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This week, on Perfect Ice Cubes and Pantsless Confidence:
“THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE BY ONE OF MY FAVORITE DIRECTORS.” That’s probably all you need to know before listening to this episode. One of the hosts says that. Is that a surprise? I doubt it.
2017’s Atomic Blonde was shepherded to the screen by Charlize Theron, directed by David Leitch, contains 83 plot twists, and a cast better than any other movie you’ve ever seen. Greg and Joe marvel at a nearly single-take, ten-minute stairwell fight and car chase, the greatest ice cube budget in movie history, and confirm: yes, someone does get punched with a toaster.
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Joe: All right, Greg and the movie we watched, there’s kind of an inside joke that happens of what would they wear to have tea with the Queen? Taking you back to 1989 when this movie takes place.
Greg:
Joe: What would 14 year old Greg Swineherd have worn to tea with the Queen?
Greg: First of all, Dockers. There’s got to be some diapers. The probably wise. Okay. And it’s after Labor Day. I am every rule. Yeah, yeah there is probably some sort of, slip on vans.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: When I think of these shoes, I’m also thinking of a shirt that I had. I think it was a pink shirt with a light blue, like, turquoise color.
Joe: Awesome.
Greg: And I’m pretty sure that’s what these slip on vans would be as well. So I’m, like, rocking it upstairs and downstairs with some white dockers to break up the madness. There’s obviously some mousse in my hair, and by some I mean I don’t really know how to put mousse in my hair, so there’s too much. Probably. Yeah. How about you, Joe?
Greg: Let me flip this around to you. And also, what kind of tea do you want to drink.
Joe: On the tea? I probably am drinking like some cinnamon herbal tea. Peppermint, something like that. Okay. You know, and this is what I was, would have been deep in my James Bond addiction at this point. So I would have tried to wear something that would have been reminiscent of that. But I didn’t have a proper suit, but I didn’t have this like suit jacket.
Joe: But it was also kind of look like, Hawaiian shirt but in a sport coat cut. And then I would have had white basketball shoes because I didn’t have nice shoes.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: So that’s probably what I’m wearing.
Greg: I like it. I have never mentioned this on the show, but my uncle went to a boarding school in England and was good friends with King Charles. So apparently I ever wanted to know more about King Charles, which I have known. If you everyone in England. I’m one phone call away from like. So tell me. Tell me about Chuck.
Joe: Well, maybe, for our bonus episode, we can get him on the on the horn, and we can just have fun with questions.
Greg: Yeah. About tea. Apparently, I have heard, very sweet and warm person back. You know, when he would have been wearing white dockers.
Joe: Right. Host Labor day. There’s living it up. Yeah. In total rebellion of the fashion.
Greg: Yes. So.
Joe: To our dear listeners, send us on Instagram. Great. By me, we show, what you would have worn or tea with the Queen in 1989. You’d love to know.
Greg: I would love it if all of the reviews were just what you would wear if you were to visit the Queen. Perfect. All right, let’s get the show.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Greg: I chose this life. And someday.
Greg: It’s going to get me killed.
Greg: But not today.
Greg: Lorraine brought Broughton, expert in intelligence collection and hand to hand combat agent Gascoigne was killed last night. He had an atomic bomb of information. Find out who’s hunting our operatives and trust no one.
Clip: Someone set me up. Someone from the inside.
Greg: No persona. Hands one way. A bullet.
Greg: To.
Greg: The year is 2017, and for the last five years, producer Charlize Theron has been trying to figure out how to get a graphic novel. She bought the rights to the coldest City. She’s been trying to figure out how to turn that into a movie. She hires the screenwriter of 300, Kurt John Stafford, and pulls our guy, David Leech, away from making John Wick two to direct his first movie that he gets director credit on.
Greg: That’s right, David Leech. And they make a movie called Atomic Blond. We are talking about Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, Sofia Boutella from The Kingsmen, Bill Skarsgard and an amazing, amazing quick cameo by a very important person in the great bad universe that I’m going to save for a little bit later in the conversation.
Greg: So let’s get to this right now. Joe. Guy Tucker. Man, we had a great, great movie last week. What’s going to happen this week? What makes Atomic Blond a great bad movie?
Joe: This movie, I mean, it’s based on the, you said the cold City. This movie feels cold.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: The way the cinematography is, the characters, there’s no one that’s super likable within it. The most likable character is Sofia Boutella. You know, she’s kind of the heart of the movie, and it’s a spy movie pinned against the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yeah, I love how it opens. It’s got this spray paint and it talks about the Berlin Wall.
Joe: And it goes, this is not that story like we’re not talking about. And it’s so it instantly we know we’re in good hands. You know I think David Lee as an action second unit you know was with Chad Stahelski.
Greg: Yep. Top notch.
Joe: He’s a really excellent director as really good.
Greg: Yeah I agree.
Joe: And so the the movie the look the feel of it like some of the opening shots of each scene look like a graphic novel page. Yeah. Just the way that they’re set up. So it feels like you’re in the comic book at times. You have a really interesting story, the classic trope that we’ve talked about, you know, there’s a list, you know, that they’re trying to track down, and then there’s all these spies trying to get it, you know?
Joe: So you know that that’s kind of the the backdrop of it. So now that anytime there’s a list, it just like makes me happy.
Greg: Me too, I love it. I need a good list. Yeah.
Joe: And then you just have an interesting story with amazing action scenes. Yeah, I think I know who you’re going to drop as. Who does a cameo in this? Yeah, we have a ten minute one shot. So I feel like if you if you’ve been playing along at home and you don’t know who this is, and shame on you for not knowing who this person is.
