ATOMIC  BLONDE    2.0***

   Atomic Blonde isn't really an action movie. It's more of a spy movie, with some action in it. Are the action sequences any good? Yes they are. Too bad there's less than 10 minutes of it. And the problem is, it isn't even a good spy movie. The plot is so convoluted and confusing, good luck trying to explain the story to anyone. The lead character seems like she came out of a comic book but the story surrounding her is so grim and serious that she feels so out of place – from her look to her attitude. This extends to the other characters as well, who are all written to be cool but have attitudes that are lame. This movie made me yearn for an actor like Keanu Reeves with a blank face, because you can at least project your own feelings onto the actor and have him carry all the emotions you have from the story. In this one, everyone but Theron is annoying, unlikeable and grating, so you end up projecting nothing but frustration on your own blank face.

 An undercover MI6 agent (Theron) is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents. Her contact in Berlin is the city's station chief (played by James McEvoy). John Goodman and Toby Jones round out the cast as a CIA chief and an MI6 spy-master respectively. As the lead character, Charlize Theron is pretty convincing in the action sequences but all her talking scenes are pretty monotonous. This is not a problem with the actress but the horrible script. You never understand what her motivations are for doing anything and at times, she doesn't even seem very smart for a spy. This means that whenever she's engaged in any kind of action it’s hard to root for her because you don't who is the bad guy or what is going on.

The 80's soundtrack is very prominent in the movie and it borders on obnoxious at times. Serious scenes are happening but there's happy jovial 80's music blaring in the background and it's annoying. As for the action, they are so few and far in between that it's hardly worth sitting through 105 mins for 10 mins of action. There's a somewhat impressive single take set action piece that goes through multiple stories in a building but because you're confused by the story and not rooting for anyone the scene lacks tension and suspense. Overall this movie was disappointing . Atomic Blonde thinks its cleverer than it actually is. I wish the story was much simpler and didn't take itself too seriously.

Despite the problems with the movie, I enjoyed watching Charlize Theron who is a good actress and one of Hollywood’s most stunning beauties She is totally watchable from start to finish. That makes the   fight scene at least fun to watch. She did a lot of it herself without the use of stunt doubles

Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity |

Clark.