Polar (2019)

Dark Jedi January 28, 2019

★ 8/10

This is a bit of a strange movie. Part of it feels like a pretty good, dark and gritty thriller, part of it feels like a wannabe Tarantino movie and part of it feels like a comedy. Overall I would classify it as a B-movie but a pretty good B-movie. As strange as the movie is I have to say that I liked it. I kind of watched this movie on a whim. It popped up on my Netflix home screen and I kind of liked the blurb. A type of story that I like. Then I saw that Mads Mikkelsen played the lead role and this sold me on it. I quite like Mads Mikkelsen in these kind of roles. The movie starts off in a fairly normal way for this kind of movie. You know, some assassinations, introduction of the hero, the bad guys, the even badder guys and all that. It is fairly clear already from the start that there will be blood splatter. That it would reach the levels it did towards the end of the movie wa…

jw November 30, 2021

★ 6/10

**What a bloody mess.** I the middle of the film, I stopped serveral times and wondered how to salvage this trainwreck, if I was the writer. The Mikkelsen and Hudgens scenes are strong, emotional, well written and acted, and make sense. And Mikkelsen is excellent for this sort of action hero thing - for which there are good action scenes, iconic even. But all of that doesn't tie in with the violent clowns. That part has some clever moments, but really daft hours - like, most of the movie. I wonder how the script came to be - whether a good original story got script-doctored by the wrong people. Add some wanton violence, some sex scenes, some torture and more torture, daft villains - lot's of unnecessary stuff that's just ups the rating without giving anything of value. I kept wondering "why". There is a number of good bits, which seem familiar; there is a lot of crap that f…

r96sk October 21, 2023

★ 7/10

This is something... I think I might've enjoyed it, marginally. I'm not entirely sure how, to be honest. For the most part I was pretty nonplussed by 'Polar', though by the conclusion it kinda grew on me if I'm to be truthful. I kinda seperate the film into two parts, the bits with Mads Mikkelsen & Vanessa Hudgens and the bits without Mads Mikkelsen & Vanessa Hudgens. It's like chalk and cheese, really. Mikkelsen and Hudgens are certainly pros and, by the end, an almost endearing duo. Any scene involving them fluctuates from decent to good, nothing more admittedly but positive stuff from those two still. Aside from them, I do like how the film commits to its gory kills and somewhat gratuitous sexual content. It works, just about. What doesn't work, however, is those other characters that appear onscreen. Matt Lucas is hit-and-miss but probably just about passable, though every m…