Warning: some minor spoilers probably inadvertently left in!
In 2014, a movie came out called Boss Level, starring Frank Grillo, a name many of you might not know—even if (if you’re an “action movie” buff) you might know the face (Figure 1). I was impressed with his performance in the Marvel Captain America movies (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War), and started watching for him in movies. At the time, I missed Boss Level (for which Frank is also a producer [PGA]), but I recently saw it on TV and liked it.
Now, I’m not saying this is a great movie, but it’s a fun movie, and that’s something I can appreciate. (As Spider Robinson once told me while accepting a story I submitted, “A lot of writers seem to have forgotten that science fiction is supposed to be fun to read.” I think he meant “as opposed to a chore to read.”) And this one is; it’s a turn on the well-known “Same day over and over” trope that Groundhog Day is most famous for, though there are numbers of other ones, like the Happy Death Day series. But it’s (as far as I’m concerned) never boring—it keeps rolling on. And even though the poster (Figure 2) shows Frank behind Mel Gibson and Naomi Watts, they are minor players in the film, like Ken Jeong, Will Sasso, and Michelle Yeoh. (Yes, this fim is full of celebrities!)
Back to Frank for a moment. Born in New York, he was active in sports in school and had an early desire to be an actor. He is still proficient in boxing (18 years) and Brazlian JiuJitsu (a couple of years). I believe he started his professional acting career in 1989 or so. The earliest screen credit I can find is 1993; however, by now he has something like 140 TV & movie appearances (unnoticed by me in such shows as Prison Break that I watched!), and spent three years (1996-99) on a soap opera called Guiding Light. Since 1993 he’s been in lots of stuff including TV & movie roles as Rick Flag Sr. in the Suicide Squad (and Squad-related) movies and shows, plus an appearance as Rick Flag Sr. in the new Superman with David Corenswet (Figure 3). He seems to prefer action films, and the man’s no novice. Oh, and he’s in the Tulsa King series (15 episodes to date).
Okay, back to Boss Level. Frank plays Roy Pulver, who’s in some kind of security or perhaps mercenary job, and he’s been away from his family for several years; we know this, because his ex-wife Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts) says so while accusing him of not being there for his son Joe (Grillo’s real-life son Rio Grillo, who stands out as a natural actor) who’s turning 11 or so. Jemma is some kind of physicist/research scientist, working for Colonel Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson) at some kind of super-secret lab. Col. Ventor’s head of security Brett (Will Sasso) has to escort Roy out when he visits Jemma at work because she’s told him the company might be hiring (which they’re not). While he’s there she not-so-subtly plucks some hair from his head under the guise of straightening his hair. (As you can see from literally all the photos above, Frank really likes his quiff, and maintains it through numerous movies, so he doesn’t like people pulling his hair out.) The reason will be shown later.
The above is not shown immediately. The title screen (Figure 5) shows why this film is called “Boss Level—it’s going to be just like a video game, where Roy has to overcome enemy after enemy until he gets to the boss level. But like a video game, Roy gets reset to where he started every time he loses a life.
And immediately after the title screen we see that we’re coming late to the party, ‘cos this is attempt 139! And this attempt starts with a bang—someone is waking Roy up with an attempt to chop him with a machete! Holy cow! But Roy gets up and fights the guy off—even putting on his pants while he does so—until either the guy is down with a faceful of coffee, or he’s killed when the guy in the helicopter… wait—did I mention that guy before? Well, Roy knows he’s there, even if we don’t!
Unlike Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, however, Roy eventually learns why he’s reliving his death day by unrelenting day, and it has to do with that secret lab.
There are a number of good actors with small parts, like Annabelle Wallis as Alice (the Dental Hygienist); Michelle Yeoh as Dai Feng the world-champion sword master; and Ken Jeong as the Chef; but those are not major characters, even though they have good screen time—and none is a stand-out actor. For me the best actors, besides Frank and his kid, were Seaun McKinney as Dave the Security Expert; Selina Lo as Guan Yi the other sword master (“I am Guan Yin, and Guan Yin has done this!”); Will Sasso as Brett (“Does anyone else smell muffins?”), and the aforementioned Rio Grillo. I’d like to give Mel Gibson some props, but the gruff enemy is something he’s played a number of times before, like in The Expendables 3.
Roy learns about Osiris, the secret project, which can bring about the literal end of the world, and discovers that he is the key—remember that hair?. And there I have to leave you, because I might have alreadysaid too much.
I just found it a fun little movie, filmed in Georgia, which I should deplore, because they’ve taken money away from BC’s film industry, but what can you do? A lot of BC’s film industry has lost work to Georgia; yes, some are getting funding from tax credits, but we need Hollywood North to be as healthy as possible. But regardless, I enjoyed it. (According to Grillo—and this is an example of his work ethic—they finished principal photography in just 14 days, which is pretty darned fast.
Do me a favour—if you see it, tell me whether you enjoyed it. I’d appreciate it. Or if you have something else to say about this, I’m on Facebook; or, you could email me (stevefah at hotmail dot com). If you liked it, let me know—if you hated it, let me know. If I got something wrong, let me know so I can do better! My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. He’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories, and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
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