Joe Carnahan
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Connections, in both directions
Like Al Pacino in "Serpico" and Russell Crowe in "L.A. Confidential," Nick is the departmental rebel who always runs afoul of the system.
As stark and cold as its wintry Detroit backdrop (it’s somewhat disappointing to learn that the film was actually filmed in Toronto), Narc earns comparison to landmark ‘70s police thrillers like The French Connection and Serpico—films that had style and energy to spare but were more interested in pursuing the minds of their characters than creating elaborate action sequences.
It joins Rush (which also starred Patric), The Onion Field, Serpico, Seven, The French Connection, Traffic, and Prince of the City as a grimy, hyper-real exploration of the emotional and psychological prices paid by cops.
Although much in the same vein as Serpico or LA Confidential, this film from writer/director Joe Carnahan (Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane) overplays its dramatic twists.
Narc's presentation of cops and the crooks they arrest is similar to what Sidney Lumet with Prince of the City or Serpico.
Which is not to say that this one comes close to matching the standard of excellence set by such classics as "The French Connection" and "Serpico."
For many years after the 1993 release of Groundhog Day , it seemed that even the shameless rapscallions who pitch scripts in Hollywood wouldn't dare copy that film's brilliant and unique central conceit.
Directed by Joe Carnahan, Boss Level proves once again that you can borrow the Groundhog Day idea and, like Edge of Tomorrow , Happy Death Day, and Palm Springs , still add something new to it.
The sci-fi Groundhog Day concept is all too familiar ( Edge of Tomorrow , Source Code ), and Carnahan employs a ham-fisted narration device that borders on incessant.
A high-octane riff on Groundhog Day that crisscrosses cyclical design with director Joe Carnahan’s avid addiction to high falls and fireballs, Boss Level doesn’t so much reinvent the timeless concept as much as it blends a few genres together to give it a point of difference.
That might make you concerned for the quality of Boss Level , yet while its long gestation has its odd quirks (Mel Gibson as the main villain, no thanks), Carnahan delivers on his " Groundhog Day as an action movie" concept.
If the best example of this idea is 1993’s “Groundhog Day,” “Boss Level” is several levels below that now heralded classic.
Since that’s his mission, “Edge of Tomorrow” might come to mind as a point of comparison: though beloved of Tom Cruise fans, including this one, most wouldn’t say that’s one of his greatest star roles — the concept comes first.
While it doesn’t exactly re-invent the concept seen in similar films like Edge of Tomorrow , Looper , and Source Code , Boss Level brings something fresh to the table by virtue of instilling the film with video game sensibilities that will undoubtedly delight hardcore gamers.
What a shame, since badass extraordinaire Frank Grillo is a good sport about enduring physical brutalization on repeat à la Edge Of Tomorrow .
Directed by Joe Carnahan, Boss Level proves once again that you can borrow the Groundhog Day idea and, like Edge of Tomorrow , Happy Death Day, and Palm Springs , still add something new to it.
The sci-fi Groundhog Day concept is all too familiar ( Edge of Tomorrow , Source Code ), and Carnahan employs a ham-fisted narration device that borders on incessant.
And, even for viewers unacquainted with Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow, the Happy Death Day franchise and Palm Springs, the film always feels as if it's following in better footsteps, including via sci-fi decor that could've stepped right out of Stargate and fight scenes that've taken inspiration from the John Wick series.
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Directed by Jean-François Richet
influenced Copshop (2021), Narc (2002)
Plot
It manages to evoke Leone without scanning as mere rip-off — no small feat — while also evoking that pinnacle of cops-under-siege mayhem, Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13.
We might have expected something slicker from experienced director Joe Carnahan ( The A-Team, Smokin' Aces , the excellent Narc ); if his latest tantalisingly evokes John Carpenter's mighty Assault On Precinct 13 it doesn't quite deliver.
The setup has clear John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" vibes, but where that film was lean, mean, and undeniable in its exploitation thriller excellence, "Copshop" is too tonally muddled and frustratingly paced to come close to that film in terms of quality.
Both characters reside in this grey area between good and evil which creates an enigma that keeps the audience guessing plus we’re not really sure who to root for until all hell breaks loose in a tribute to John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13” and Louder becomes the film’s heroine.
The bulk of the beats feel familiar enough, starting with its riff on John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), but Carnahan and his cast do great work making this entirely their own.
Copshop rings that 70s bell of brutal action tied into a simmering thriller, and initially felt as though it was leading into a modern-day take on John Carpenter’s classic, Assault on Precinct 13 .
