After the wedding and the football last night I tried and failed to reintroduce Saturday night film night but the wife was more interested in watching Casualty on her laptop, I had control of the TV, so I sat back to watch Atomic Blonde. I had not previously heard of it even with one of my favourite actresses Charlize Theron, in this 2017 film.
Over in Berlin days before the wall being torn down a hard-bitten MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron), arrives in Germany after Britain’s man in Berlin has been murdered trying to get a Stasi informant out of East Germany. Gliding through the airport at the beginning of the film she looked every bit the model with bucket loads of attitude, she was hot.
We first meet her completely naked in a bathtub filled with ice, a bonus. She's badly beaten up now cue the rest of the movie in unfolding flashbacks.
Dangerously sexy Lorraine has been sent to Berlin to clean up a mess that involves another British spy (James McAvoy, as reliably fun as ever), who for a spy makes plenty of noise. Also, there is a dangerously sexy Frenchwoman (Sofia Boutella) to look out for who gets together with Lorraine for some girl on girl action another bonus. You get the idea of what kind of movie this is. Everyone are after a top-secret list containing the real names of hundreds of spy. They’ll all be targets if the list gets out making Stasi officer with the information very valuable.
If you feel like you’ve seen that plot before in other espionage movies, you definitely have! But plot isn’t everything it’s all presented in flashback, framed by Lorraine’s interrogation by both MI6 (Toby Jones) and CIA (John Goodman), both so hostile you assume there’s something personal underneath it all—and we anticipate disaster around the corner of every action scene. And the film is full of them.
During her investigation into the dead British operative who in fact was her lover, Lorraine becomes involved in the sensual tryst with beguiling French operative Delphine, played by seductive Sofia Boutella. Is theirs the genuine romantic diversion or a clumsy plot device? Maybe both. However, in a nice character unconcealed Delphine tells Lorraine that her eyes change "when you tell the truth". Melancholy Lorraine admits, "and that could get me killed one day."
The fight scenes throughout the film are pretty hard core, a kind of 80’s half fashion ad as Lorraine owns the gritty runway in black and white 80s costumes, fierce heeled footwear, platinum tresses and even stockings and suspenders n is deadly espionage thriller there are some similarity to John Wick. If I have one point to make there is too much smoking in the film it was like before sex, during sex, after sex and hey why not in the shower, just too much.
Set to a score of eighties new wave pop hits and driven at a pace that helps whiz by the creaky plot mechanics, it’s a pop action confection, all adrenaline and momentum and style grounded in the icy stare and furious moves of Theron. Given all that, and a springboard twist in the final minutes, it’s surely up for a sequel. I’m up for a series featuring Theron as an icy distaff answer to James Bond kicking ass through eighties Europe. It does answer that one big question! Can a woman play Bond and after watching this film, what do you think.
The ending: I was disappointed, but let it slide. I was expecting much more. If there's an alternate one, I'd stick with that.
My Rating
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