Atomic Blonde Review

If you've been looking for a mix of the dude from Taken, Jason Bourne, and James Bond rolled into a kickass female character, look no further--go and see Atomic Blonde. Charlize Theron turns in a believable performance as British Mi6 agent Lorraine Broughton in 1980s Cold War East Germany. She is, by turns, savage, sophisticated, duplicitous, sexy, and skilled, sometimes all at once. In other words, she is not the hero we need; she is the hero we deserve right now.

Sent on a mission to recover a stolen list of undercover agents hidden in a wristwatch, Agent Broughton must contact her Eastern European Mi6 counterpart to collect and bring the watch back to England. Simple enough, no? No.

This is a spy movie; it could never be that simple. Double agents abound in this movie, and every man and woman is out for themselves it seems, forcing Agent Broughton to engage in hand to hand combat with what seems like half of the East German Police force at times. But her close quarters combat scenes are superbly choreographed and filmed. Her martial arts trainer should be proud of the work she puts in here. Broughton is not an invincible hero, either--channeling her inner John McClane, Broughton sports an ever worsening array of bruises, cuts, and blemishes etched across her body like angry tattoos. She makes this summer's other female super warrior, Diana of Themyscira, look amateurish in comparison.

After many plot twists and turns, more extended fight scenes in which Broughton uses improvised weapons (extension cords come in very handy), she saves her biggest, and most contrived, twist for the end--but I won't spoil that for you.

My only gripes with the movie were Theron's weak British accent, which seemed to drift in and out as the movie played out, and John Goodman, who, in a limited role, wasn't awful, just...John Goodman.

I give this movie 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏻👊🏻. Not appropriate for kids under 17, due to nudity and sex scenes, and pretty brutal violence.