What I’m Watching: Polar

Someone please inform Netflix that disco is not appropriate at any time. I could go the rest of my life without hearing Earth Wind and Fire’s awful falsetto and Casio demo loop “music”.

When Mads is brooding or doing a job, it’s shot like a Scandinavian crime drama, grainy camera and maybe teal/orange crap. Everywhere else, the color palette is super-saturated like a Technicolor cartoon.

Anyway. Crew of young Tarantino-wannabe assassins are killing retired assassins, which seems like a job you wouldn’t take if you’re an assassin, because you’d want to retire someday. Millennials just got no long-term planning skills, I guess.

Mads Mikkelsen’s Duncan “Black Kaiser” Vizla is an asshole old assassin with his shit together. Don’t get attached to anyone or anything in this. Nothing nice is going to happen.

While he’s out being calm and professional, the wannabes are dressing up (mostly Sindy, the Debbie Does Dallas cheerleader of the hit squad) and committing atrocities to try to find Vizla. There’s some lovely hits and some really stupid gross-out ones.

The villain is like TV’s Frank with an acid burn or wine stain on his face, I can’t take him seriously. He’s just too fat and petulant, and his entire scam is suicidally stupid.

Yet again women are used as hostages and bait because that’s all hack screenwriters can think of doing.

This does, however, have the coolest gun since REASON. I’m disappointed there’s no swordfight, though we’re teased with one.

Then there’s a tacky moral confrontation which tries to make up for all this overly fun violence.

★★★½☆ This is almost the definition of a 3.5: mediocre but engaging enough that you should watch it if you like trash movies.