Roy Pulver wakes up at 07:00 AM every day and dies at 12:47 PM. That is the whole premise of “Boss Level,” and it is also the whole movie. Frank Grillo plays Roy, a retired Delta Force soldier trapped in a time loop that resets his death over and over. The film wants to be a fast, pulpy action-thriller. Mostly, it settles for being a loud one.
“Running out of time. And lives.”
Trailer, via Hulu.
Roy’s Loop
Roy has been stuck for nearly 140 days. He knows the patterns of his attackers, from the assassin in his apartment to the gunman in a helicopter outside his window. He wakes up, dodges, runs, and escapes his exploding apartment. Then he starts over. The loop structure is simple and effective. It gives the film a clock, a deadline, and a reason to keep the action moving.
Grillo carries the film with physical energy. His Roy is a man who has learned to read danger in seconds, to duck and fight and run without hesitation. The problem is that the film asks him to do the same thing for nearly two hours. The loops repeat, and the repetition grows dull. By the time Roy finally figures out how to break free, the audience has stopped caring about the stakes.
The Villains and Their Scheme
Colonel Clive Ventor runs Dynow Labs, a defense contractor where Roy’s estranged wife Jemma works. Mel Gibson plays Ventor, and his performance is the highlight of the film. Gibson leans into the scenery-chewing villain role, and it works. Ventor is a man who enjoys explaining his schemes, and Gibson delivers those lines with a sneer that sells the menace.
Naomi Watts plays Jemma, and Michelle Yeoh plays Dai Feng, a Dynow operative. Both actors get less to do than the premise suggests they should. Their roles are thin, reduced to plot functions rather than full characters. Annabelle Wallis plays Alice, a dental hygienist who implants a tracker in Roy’s tooth. She is a better character, but she too disappears once the loop structure takes over.
Ken Jeong plays Chef Jake, and Meadow Williams plays Pam. They appear briefly as Roy’s neighbors, and their scenes add color but little else. Selina Lo plays Guan Yin, the sword-wielding assassin who stops Roy again and again. Her scenes are the film’s best action sequences, but even they feel like set pieces rather than parts of a larger story.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The film has a strong cast and a premise that could support a tighter script. Instead, it leans on spectacle and filler. The action sequences are well-shot, with cars exploding, helicopters crashing, and Roy taking hits from multiple gunmen. The problem is that the film never explains why these things happen. Roy’s loop is a mystery, but the film treats it as a given rather than a question to answer.
The supporting cast deserves credit for making their small roles memorable. Sheaun McKinney plays Dave, the counter-surveillance expert. Armida Lopez plays Esmeralda, the chauffeur. The remaining assassins are a mixed bag:
- Buster Reeves as Mr. Good Morning
- Eric Etebari as Roy #2
- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans as the German Twins
- Adam Simon as Loudmouth
- Aaron Beelner as Marshall / Kaboom
- Michael Tourek as Smiley
These characters exist to fill the screen with bodies, not to deepen the story. That is a missed opportunity. A film this short should commit to a few characters and build around them. “Boss Level” commits to too many, and the result is a cluttered, unfocused watch.
Roy’s Son and the Loop’s Heart
One loop stands apart from the rest. Roy finds his son Joe at Underground Atlanta, skipping school for a video game tournament. Roy spends the day with Joe but does not mention Jemma’s death. That scene is the film’s emotional core. It shows Roy’s love for his son, and it gives the loop a human reason to matter.
But the film drops this thread almost immediately. The assassins arrive, and Roy protects Joe as he dies. The moment lands, but it is gone before the credits roll. The film returns to its loop structure, and the personal stakes get buried under another explosion.
The film also includes a cameo from director Joe Carnahan as a patron in the bar. It is a small touch, but it shows a director who understands the genre’s traditions.
A Film That Runs Out of Time
“Boss Level” is a film about running out of time. It is also a film that runs out of ideas. The loop structure is a clever hook, but the film spends too long circling the same loop without finding a new angle. The action is competent, the villains are memorable, and the cast is excellent. None of that saves the film from feeling repetitive by the end.
The film’s tagline promises running out of time and lives. It delivers the time part. It never quite delivers the lives part. Roy’s death happens over and over, but the film never fully connects that loop to what it means for him as a person. The loop becomes a technical problem rather than a human one.
“Boss Level” is a flawed film, but it is a flawed film with moments of genuine energy. Grillo’s physical performance anchors it, and Gibson’s villain steals scenes whenever he appears. The action sequences are well-executed, even when the story behind them is thin. It is a film that works better as an idea than as a finished product.
It is also a film that is best enjoyed in short bursts. Watch one loop, enjoy the chase, and move on. Staying past the hour mark requires patience the film does not earn. The ending arrives without resolving the questions it raised, and that is the film’s biggest failure.
The film’s best scenes are its quiet ones, the moments where Roy and Joe share a meal or a laugh. Those scenes are rare, but they are the reason the film matters at all. The rest is a machine built to reset, and machines do not make for great cinema.
“Boss Level” is a film that understands its own premise but fails to execute it with discipline. It is a film that is worth seeing for a few scenes, but not worth remembering for many. It is a film that runs out of time, and it never quite finds the lives to make that time count.
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