Ten Stars or Less

4/10
Atomic Blonde had my hopes up for several reasons and pretty much disappointed on every level. Some considered this bad ass film to be a female version of John Wick and it is not. Sure the action sequences are off the charts violent, but all the elements that made John Wick amazing is not here. These feeling has nothing to do with one lead character being a guy and the other being a girl. It all boils down to the heart of the story and they are nowhere near the same. Charlize Theron can do it all and what makes her character great, also kinda sucks. Beautiful, charming, broken, and determined would be good words to describe her. We spend the entire movie thinking she’s this a certain type of person, only to find out in the end she is not what we expected. I found myself quite bored and not engaged for most of the movie, the only things that made me chuckle were the violent kill shots. The ending is the best part of the movie because it’s the kind of curve ball you wouldn’t expect from such a film. You really don’t know who is working for who, whose name is on the missing spy list, and who is really double crossing who. Set during the crumbling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the back drop sets the tone for a variety of dark angles but never goes deep enough to give us more. The reason I bring up the setting of the movie is because the soundtrack is awesome. If you grew up in the 1980’s you’ll recognize all the songs, which tie in nicely with the tone of the action. The selection of songs is not what you’d expect to hear when you think of East/West Berlin and the Cold War, let alone a movie with violence and dead bodies.