As if you didn’t know already after seeing Mad Max: Fury Road, Prometheus or Monster, Charlize Theron can pull off the Killer Queen act like few since Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo or Gena Rowlands as Gloria.
In the forthcoming film Atomic Blonde from director David Leitch (John Wick and the upcoming Deadpool 2), our favorite blonde ice pick plays MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton on a mission to deliver a dossier out of a destabilized Berlin. The prospect of a slick, sexy, tough, raw and beautifully produced movie about a woman who is not to be trifled with is a thrill to see. I wish there were more of these.
Atomic Blonde co-stars James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella and Toby Jones, and is based on the graphic novel series “The Coldest City” written by Antony Johnston and illustrated by Sam Hart. It opens July 28th.
(And please… no “Bond vs. Blonde” spinoffs. Please.)
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George – I wrote the first ~ five pages of a screen play several years ago about this same idea – a female James Bond/ archetype – who was kidnapped and shuffled off to Costa Rica as part of a organic food consortium deal with Canada which went sour. Angie Jolie has done her stint in “Salt” and Aeon Flux has much of the same over-the-top fighting choreography.
At least the trailer looks like the usual thriller action scenes – totally unbelievable with people punching the crap out of each other yet keep getting up, unfazed, jumping off balconies and not getting hurt, guns and bloodshot everywhere but the heroine remains. Ah well.
Ms. Theron is a fine actress (loved her character in “A Million Ways to Die in the West” with Seth McFarlane), but this is nuts. Have you ever taken a serious punch in the face? You can’t take 15 of them and keep coming back for more – trust me. Bones break, organs get damaged, shock sets in and the body shuts down to do whatever it can to repair itself. But that doesn’t make for “good” movie action scenes. Give me “bambi meets Godzilla” any day. – DK