Should this be a series, audiences can look back on Atomic Blonde as the erratic-but-on-to-something near miss that it is, in the way that&nbs...
MovieFreak.com July 28, 2017 Theron is wonderful and Leitch proves he’s got impressive directorial chops. As dopey as the central mystery at the heart of this Cold War sp...
The visuals in Atomic Blonde pop right off the screen. Leitch periodically zooms in for tight close-ups of the stunning Theron, who conveys a world...
Atomic Blonde is simply an exercise in style. But what style!
New Statesman August 17, 2017 Even an actor as good as Theron can’t turn a set of cynical commercial considerations into a character.
You don’t go to operas for dancing or ballets for singing, and you don’t see Atomic Blonde for anything but a badass female protag...
Can a woman step into James Bond’s shoes? Duh, says Charlize Theron as she performs the cold-as-ice secret agent shtick backwards, and i...
Sometimes in life, all you want is something that looks super awesome, regardless of whether it makes any sense. Atomic Blonde manages that trick i...
NOW Toronto July 27, 2017 Finds pleasures in the way Theron can own her feminism and also more conventional ideas of femininity at the same time. She’s both sexy and l...
Theron owns it. She purrs every line and relishes every opportunity to crack her neck while reclining into a leather chair.
Slant Magazine July 26, 2017 The film frequently loses sight of its own action to glibly pay homage to other works.
Times (UK) August 10, 2017 What Theron sells superbly, as she did in Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, is, simply, ferocity.
As enjoyable as Atomic Blonde can be at times, its main utility may be its demonstration that Theron deserves better than this.
RogerEbert.com July 26, 2017 Theron’s commanding performance is remarkable because she gives to her character, through her take-no-bull body language and calculating star...
We don’t need a woman-version of [James Bond]. We need a fully-fledged, complex woman who stands on her own. And Atomic Blonde gives us...
An absolute blast, with a never-sexier Theron in some of the best action scenes to hit a screen.
A pulsing spy thriller with sex, excellent music and bucketloads of riveting action, Atomic Blonde owes its success to Charlize Theron’s abil...
The Guardian August 9, 2017 Theron carries it off with style of course …
New York Post July 28, 2017 Theron makes one hell of a superspy, and it’s high time she got her "John Wick" moment.
Globe and Mail July 28, 2017 Atomic Blonde is bold, brazen and frequently bonkers. But it’s also killer.
To its credit, even the film realizes how ridiculous it is.
The Guardian August 13, 2017 You forget to breathe. More importantly, you forget to question the needlessly complicated layers of double-crossing that clog up the third act of...
Atomic Blonde is the proverbial stained-glass window, only made of very bright and unsubtle neon. Unhindered by other pretensions, however, it mark...
Irish Times August 15, 2017 Charlize Theron works furiously to bring some small weight to a character so feathery she barely manages to remain attached to the screen.
"Atomic Blonde" may be a delirious exercise in outré nonsense, but it can also be a brutally effective action picture when the inspi...
Leitch has form here – he was one half of the team who gave us Keanu Reeves as a soul-sick assassin in John Wick – and outdoes himse...
Unlike its title character, "Atomic Blonde" keeps missing the mark.
Atomic Blonde may be high in empty calories, but craftsmanship of this level is rare and exhilarating, and worth surviving some muddled plotting to...
Headlined by a committed Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde offers the kind of kick-ass female action hero the non-superhero side of the genre cou...
Atomic Blonde is a story of a hidden dealings and murky agendas, but only one certainty: On the heels of her scene-stealing moments in Mad Max...
Leitch’s across-the-board approach is purely cosmetic, ever-ready to eschew shades of detail when crass shorthand will suffice.
The Atlantic August 2, 2017 The action in Atomic Blonde is top-shelf; but the plot that knits it together, crucial to any good spy film, is a whole lot flimsier.
Atomic Blonde is ultimately as distilled and transparent as Lorraine’s signature drink, but its remaining ingredients still manage to pack qu...
Theron keeps her cool throughout the pummelling gyrations, but the film strains to achieve a breathless panache and a lurid swagger for which...
Empire Magazine August 3, 2017 It’s cool and brutal, but with such impressive action credentials you almost wish there were fewer plot devices to distract you as Charlize g...
The Ringer August 4, 2017 Just because Atomic Blonde acknowledges its own derivativeness doesn’t excuse it or redeem it, in the end.
Most of Leitch’s energy goes into the stunts, which have a mesmerising rhythm to them, together with ingeniously intricate choreography.
Audiences will be helpless but to bow down, as Atomic Blonde has come to take your breathe away, and leave you giddy, gasping for more.
Atomic Blonde is largely a vacant, hyper-stylistic romp that trades on the thick Cold War atmosphere of far better films (not to mention The A...
TIME Magazine July 27, 2017 Glowering from beneath the bangs of her moonbeam-platinum bob, Theron’s Broughton is equal parts air, light and iron. We’re just the mo...
Village Voice July 27, 2017 Simultaneously byzantine and dumb …
The Australian August 4, 2017 The fight scenes are gripping because they look real. It’s not the stylistic biff and bash of a superhero film but up-close bareknuckled...
Independent August 10, 2017 When the relationships between the leading characters are all so superficial and everyone is deceiving everyone else, it is very hard to engage emo...
Rolling Stone July 26, 2017 Theron, who did most of her own martial-arts stunts, is pure bruising poetry in motion. She’s a stone-cold badass. How can you resist?
Chicago Reader August 3, 2017 Adapting Sam Hart and Antony Johnston’s graphic novel The Coldest City, Kurt Johnstad has written a smart exploitation thriller.
buzzfeed.com July 31, 2017 It’s a calorie-free serving of simple pleasures, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Financial Times August 10, 2017 Watching Atomic Blonde is a cinematic crash course. It’s a course in how to crash a movie, and a script, and a cast; how to cr...
A good time – saved by spectacular fight scenes, a colourful cast of supporting characters, and a great lead in Theron.
Boston Globe July 27, 2017 The result is hardly a classic, but it’s a damn fine action movie – it works.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that [Leitch] winds up with something that feels like a tough-minded drama rejiggered into a hard-bodied action-a...
You don’t cast Charlize Theron to lay waste to scores of German and Russian operatives in a Cold War-era spy thriller unless you intend...
So much uncut hardboiled posturing proves exhausting over a nearly two-hour runtime, and with zero emotional stakes and a plot that is bo...
hypable.com July 30, 2017 There is no one more deserving than Charlize Theron to be crowned Hollywood’s next action hero. The story needs work, though.
Atomic Blonde is less a movie than a mood. But if you’re in the mood for what it has on offer, you’ll emerge one happy camper.
Blonde is a new wave-y pretzel of twists on top of twists. It gets a satisfying conclusion, though by then you’re wondering if you reall...
As strong and formidable and commandingly tall as Ms. Theron is, she can’t rise above the gloom.
Independent August 2, 2017 Without a doubt one of the greatest action stars of today, Atomic Blonde offers a spectacular platform for Charlize Theron’s skills.
New York Times July 27, 2017 Lorraine punches and is punched, and her body is soon mapped by bruises and abrasions. It’s a lot of abuse for such puny returns, even i...
Detroit News July 28, 2017 The way it detonates off the screen makes the film live up to its name. It’s atomic, and it’s a blast.
Toronto Star July 27, 2017 If the James Bond franchise people ever get creative and cast a female 007, Charlize Theron will have to be high on their list of possible can...
Playing a superspy sent into Berlin at the end of the Cold War, Charlize Theron exudes all the icy cool one could want, helping to sell a...
Add a short review
280 characters