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ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

atomic blonde (2017) movie

Genre | Spy-Fi Thriller

Classification | MA 15+

Running time | 115 minutes

Released | 3 August 2017

cast

Charlize Theron ... Lorraine Broughton
James McAvoy ... David Percival
Eddie Marsan ... Spyglass
John Goodman ... Emmett Kurzfeld
Toby Jones ... Eric Gray
James Faulkner ... Chief 'C'
Roland Møller ... Aleksander Bremovych
Sofia Boutella ... Delphine Lasalle
Bill Skarsgård ... Merkel

director

David Leitch

writer

Kurt Johnstad ... (screenplay by)

Antony Johnston ... (based on the Oni Press graphic novel series "The Coldest City" written by) and
Sam Hart ... (based on the Oni Press graphic novel series "The Coldest City" illustrated by)

cinematographer

Jonathan Sela

music

Tyler Bates

film editor

Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir

box office result

Worldwide $95,787,870

Australia $3,859,406

North America $51,687,870

the best dialogue

Lorraine Broughton: I've read your file. I've also read your dog file. So let's cut the crap, shall we? This whole hungover, show-up-late, don't-know-which-way-is-up act, I'm not buying it. I trust you about as far as I can throw you.
David Percival: "It's a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
Lorraine Broughton: Niccolo Machiavelli. It was on your shelf.
David Percival: Oh my God, I think I fucking love you!
Lorraine Broughton: That's too bad.

Lorraine Broughton: You've got some balls breaking in here.
David Percival: You should see my balls. Then you'd be really impressed!

David Percival: So, what have I learned after all this time? After all the sleepless nights, lying to friends, lovers, myself? Playing this crooked game in this crooked town filled with backstabbers and four-faced liars? I'll tell you what I've learned. One thing and one thing only. I fucking love Berlin!

ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

Sensual and savage, Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who's willing to use all of her lethal skills to stay alive during an impossible mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, she travels into the heart of the city to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthless espionage ring. Once there, she teams up with an embedded station chief to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.

ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 31 July 2017
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

ATOMIC BLONDE rocks! If you love your Action movies fast and brutal, Charlize Theron’s latest feature film is not to be missed. Directed by David Leitch, one of the two JOHN WICK Directors, with a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad, the writer behind 300 and its sequel, this espionage thriller, based on the graphic novel THE COLDEST CITY, proves that there’s plenty of space in the Action genre for kick-ass female protagonists. Not only is the movie a high-octane Spy-Fi ride around 1989 Berlin, it also boasts a first-rate supporting cast, including James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, John Goodman and Bill Skarsgard. If that weren’t enough, for all those fans of 1980s popular music, the soundtrack is heavily influenced by artists from the mid-to-late part of the decade, providing a trip down memory lane for all those Forty-somethings who grew up with the likes of Depeche Mode, New Order and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance phase.

Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, a top MI6 operative who is brought in by her superiors to recover a stolen list of Western spies operating throughout East Berlin and the greater Soviet Bloc. It’s a fairly standard MacGuffin, but it works in terms of focussing the film’s plot. That said, I’ve always been curious as to who is actually stupid enough to compile a list of names of Secret Agents that can be easily read and the people on it easily identified. Far too many Spy-Fi movies rely on it, and, for fans of the genre, it must feel like Groundhog Day! Fortunately, Theron’s character is such that no amount of lazy writing can distract from her screen presence. It doesn’t matter whether she’s naked it the bath (like the first scene in the film) or dressed for lethal combat; these are points that are secondary to the actress herself. There are very few actors (both men or women) who have a sense of where they are in the shot, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Theron’s versatility is such that she is able to make Broughton an authentic character despite the outlandish physical danger she finds herself in throughout the majority of the movie.

Not to be outdone, James McAvoy, as MI6 Berlin Station Chief David Percival, seems to be having a splendid time, especially in the first half of the film, where he shares the bulk of the screen time with Theron. McAvoy seems to excel at playing off-beat, unkempt, grubby looking characters who wouldn’t look out-of-place as a background extra in Trainspotting. There’s certainly a passing resemblance to Bruce, McAvoy’s corrupt, drug-fuelled copper from the 2013 movie Filth. Then there’s Sofia Boutella. After break-out roles in the first Kingsman movie, Star Trek: Beyond and the titular character of the Dark Universe freshman outing The Mummy, Boutella shows that she doesn’t need CGI limbs or full-body makeup to bring a character to life. Her exotic looks and voice make her perfect as the French Agent Delphine, who Lorraine forms a genuine attachment with. Rounding out the supporting cast are the ever-reliable John Goodman and Toby Jones. Viewers are almost guaranteed that any film they’re cast in won’t be a disaster and Atomic Blonde allows the pair to play off one anyone with some straight-laced humour as they interview Lorraine in the aftermath of her disastrous mission to East Berlin.

If for no other reason, movie lovers should go and see ATOMIC BLONDE for, arguably, the best staged fight scene ever captured for a movie. The scene lasts for over eight minutes. It wasn’t done all in one take, but the manner in which the scene unfolds has the viewer in the midst of the scene the entire time as the camera swings back & forth and up & down an apartment building staircase, as Lorraine fights a number of Russian Agents trying to kill her and an East berlin Stasi Officer attempting to defect to West Berlin. After this scene, the film feels pedestrian by comparison, but, just for this scene, ATOMIC BLONDE is worth the price of admission to see it on the cinema screen!