Polo Yakur in ‘Assassination Games’

Polo Yakur is a drug baron in action movie Assassination Games (also featuring Jean-Claude van Damme and Scott Adkins) who is released from prison ahead of time to serve a greater scheme (and he quickly understands that which makes him all the more dangerous).

Polo is a cold-blooded and sadistic criminal who is set free from prison as a bait in order to attract a assassin Roland Flint (Scott Adkins) from his hiding place as Polo has beaten his wife into a coma in front of his eyes. A second assassin, Vincent Brazil (Jean-Claude van Damme), is hired to interfer without knowing the real plan set up by some Interpol agents trying to hide their dirty deals. The two assassins end up in an alliance to kill Polo.

Polo is evil, brutal and tough, with a taste for beautiful women. He is

probably one of the most vile villains to ever grace (or disgrace) a Van Damme film.

His soft spot is his love for his younger brother who is accidentally killed by Vincent Brazil when the latter aims at Polo. This infuriates Polo and he starts his own war against Brazil killing his girlfriend on the way – which eventually gives the two assassins common ground.

The movie has lots of man-to-man fighting scenes and is technically decent and visually appealing. Ivan’s villain is charismatic as usual and appealing to watch for those who appreciate wicked characters. Ivan is

repulsive and genuine in his portrayal of Polo Yakur (…). You have to be one hell of a bad ass to be able to face up against two powerhouse martial arts stars, and (Ivan Kaye) is very imposing and threatening (…).

Polo seems to be Ivan’s worst villain to date:

Polo Yakur is the whole package, a seemingly well grounded villain of sorts with a complete indifference to human life (aside from his own brother). He managed to really cheese off the two main stars and by the time the movie is 3/4 done, you’re dying for him to have a slow and painful demise, and that’s when you know Ivan Kaye has delivered a very effective performance. A brilliant casting choice and stand-out performance for an unusually drama-focused and underrated Van Damme film.

As Ivan’s character Polo is the most prominent and exposed antagonist in this movie he has an endearing amount of screen time. By rule of thumb it might be rated an 8 out of 10 relative to the length of the movie.

Quotes are taken from a great online review of Ivan’s performance and his character by Matt Schembari. Read the full piece here:

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/10-greatest-villains-jeanclaude-van-damme-movies/2/