Atomic Blonde

7/28/20171h 55m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Talents can be overrated. ~

Overview:

An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

Director:

David Leitch

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$30,000,000.00

Revenue:

$100,014,025.00

Key words:

berlin, germany
undercover agent
undercover
germany
spy
cold war
stasi
bisexuality
vodka
kgb
europe
double agent
based on comic
murder
mi6
murder investigation
ddr

Cast

Charlize Theron

~ as ~

Lorraine Broughton

James McAvoy

~ as ~

David Percival

Eddie Marsan

~ as ~

Spyglass

John Goodman

~ as ~

Emmett Kurzfeld

Toby Jones

~ as ~

Eric Gray

James Faulkner

~ as ~

Chief "C"

Roland Møller

~ as ~

Aleksander Bremovych

Sofia Boutella

~ as ~

Delphine Lasalle

Bill Skarsgård

~ as ~

Merkel

Sam Hargrave

~ as ~

James Gasciogne

View full cast & crew

Reviews (7)

Gimly
Written 8 year(s) ago
8
I have seen it said of Atomic Blonde that it is hollow piece wrapped in an attractive shell. I would respond by saying that "attractive" hardly does the shell justice, it's absolutely fucking gorgeous. Otherwise though that sounds about right.

No, in all seriousness, the plot itself is more than fine. Even the absolute worst aspects from any individual part of Atomic Blonde, no matter how much you pick them apart, more than pass the litmus test for minimum acceptable standard. It truly is a case of style over substance, and that is something that I can understand the complaint for. But it's style over substance, not style instead of substance. At no point did I feel that the story was cobbled together as an excuse to get to the next setpiece. The story was what it was (a pretty genuine throwback to the espionage thrillers of the late and post-Cold War era) and the aesthetic, the music, the design, was simply how that story was chosen to be delivered. And a brilliant choice at that.

Walking in, I was already certain that I was going to like the film, because even if it was just an extended version of the trailer, then it appealed enough to my personal tastes that I was in for a good time. Walking out, I knew that taking everything beyond those factors into account, I didn’t just like Atomic Blonde, I loved it.

Final rating:★★★★ - Very strong appeal. A personal favourite.
PG
Per Gunnar Jonsson
Written 7 year(s) ago
10
This is a good solid cold war spy story with plenty of action. I have to say that I liked this movie a lot.

I expected a fairly shallow over the top action flick with a sexy but not very bright kick-ass chick as the main protagonist. To my surprise I got something quite a bit more than that. Sure the movie is quite “Hollywoodish”, it is supposed to be a action movie after all, but it is surprisingly well done and Charlize Theron is great as the sexy, not at all stupid and very much kick-ass chick.

As a bit of a twist the story is told in the form of a debriefing at the MI6 headquarter. This type of storytelling can be a bit miss or hit since, unless the writer is good at it, it has a tendency to spoil the movie and the events already when the movie starts. I would say that in this one they got it right.

The movie is frequently quite dark and gritty which of course is fitting with the former East Germany setting. To my great delight they did not stoop to the usual dark, almost black and white, boring type of footage that you too frequently get. Instead the dark and gritty scenes are filmed in a “darkish” blue hue and the scenes actually have a lot of color in them.

The story is a fairly standard spy-is-given-a-mission-behind-the-wall-and-it-all-goes-to-hell one. As a story goes it is really not much to write home about and it has the usual plot holes and illogical twists. What makes this movie good is how it is implemented.

As I have already mentioned Charlize Theron is great in her role. She is sharp tongued, hot and kicks ass. Unlike many protagonists in movies like this one she not only administers pain but she receives it as well. Actually the movie starts with scenes of her showing off bruises all over her body (yes all of it).

To fill out the picture we get some brutal, and I mean brutal, KGB agents, the traitorous colleague, the defector and a few other characters. Together they embark on a roller coaster ride of spy work, chases, (brutal) ass kicking etc. All of it very well done as far as I am concerned. It is not the silly fx loaded blow-everything-up kind of action but instead up-personal-beat-them-up action.

I have to say that I quite liked the end of the movie as well. The twist at the end was maybe not the biggest surprise of the year but I definitely liked it. I really do not like movies that fizzles out with a bunch of loose ends and objectives not achieved. This movie is, to my great enjoyment, not one of those.

To me this movie was really good. Certainly better than I expected.
rozmiarek
Written 4 year(s) ago
~~
IN MY DREAMS I AM LORIANNE BROUGHTON, IN REALITY I AM MONA LISA VITO. OH WELL A GIRL CAN DREAM. CHARLIZE THERION IS ICEY COLD PERFECTION.
rozmiarek
Written 4 year(s) ago
~~
IN MY DREAMS I AM LORIANNE BROUGHTON, IN REALITY I AM MONA LISA VITO. OH WELL A GIRL CAN DREAM. CHARLIZE THERION IS ICEY COLD PERFECTION.
GenerationofSwine
Written 2 year(s) ago
1
It SHOULD have been good. It is a spy movie with a basic spy movie plot. It promises double crosses and intrigue.

But it never really delivers on the suspense and tension that are the principle trope of good spy movies...and it never really delivers on the empty mindless popcorn stuffing atmosphere that are the basic tropes of action movies.

So in the end you're left with a movie that isn't tense and suspenseful enough to be "3 Days of the Condor" or "The Americans" and a movie that isn't as mindless action packed fun as James Bond.

All the elements were there, but they never seemed to pull them off. It's like that old Native American saying, "if you chase two rabbits you'll lose them both." And that's really what happened here. it tried to be two different kinds of spy movie in one and never really made it into either.

You're left wondering why you bothered. Had they picked one and went whole headlong for that goal, it could have been stellar. Instead it's luke warm at best.

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