While it doesn’t exactly re-invent the concept seen in similar films like Edge of Tomorrow , Looper , and Source Code , Boss Level brings something fresh to the table by virtue of instilling the film with video game sensibilities that will undoubtedly delight hardcore gamers.
The sci-fi Groundhog Day concept is all too familiar ( Edge of Tomorrow , Source Code ), and Carnahan employs a ham-fisted narration device that borders on incessant.
And, even for viewers unacquainted with Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow, the Happy Death Day franchise and Palm Springs, the film always feels as if it's following in better footsteps, including via sci-fi decor that could've stepped right out of Stargate and fight scenes that've taken inspiration from the John Wick series.
At least until 2011, when Duncan Jones' very good Source Code turned up, followed by the wildly entertaining Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow in 2014.
Time-loop movies have become increasingly popular over the years, with the likes of Looper , Source Code , and Palm Springs recent entries.
Without giving too much away, let’s just say Roy is a pawn of some sort of sci-fi experiment involving his ex-wife, Dr. Jemma Wells (Naomi Watts), who is working on a high-level, top-secret techno-project under the paranoid watch of her supervisor, the wild-eyed Col. Clive Ventor (Mel Gibson, and call it typecasting if you must), and suddenly we’re in Time Loop Movie territory similar to “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Source Code.”
Happy Death Day (2017)
Directed by Christopher Landon
influenced Boss Level (2021)
Themes Plot Visuals
Carnahan pulls no punches in making these scenes as bloody, violent, and amusing as possible, echoing the black comedy of films like Deadpool and Happy Death Day .
Directed by Joe Carnahan, Boss Level proves once again that you can borrow the Groundhog Day idea and, like Edge of Tomorrow , Happy Death Day, and Palm Springs , still add something new to it.
And, even for viewers unacquainted with Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow, the Happy Death Day franchise and Palm Springs, the film always feels as if it's following in better footsteps, including via sci-fi decor that could've stepped right out of Stargate and fight scenes that've taken inspiration from the John Wick series.
Between time travel loophole films ala “Palm Springs,” “Happy Death Day,” “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things,” and now “Boss Level,” I’m feeling the side effects of watching the routine “stuck in the same day” plot albeit with a different genre (action, young-adult, horror, or comedy).
It feels as if we’re stuck in a time loop watching Time Loop Movies and Time Loop Series, with variations on “Groundhog Day” in the campy-fun horror film “Happy Death Day” and its sequel, the rom-com “Palm Springs” and the comedy/drama “Russian Doll,” and it feels as if we’re stuck in a time loop watching Time Loop Movies and Time Loop Series, with variations on “Groundhog Day” in ...
It’s not socially relevant like The Obituary of Tunde Johnson , emotionally poignant like Before I Fall , genre-bending like Happy Death Day , or irreverently subversive like Palm Springs , but it is entertaining.
Grillo as absent husband/father, sassy voiceover Grillo—trying to combine all these into this character doesn’t just push him to ape different performers (Ryan Reynolds’ ability to be a charming smartass even in Deadpool’s most rote circumstances, Neeson’s loving gravitas driving his desperate latter-day actioners) but hamstrings a truly talented actor and the film with unfocused, unnecessary diversions.
Carnahan pulls no punches in making these scenes as bloody, violent, and amusing as possible, echoing the black comedy of films like Deadpool and Happy Death Day .
At times, it reminded me of the original John Wick and even Deadpool , although it's not anything like as good as either.
Near misses, shifting alliances, and conveniently placed gasoline cans are par for the course here, with Curtis Mayfield and the Magnum Force theme song by Lalo Schifrin the cherries on top.
Carnahan drops Dirty Harry’s “Magnum Force” theme over the opening credits, a playful way of hinting that you shouldn’t take the crime thriller too seriously.
Early on in his latest, Copshop , the soundtrack blasts out the irresistible wacca-wacca of Lalo Schifrin’s Magnum Force score and Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Freddie’s Dead’ from Superfly .
Hotel Artemis riffs on John Wick, but also of the cheese and violence-filled, celebrity-packed films of the mid-2000s, like Identity or Smokin’ Aces.
It's kind of a fun idea – a bit of a riff on the Continental Hotel of the "John Wick" series, and other audiences may see similarities to "Smokin' Aces" (2006) — and for some audiences, its hits will be able to offset its misses.
It recalls Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces," another would-be hip, violent action film that puffed out its chest and thought it was way more awesome than it really was.
But other efforts to coalesce colorful ensembles into multi-pronged action set pieces — Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, for example, or even Bruce Willis’ misbegotten Hudson Hawk — more often than not fell into incoherence.
