atomic blonde (david leitch, 2017)

You've got Charlize Theron as a stylish, ass-kicking spy. You've got some good fight sequences. What more could one ask for?

Well, I could ask for Mad Max: Fury Road, for starters. Atomic Blonde promises a fun time, and for the most part it delivers, but that's it. Without Charlize Theron, you've got nothing. She looks cool, she did most of her own stunts, and she's reasonably believable in the ass-kicking scenes. (Heck, she's taller than her Fury Road co-star, Tom Hardy.)

But, as is usually the case with spy thrillers, the plot lost me ... I'm not sure I even understood the final reveal, which is OK, because I didn't understand most of them. You're left with Theron and those fight scenes, and she's fine, but I just rewatched Fury Road last week, and Atomic Blonde is no Fury Road. And the fight scenes are pretty good, but the standard has been raised in recent years. Anyone who has seen The Raid or The Raid 2 will be unimpressed by Atomic Blonde. Theron is good, but sometimes she seems like Tricia Helfer with an Oscar. (If it's not clear, I mean that as a compliment to both actors.) 6/10.