A bunch of goofs are about to kill some rich guy somewhere in his mansion. Why it takes 5 people to kill some completely unprotected guy who knows. Then we meet Vizla, another killer part of this outfit called Damocles. He's taking care of some business with his accountant. Vivian who sort of manages the killers gives Vizla his...yes...his "One Last Job" (TM) before retirement. He "reluctantly" agrees of course, travels to Belarus and nearly gets himself killed because the whole thing was actually a setup. Back in the US, Vizla goes home to his Montana cabin where does...basically nothing. He has nightmarish flashbacks of killing some people in a car. There's a girl living conveniently by herself next door who is beyond traumatized. Eventually...finally...they start talking and he helps her out with stuff.

We meet the boss of Damocles, some nasty fellow named Blut. In order to avoid paying retirement he's having all his soon-to-retire employees whacked by the goofs. Why the goofs/Vivian don't wonder about their own predicament who knows. So now he has Vivian order the goofs to go after VIzla who has hidden his tracks well. They have a hard time finding him but eventually make it to Montana where they attack him, but he's too good and saves himself. That forces goofs to kidnap the neighbor Camille somehow knowing that Vizla will go after her. Which he does and that gets him captures and tortured by Blut. Still he manages to escape and now has to again try to rescue Camille, take out Vivian, Blut, and his army of goons. Eventually we learn what's up with the flashbacks and learn a secret about Camille.

There's plenty of delightful violence and even some nudity. The story works well. Acting is very good throughout. Ruby O. Fee is lovely and Katheryn Winnick steals the show as always. Cinematography is nice and colorful when it comes to Damocles and awful and colorless in the Vizla scenes. As with most movies these days, this one too is a bit longer than necessary, but the enthusiastic violence and action keep things entertaining.

Quite a poor critical reception, but having just watched it myself I can't help that many of the reviews have missed the point of this violent slice of entertainment. While for the most part what they say IS true (clunky dialogue, silly, poorly paced),they could also add slick, humourous and stylish to that list. The corridor scene - a highlight in the trailer misses the mark and would have benefitted with better choreography but was enjoyable all the same. The Female characters, empowered one minute, gratuitously undressed the next, don't make sense other than to advance the plot and pleasure the men. It did feel a lot like the graphic novel in parts though and contrary to what I've read elsewhere Mads Mikkelsen's understated, world weary portrayal is brilliant, even if Hudgens is underused (as are are most of the supporting cast). Style over substance? Maybe. But as a ultra violent comic book popcorn flick I think it works pretty well, and whether it happens or not I'd love to see the sequel it sets up in the closing scenes. I'd say watch it yourself and form your own opinion.

There seems to be a craze for assassin movies at the moment and Netflix's POLAR is the latest instalment in this overworked sub-genre. It's a comic book adaptation that's as gratuitously explicit, offensive and violent as it gets, so an obvious inspiration here is the kind of craziness we saw in DEADPOOL. The film even cocks a snook or two at JOHN WICK over the course of its running time. The plot is a familiar one, but this is undoubtedly a case of style over substance with lots of colourful cinematography and outrageous moments. It's one of the most violent films I've seen in a while, with extremely bloody shoot-outs and assassinations throughout; it's also light-hearted despite the explicit murder and torture taking place. Mads Mikkelsen is superb as the cliched-but-cool taciturn assassin, and the underrated Katheryn Winnick (VIKINGS) is pretty cool as his antagonist. Unfortunately some of the supporting actors go so over the top as to be completely annoying (I'm talking about you, Matt Lucas) although they'd argue that's all in the comic book spirit. In the end, there's nothing here you haven't seen before, but the cinematography and style is fresh enough to give it enough energy to be worth a watch.