I have taken to watching at least a little bit of everything that Netflix recommends to me and this was at the top of "featured" section for me. I realize that by succumbing to this advertising that they are going to subject me to more "similar" titles and I may have to restart my selections in the future.

Polar's story is not at all original, nor is the direction or execution of the film. It is basically another story of a well-paid assassin that because of some reason or another becomes a target of the very assassin group that he was employed by. This borrows from tons of other films and that is just fine. The jumping around from location to location quickly is nothing new and the introduction of characters with a still shot and a flash of their name on the screen seemed very Guy Ritchie to me. This is all fine because I, based on the brief explanation of the film on the welcome screen, wasn't really expecting very much.

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I quite like Mads Mikkelsen as an actor, and he plays the lead role of Duncan, an assassin for hire that is approaching his forced retirement age of 50 years. He becomes a target because just like everyone else in the firm, he is unaware that his contract specifies that if the "employees" die before the age of 50, their wealth will be returned to the company they work for, named Damocles.

source

This is kind of explained in the first 5 minutes of the film where Johnny Knoxville meets precisely that fate so I don't really consider this a spoiler.

The films is fast paced and except for a few segments it doesn't seem to drag. I suppose the entire thing couldn't be constant action, they need to have a little bit of some backstory.

I will say this: The film is extremely graphic and has a bunch of nudity as well so I definitely don't recommend this for a younger audience. I guess it just kind of depends on what you think kids should and should not see.

This is based upon a set of graphic novels that I was unaware existed and perhaps that is why some of the characters are so completely over-the-top as are the broad-daylight-tons-of-witnesses-but-zero-cops situations that are routinely presented. This is by no means a great movie but for someone that just likes some low-commitment hardcore action with a reasonable storyline, I would say it is worth the 1 hour and 49 minutes.

on a scale of "urgh!" to "Wowsers Penny!" I rank Polar

somewhere between "meh" and "Yip-yip-yip!"