Starring: Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, Annabelle Wallis, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong, Selina Lo, Will Sasso, Rob Gronkowski
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 97 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2021
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It’s easy to make recommendations/non-recommendations for this one. It’s strictly for gamers – and those with a gaming sensibility. For audiences lacking this sensibility, they will be knocked out almost immediately.
We know where we sit for this action adventure. For a long time, it plays like a computer game. Our hero, Roy (Grillo, actually in his mid-50s but gym or special effects perfect) waking up, a woman in the bed (later revealed as a dental assistant), a sword-wielder, a helicopter outside the window, machine gun fire, Roy leaping four stories onto a bus, and much, much more… So, this is a computer game.
And then it happens all over again (a touch of the spoiler: the scenario is repeated 250 times for Roy, and quite a lot of times for the audience).
Then, at last some explanation, which we are probably needing. It is clear to the audience that this is a variation on Groundhog Day. Ultimately, the scientific name will be given, The Osiris Spindle – which might well have been a much better title for the film, rousing curiosity.
The audience doesn’t get the full explanation until the end – fair enough. It involves Mel Gibson, bearded and grizzled, as a retired Colonel, power-hungry, seemingly no financial impediment, employing a scientist to create a machine for world-domination. The scientist is played by Naomi Watts (one might ask what Watts is doing in this kind of actioner). We do find fairly quickly that she is Roy’s wife and they have a son whom Roy has neglected.
With this kind of background, off we go ground-hogging yet again and again, Roy being disposed of by the various pursuers (although at one stage he does trap them and incinerate them all), action adventures throughout the city, then an action lull where he goes into a diner, where Chef Jake (Jeong) is jokingly behind the counter. As Roy learns more and more, and is continually threatened by a sword champion Guan Yin (Lo), he sees Dai Feng (Yeoh) sitting at a table and persuades her to train him in swordsmanship. There is an increasing number of groundhog episodes confronting the champion until…
And, Roy does meet his son, and bonds with him, which brings some more emotion and touches of tenderness into the story.
Lots of actions in computer games, lots of deadly characters, lots of killing, competitiveness, and here it is all in a narrative running for 100 minutes.
Peter Malone MSC
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