In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
Henson, who played the pregnant prostitute in Hustle & Flow, is the movie's strongest dramatic presence, and Jason Bateman, as a degenerate, self-loathing lawyer, provides the funniest two-and-a-half minutes (is there anything Jason Bateman doesn't make funnier?).
Among the shooters: singer Alicia Keys, in a counter-intuitive but not-embarrassing film debut as a tarted-up killer with a female sniper partner (Taraji Henson from "Hustle & Flow"); a trio of crazy neo-Nazis; and a master of disguise (Tommy Flanagan).
In a hotel across the way, the fabulous Taraji P. Henson (that singing hooker from "Hustle & Flow") sits behind one of the biggest guns I've ever seen.
In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
Comparisons could be made to "Pulp Fiction", "Snatch" and/or "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" but I feel that is inaccurate.
Andy Garcia heads the FBI team, Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds are his crack investigators, Ben Affleck is a bail bondsman trying to save a lawyer's investment, and Alicia Keys shows up as a hottie assassin who trash-talks with her partner (Taraji P. Henson) in exactly the same manner as John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction."
In that sense, and in its disembodied narration and video game screen cutaways, Boss Level channels the gonzo, surreal hedonism of the Crank films.
But Boss Level also brought back memories of the Jason Statham actioner Crank .
In Boss Level , Joe Carnahan attempts to massage the 2000s action prestigiousness of Crank and Smokin’ Aces into a Groundhog Day time-loop about marital values and Gatling guns—except it’s never that fun.
The title, the poster and the slam-bam trailer suggest a movie about a crack team of professional troublemakers and problem-solvers, in the vein of Mission: Impossible, Ocean's 11 and 12, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Guy Ritchie's Snatch.
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
It’s loud, funny, and intentionally overdone, a bloody crime caper that feels like the offspring of “Reservoir Dogs,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” and last year’s “Running Scared.”
The Revenant (2015)
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
influenced by The Grey (2011)
Plot Music Themes
Glass’ story has actually inspired a couple previous films and we’ve seen a number of similar survival films in the past, ranging from "The Edge” to Joe Carnahan’s “The Grey” and others, but Inarritu and his cast all bring their A-game to create something so visceral in its authenticity that at times it almost feels as if you’re watching a gorgeously shot documentary.
The natural-lighting gimmick was done better by Kubrick in Barry Lyndon; the basic story was told before in 1971’s Man in the Wilderness, which took up nearly an hour less of our time; the sometimes discordant score (by Ryuichi Sakamoto among others) recalls Neil Young’s fuzzbox music for Jim Jarmusch’s acid western Dead Man (and this film’s dependence on an Indian helping an ailing white man was already parodied nicely by Jarmusch); and the symbolic heaviness of man against nature got some play in Joe Carnahan’s underrated existential drama The Grey.
The Revenant makes the guys in The Grey look like weenies, and those were some tough dudes!
They’ve been sent by Jemma’s boss, played by a subdued Mel Gibson who seems to be channeling David Carradine in the “Kill Bill” movies with an Ambien twist.
A big part of his daily downfall comes at the hands of a crew of eccentric assassins who all feel like deleted scenes from Kill Bill .
And oh yeah, Dupree's been brought in by corrupt lawyer Rip Reed (Jason Bateman, TV's "Arrested Development," hands down the most worthwhile thing about this over-orchestrated mess) who also calls in ex-cops 'Pistol' Pete Deeks (Peter Berg, "Collateral") and Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson, "Bride & Prejudice").
Still, it’s 2014, and now you’re making a hyperactive variation on Collateral: down-on-his luck chauffeur wanders into the night and witnesses seedy things, from Mexican/Russian organized crime to luchador minis running out of an orgy.
In what is almost an evil twin to Michael Mann’s Collateral, Stretch soon finds himself under pressure to meet his passenger’s increasingly bizarre demands, culminating in the centrepiece of the film: a race against time to pick up a large amount of drugs and money for an orgy.
It’s at the introduction of Karos, which the parallels between Stretch and Collateral become blinding.
In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
And that's because each week the show -- that debuted on NBC back in 1983 following the success of the somewhat similarly themed first Rambo movie, "First Blood," and ran for 5 seasons -- featured its unorthodox but highly proficient quartet of special forces ops doing their thing in defeating one bad guy or another while perpetually trying to clear their names.
It's not just the title that's a nod to video games as the structure of the movie is similar to classic side-scrolling beat-em-ups like Double Dragon , with Roy taking on the various assassins and working his way up.
Grillo is Double Dragon ‘s Billy and Jimmy Lee in one, scrolling through his levels until victory is all that remains.