Six years after the sympathetic ‘Unexpected Turn’, Joe Carnahan returns to our screens with another of his donkey stories about unfinished business that are settled at the blow of a gun. ‘Die again’ is a very fun exercise series b (but expensive) so impossible, so crazy and so stupid (in a very good way) that one can see how much they enjoy Frank Grillo, Naomi Watts and Mel Gibson.
Live, kill, die and repeat
Joe Carnahan, heir to legends like Walter Hill, always keeps a bullet in his chamber. A purebred filmmaker, old-school screenwriter and a lover of solving fights in the most expeditious way possible, he always (or almost always) has a project on the verge of candy. Although in recent years he has not had the luck (or the patience) he needed to finish projects like ‘The vigilante’ or ‘Bad Boys for Life’, the director of the excellent ‘White Hell’ or ‘The A-team’ does not cease in its efforts to restore dignity to the genre of action.
Determined to make his moves at all costs, with the war wounds healed and before finalizing his vision of ‘The Raid’, he has taken time to shoot I do not know how or where a script that he had read in 2010 to the brothers Chris and Eddie Borey. Script in which the director put his hand. It would be more. Then it has not been sewing and singing, since it has taken almost ten years and up to 30 accredited producers to get a film that has finished cost more than 40 million dollars (double what was initially planned) and that is a suicidal investment at more levels than those shown here by a director in a state of grace.
‘Die Again’ (its original title, Boss Level) is a great and very playful film that is an action and science fiction film that bets on the loop that other titles of greater glory have popularized among the populace. Carnahan refreshes those trite elements, making us ashamed (but only a little) of what we freaked out in his day with ‘Gamer’, for example. In addition, the script proves to have very clear ideas and the heart in place, with a third act in the form of unexpected love story between parents and children (with the real son of Grillo, in addition) that leaves a magnificent memory.
While some are looking for the new summer hit based on a new narrative close to the futuristic and colorful open space video game, ‘Die Again’ looks for that construction in a much more dated video game. If ‘Free Guy’ is the future GTA, ‘Boss Level’ is a recreational five-hard. I don’t know if I can think of a better compliment for an action movie. There is no saved game here. When you die, you start from scratch, but with the knowledge gained from previous games.
Frank Grillo is the king of the show and feels at home starring in his eternal, short and repetitive life and again. It is true that the script comes with a bit of clichés, but Grillo brings his mastery of the action and a sense of humor supported by the funny voice-over narration. The star is in the best moment of his career and supported by a cast of bells that, perhaps, is not well enough used.
Ken Jeong or Watts and Gibson themselves needed a little more affection and less rush when it came to putting together their roles in this hectic game, but the show and death gallery are so mind blowing that the good outweighs the not so good. Thus, ‘Die Again’ becomes an excellent summer pastime that comes to Prime willing to save more than one August afternoon, which we still need. There is departure.
‘Boss Level’ premieres exclusively on Prime Video on August 4.