The premise of Polar is hardly an original idea. However, with Mads Mikkelsen leading, it works once it gets away from the shifty first act.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2024

POLAR tells a somewhat familiar story with style, verve, and humor and the absolutely smashing presence and talent of the great Mads Mikkelsen.

| Dec 28, 2022

Read the synopsis of Polar... you would be mistaken for thinking you were watching John Wick. Polar is the polar opposite to John Wick. In that John Wick is a great film and Polar is a bit of a mess.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 10, 2022

A movie that seems to relish the mindless bloodshed, gratuitous sex, and glaring objectification. It’s sold out on looking cool and blinding us with its ‘style’ but doesn’t consider its story or its characters.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

Polar is a cliched, sloppy mess of sub-standard action and forgettable lines that might entertain someone who has never seen a movie from the last decade of R-rated action cinema.

| Original Score: D | Jan 8, 2020

The problem is, Åkerlund seems to think he's Quentin Tarantino, injecting gratuitous amounts of violence and torture into a film and calling it art.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 3, 2020

Grody to the max.

| Sep 17, 2019

Polar doesn't fully understand what a great idea it's stumbled into... it gets distracted by pointless Guy Ritchie-esque stylistic flourishes, a predictably tragic/heartwarming twist ending.

| Aug 22, 2019

As just about every element of the film ranges from underwhelming to bad, I would be hard-pressed to recommend Polar to anyone other than hardcore fans of Mads Mikkelsen, and even then, there are countless better action films.

| Aug 17, 2019

Polar is almost two hours of sensory overload that attempts to be a slick and gritty thriller but comes off as a brash, cluttered and crude film.

| May 16, 2019

'Polar' isn't a total disaster thanks to Mikkelsen, but even he can't turn this film into something watchable. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 1, 2019

Åkerlund actually shows each day's torture to really drive home the point. Too often Polar feels like being tied up and suffering through an immense cinematic experience.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Feb 24, 2019

Polar benefits from Mikkelsen in the lead. He is just riveting and when he finally gears up for revenge the film steps into high gear and delivers grueling action and a surprise punch at the end.

| Feb 16, 2019

Tale about retired killer is filled with sex, drugs, cursing

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2019

Polar is an astonishingly flaccid film, a movie that prioritizes blood splatter and bouncing butts over literally all else, including plot and character development.

| Feb 7, 2019

Two-dimensional characters, questionable casting choices and a lacklustre script means that the two-hour runtime slogged from start to finish rather than feeling like an adrenaline-induced, blood-filled dream that it could have been.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 6, 2019

Every second grates and confuses in equal measure, with nary a thrill of inventive, exciting action filmmaking to break up the monotony.

| Feb 5, 2019

When a film predicated on its slick surfaces to the degree that Polar is looks ugly, it really and truly has lost everything.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 4, 2019

Polar could probably have successfully built on its clichéd plot if the execution was great, but too few of the scenes hit the level of imagination or wit needed.

| Feb 3, 2019

If the sight of a smiling, one-eyed Mikkelsen dispatching those who cross him by any means available doesn't get your motor running then nothing else here stands a chance.

| Feb 2, 2019