a bit like that, only with sword lessons. Really, if you're stuck on the same day over and over, you've got all the time in the world, if you think about it. I really like some of the music chosen for the film, too - "Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston, "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers, and "Day After Day" by Badfinger. Some music supervisor has both good taste AND a sense of humor.
All told, I think the pieces came together in a new way with this one, and it was mostly worth the effort. There were a few things unresolved (the "second Roy" guy, what was up with THAT?) and the science was junky, of course - meaning this was the equivalent of a fast food meal, a lot of empty calories but at least it will fill you up and make you feel satisfied.
Also starring Frank Grillo (last seen in "Warrior"), Mel Gibson (last seen in "Tina"), Naomi Watts (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Annabelle Wallis (last seen in "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"), Ken Jeong (last heard in "Scoob!"), Will Sasso (last seen in "Irresistible"), Selina Lo, Meadow Williams (last seen in "Den of Thieves"), Mathilde Ollivier, Rio Grillo, Sheaun McKinney, Armida Lopez, Buster Reeves (last seen in "Stand Up Guys"), Eric Etebari (last seen in "The Lincoln Lawyer"), Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (last seen in "The A-Team"), Rashad Evans (also last seen in "Warrior"), Adam Simon, Aaron Beelner (last seen in "Monster Hunter"), Travis Gomez, Michael Tourek (last seen in "Harriet"), Joe Knezevich (last seen in "The Highwaymen"), Eric Goins (last seen in "The Accountant"), John Cenatiempo (last seen in "Joker"), with cameos from Rob Gronkowski (last seen in "The Clapper"), Tyler Jon Olson (last seen in "Marauders").
RATING: 6 out of 10 pulled teeth
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