Boss Level

During the glory days of Blockbuster there was a thriving industry in 'straight-to-video' movies. Often rip-offs of successful movies, or rubbish sequels, or occasionally interesting movies that studios just lost faith in. For me it was all about the action genre in these cast-offs. Ninjas, samurais, Delta Force or Green Berets (it is weird that everybody in action movies became SEALs in the late 90s!) in movies with barely coherent plots mainly designed to stitch a few one-liners and fight scenes together. Often starring people you half recognised but generally you rolled the dice as to whether they would be watchable

Basically streaming - and especially Amazon Prime Video - has brought this nostalgia-fest back. If Amazon has any quality control on its movie offerings I have seen no evidence as yet. It seems to buy up anything the big studios and Netflix pass on. You really never know what the hell you are going to get.

Which leads us to 'Boss Level'. No movie has ever embraced the 'straight-to-video' ethos more. It stars Frank Grillo - best known for a few decent scenes in Captain America focused Marvel movies but who mainly makes a living playing tough guy assholes - supported by Mel 'Disgraced' Gibson as the 'big bad', Naomi 'Who Did She Piss Off' Watts as the ex-wife and Michelle 'Criminally Underused' Yeoh,  Ken 'WTF?' Yeong and Will 'I Recognise You From Somewhere' Sasso in extended cameos.

The pitch - such as it is - is basically what if Groundhog Day was an ultra-violent beat 'em up (but played for laughs). Sure these is some pseudo-science to explain things, and a sub-plot with Frank getting to know his son but really it is a load of pretty fun, over the top fight scenes with elaborate kill shots.

It is beyond stupid but seems to understand that and I think this and 'Palm Springs' would make a pretty great double feature.

Oh - disclaimer - I did have a few beers on board when I watched it. I suspect that might be key to the enjoyable levels! If you have looking for something where you can turn you brain off and feel a little bit ashamed at laughing at all the violence I do recommend this film!