Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Netflix is a unique service.
There, I said it. As soon as the Jonas
Åkerlund film
Polar popped into my feed I was like, it is Friday night, need
something twisted to view after tackling my overgrown shrubs with a
manual lopper. That aside, I was tired, a bit cranky, just the mood
for this truculent and unabashed, violent spectacle.
Polar
is Jonas
Åkerlund 's
attempt to channel is inner Q.T. ! Mixed of course with a dash of No
Country for Old Men. Essentially this film is about a hit-man nearing
mandatory retirement age, which is 50, yes no one wants a senile hit
man! BOOM! Yes, they say that in the film. OK I know I am senile, now
especially after watching Polar. The film works in some ways, but
feels overdrawn in others.
Starting
on the slightly negative side, the film is actually too long, I know,
when is a 118 minute film too long, but it is. Hard to tell if it was
to try to throw more action and torture in there, or was this meant
for two cuts an R rated one and an unrated one, what was on Netflix
was bonkers, probably the most sex and violence crammed into the same
movie, since Irreversible, which was 96 minutes, and plenty long
enough. The side characters, such as the owner of a shop, are in
extended scenes, and some of them seem, unnecessary as the film
makers want to force the fact that he is trying to live a normal
life, but he can't and then we see gruesome flashbacks of his work as
an assassin. I mean, after one or two or three we get it, actually
one flashback was enough to convey the idea he was experiencing PTSD
and there is a particularity horrible scene near the beginning,
involving a dog, that was ridiculous, yes I am sure it happens, but
come on, why at that time, prior to establishing his character.
Those
negatives aside, ultimately I really enjoyed the ride, once the film
decides it wants to send out a hit squad after him. A flamboyant
leader like a semicircle in a suit decides that he is costing the
“Company” too much and wants him retired for good. I must say,
this is perhaps the craziest hit squad, in the spirit of the movie
Se7en they are sent to his various residences looking for him and
rather than leave whoever is occupying alone they find crazy ways to
kill everyone.
This
produces perhaps my favorite character of the entire film, Fei Ren,
as Hilde. OK now she gets the villain right! She is not over acting
she is breathing quiet insanity to the role. She reminds me of a
mixture of Lucy Liu in Kill Bill, and Kelly Hu in X-Men 2. Trained
assassins, yet seething underneath. She is tall and has a commanding
angular presence. Of course Mads Mikkelsen as the lead protagonist,
Duncan Vizla is great as usual, he is a total acting pro. His
character goes through the gambit of torture and emerges, still ready
to do battle.
Kudos
go to Pär
M. Ekberg he did a wonderful job as cinematographer. The
audience is in on the action, everything is shot clean, up close, and
clear, not in the shadows. We see and feel the violence and sex, yeah
and there is a lot of that as well. I mean, I hate to be a prude, but
wow, finally an action film where the sex scenes are not filmed with
soft focus haha, It was raw and manic!
Whew,
OK I am not going to spoil the story, plot, etc... damn I hate when
reviewers do that! First of all, decide if you can handle the material
prior to, if you liked Kill Bill, No Country for Old Men, and
Irreversible, you will like this, if gore, extreme violence and
nudity are things that turn you off, I would say "El passola!"
As
a fan of this genre, this is an easy 7.5 thumbs up out of 10 thumbs, sometimes I am all thumbs! I
will give Fei Ren, a 11 out of 10! She brought some sexy flair, as
the cold, emotionless, yet intellectual villainess!
I
mean Netflix is killing the game now with unabashed original content!
This service is a must have! Go to www.netflix.com
and sign up and log in! ------
Follow Fei Ren on twitter as of this writing she has under 1,000 followers! https://twitter.com/Feifeiren
Follow Fei Ren on twitter as of this writing she has under 1,000 followers! https://twitter.com/Feifeiren
