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Polar (Netflix Film) - Mads Mikkelsen

Goose

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A very late Christmas present will land on Netflix on 25th January, 2019!

 

The streaming service has wrapped us up a seemingly spectactular gift in the form of Polar, starring Mads Mikkelsen. The new film is an adaptation of the Dark Horse graphic novel Polar: Came With The Cold by Victor Santos.

 

Polar is directed by Jonas Åkerlund, while Jayson Rothwell was on script duties for the forthcoming flick, set in the gritty underworld of political assassins. Åkerlund is best known for directing music videos, and received a heap of Emmy and Grammy nominations for his part in Beyonce's Lemonade.

 

In the film, Mikkelsen plays Duncan Vizla, aka the Black Kaiser, aka the world's top assassin. When the Black Kaiser's planned retirement is considered a liability to the firm, he finds himself pitted against the group of younger, faster killers trying to put him down. This all sounds like John Wick meets aging James Bond, which... to be honest, they had us at Mads Mikkelsen, we barely soaked in the rest.

 

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Mads' co-stars are Vanessa Hudgens, Katheryn Winnick, Matt Lucas (!), Johnny Knoxville and Richard Dreyfuss.

 

polar_sg_015_clean_cropr-e1545161208787_0.jpg

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Goose

Goose

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It's alright, I've seen about 1h 15 so far, with 45 minutes to go. 

 

Mikkelsen is very good but pretty much everyone else is fairly poor, especially a ridiculously over the top Matt Lucas. It's almost a film of two sides, with Mikkelsen being all dark and brooding and wanting to retire, and a group of hitmen and women looking and acting like they've just walked off the set of Spring Breakers. There's sex, nudity and graphic violence. 

 

But there are, so far, a couple of excellent set pieces, one in a hotel and another at a log cabin. The tone is all over the place the violence is really cranked up. 

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Goose

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Seen it all now while my wife was watching A Discovery of Witches. 

 

The action is nicely done and incredibly violent. We're not talking The Night Comes For Us, but there's a lot blood and headshots, bones smashes etc. There are three very good set pieces but the finale is weak, especially what felt like a tacked on ending. Mikkelsen is great, and seems to be playing it straight the entire movie, while others around him are messing about and over the top. Matt Lucas is awful, it's like he saw Elton John in Kingsmen and said 'I could do that!' But he completely missed the mark.

 

Some minor spoilers

 

Spoiler

The tone is all over the shop. We veer from quiet thoughtful moments to a gang of a assassins shooting a fat guy until he explodes. We go from graphic sex scenes to full on shoot outs. There's a very nasty torture scene followed by a well shot corridor battle. The actual finale was over far too quickly, and seemed to be played for laughs, before dropping into a deadly serious wrap up. There is a very funny scene in a school though. 

 

A real mixed bag, with a wonderful central performance. Be interested to read what other think.

 

Regarding Johnny Knoxville -

Spoiler

He's killed within the first five minutes. 

 

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multi

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I've given up on this after just over an hour today. As said above, it's all over the place tonally and although I am in no way related to Mary Whitehouse, the violence is pretty gratuitous and fairly nasty. Mads Mikkelsen is very good though.

 

I'll probably finish watching at some point since I'm past half way, but it's not great.

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ZOK

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Before I commit to watching this, please riddle me this riddle rllmuk!

 

Against my better instincts I watched the trailer because I thought I wouldn't be watching it - and I loved it! But now I feel like I've seen the whole film...did I ruin it for myself?

 

I thought John Wick was mostly boring parp! Spring Breakers is one of my favourite films of all time!

 

Does it sound like this for me?

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Nespresso

Nespresso

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On 25/01/2019 at 21:12, multiclunk said:

I've given up on this after just over an hour today. As said above, it's all over the place tonally and although I am in no way related to Mary Whitehouse, the violence is pretty gratuitous and fairly nasty. Mads Mikkelsen is very good though.

 

I'll probably finish watching at some point since I'm past half way, but it's not great.

I feel the same way and also stopped little over halfway through the movie. 

 

Can't believe people are saying it's "OK". It's terribad and is devoid of anything interesting with zero redeeming qualities. 

 

Watch Running Scared if you want a film in a similar style done right. Hell, even Smokin Aces is better than this lol. 

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ZOK

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I loved this! It's certainly all over the place tonally as has been observed, but I found that a point in its favour, rather than a negative. And I also thought Matt Lucas was another plus, his ridiculous performance suited the film to a tee.

 

A terrific bloody romp, and certainly much more my flavour than John Wick, which didn't really have much going for it in my eyes beyond the great nightclub shootout. They are both similar flicks in that they are dumb hit man films, but this has got more than a few sparks of lively imagination helping its cause, as opposed to JW’s overall dull and predictable tread. The film could have done with losing twenty minutes or so, but it never really outstayed its welcome for me.

 

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MechE

MechE

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I concur with Zok on this one.

 

Also, I'd read the negative comments about Matt Lucas beforehand and expected him to be full on Little Britain mode, but he played it a couple notches lower down the dial than Tom Hardy often does, and it worked for me.

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Nespresso

Nespresso

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I also like how in the first 5 minutes alone the film does away with any sort of logic or sense (in b4 "BuT ItS SuPpOsEd tO") in that, for some reason, it takes 5 hitmen to kill Johnny Knoxville? Even better is how one of the female 'characters' is literally only used to have sex with people for no apparent reason. Riveting! 

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Rudderless

Rudderless

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I watched the whole thing and really wish I hadn't. Abysmal. Witlessly juvenile, tonally all over the shop, and the violence manages to be both gratuitous and badly shot/edited all at once. And the leering treatment of half its female cast is outright embarrassing. I hope I don't see a worse film this year. 

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