The great lyricist Irving Berlin once wrote, 'Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you'. If we were wondering if anyone had an answer for Chad Stahelski's John Wick Chapter 2 for action film of the year David Leitch's Atomic Blonde just rolled into town spitting lyrics to the tune of this red band trailer.
Agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is equal parts spycraft, sensuality and savagery, willing to deploy any of her skills to stay alive on an impossible mission. Sent alone into Berlin to retrieve a priceless dossier from within the destabilized city, she partners with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) to navigate her way through a deadly game of spies.
The whole thing starts off with an impressive single take fight between Theron and two baddies in a stairwell. In stunt acting terms that is a long time to be going all out. There is a cheekiness at play here too with some whit and humor. Not going to mention the steamy shots of Theron and Sofia Boutella. Nope.
Golly there are so many good actors backing up Theron in this film! Toby Jones, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan, James McAvoy and the aforementioned Sofia Boutella. Folks, what we have here is a legitimate contender!
Atomic Blonde has its World Premiere at SXSW this coming week. Fingers crossed someone from our team at ground zero can let us know how team Atomic Blonde fares.