Joe: But it’s based on Charlize Theron wanting to make a movie where her character is not feminized in any way. She is playing this as a man. Really? Yeah. And it could have been a James Bond movie, or just could have been any old spy movie. But it’s a really fun, interesting movie. It’s beautiful. And then James McAvoy is incredible in this.
Joe: So is Charlize Theron. The cast is just top notch start to finish.
Greg: Yeah, it’s.
Joe: Just a joy to watch. And it’s a hard movie. It’s not soft at all. It is a brutal, cold world that they live in. And so I’ll stop there. I could I have plenty to say, but I’ll turn it around to you. Greg, this is the second time you’ve seen it. Yeah, first time not. I’m not sick with Covid.
Joe: Yeah. What are your thoughts on this movie?
Greg: This movie is so, so, so good that it makes me raise my expectations while I’m watching it. And I start to look for all the ways it might be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life. And I often like, talk about things like this with hyperbole. But this is one of those movies where it’s like, oh, this might just actually be incredible.
Greg: And it’s this movie is so incredible that when I start to test it against those expectations, it starts to not hold up to that kind of scrutiny very well. And I’m a little bit disappointed by aspects of this movie. And so when I sat down to watch it, my memory of it was this movie was so good, we weren’t sure what to do with it a long time ago.
Greg: And now it’s kind of like, oh no, this is a great, great, great, great bad movie. There’s stuff about it, and it’s not Charlize Theron, it’s not David Leitch. Although I suppose we sort of could say, you know, David Leitch went along with it to make it this kind of movie. I kind of lay it at the scriptwriters faults.
Greg: Kurt John Stafford, he wrote Act of Valor. He wrote 300, he wrote 300, rise of an Empire. And then he didn’t work after Atomic Blond until Rebel Moon Part one and Rebel Moon Part two. And then he’s made something called The Last Photograph that is coming out this year. So I think this script isn’t as good as everything else around it, and it really kind of falls apart a little bit in a little bit of its narrative device, where they’re cutting back to her being interrogated as well as there’s just like 83 twists at the end.
Greg: Yeah, but everything that you said is still 100% true. And it is just incredible that this movie was made. And the fact that we didn’t get 100 of these afterwards is just maddening to me.
Joe: Yeah. And I definitely I agree, I think it’s 75% a great, great.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And then the last 25% of the movie, it does kind of fall in on itself, a little bit of like they couldn’t figure out exactly how to end it as kind of what it felt like. The 355 kind of suffers from this a little bit too. At the end, we’re just like, where is this movie going? What is the end of the movie?
Joe: And it’s like, I feel like they didn’t have exactly where they wanted it. They have one more fight scene at the end. Yeah, which felt a little stitched in. There wasn’t even needed to me, which is weird for me to say of like a great fight scene where it’s just like thrown in at the end. So to me it felt so good.
Joe: And then it just doesn’t quite know where it’s going. And I always feel like the best shows, TV shows and movies know the ending.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Before they get there, you know? And what are they trying to get, you know, is it some sort of emotional resolution or do they want the audience to know something or whatever it is? But the best movies know how you know where the ending is. And I think usually simpler is better. And so there it gets a little confusing.
Joe: And I think especially in spy movies, it’s so easy to just have. And no, I was a double agent the whole time type of trope that happens at the end of it. I think this movie falls a little victim to that. Otherwise it is perfect. Yeah, and I think what I also recognize the music in this movie is so well done.
Joe: Just the soundtrack is so wonderful throughout.
Greg: In our John Wick episode, I think I talked about how I was a little bit annoyed by some of the needle drops and the music that was in it, and this movie has near perfection as far as needle drops goes. But there was like one that I don’t think was an 80 song, and it sounded like something that was probably supposed to be in John Wick and didn’t make it in or something.
Joe: Right.
Greg: And, there’s just this one needle drop where I just really don’t understand why this song is in the movie. It kind of breaks from the basically batting a thousand, right? I mean, if you’re going to go with 80s European music, you’ve got just everything you need right there. You know? Yeah. And the, the hit songs that they’re kind of playing from the 80s and there they kind of, I guess I don’t know if they were playing like remixes of them or if they were actually messing with them with the score as well, if they had the rights to kind of mess around with the songs the way they do with trailers and stuff, you
Greg: know?
Joe: Yeah, I’m curious. I know Tyler Bates did the music and was that for John Wick as well? So yeah, I’m I’m curious. There’s with the music a lot, I noticed, and this is a spoiler alert for one of my drinking games, but they’ll like, be playing the song. And then it’s like in the car on the radio.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And I kind of weaving it back and forth. They do that almost constant. There’s a little one that I noticed that I was like, oh, this is kind of got annoying because I just kept doing it over and over and over again. Those are those moments where it’s like, first time director. They kind of threw everything into it.
Joe: It felt.
Greg: Like totally. Yeah.
Joe: You know, it’s like, well, maybe we’ll never get to make another movie. So we’re just going to throw every trick we know into it, right? And then, you know, again, it took me till my fifth watching of it to really kind of notice it. So probably not a big deal. But again, that’s those are those little things like if you’re marking it that’s way it becomes a great bad movie and not a great, great movie in my mind.
Greg: Yeah. You know, I think David Lynch was throwing everything he could at the wall and most of it stuck. The fight scenes in this movie are just, of course, the top. I mean, it’s what he’s done with his entire professional career, either being a stunt guy or a stunt choreographer, and it is just on full display here. You know, this is the first this movie came out, I think, around the same time as John Wick two.
Greg: Charlize Theron was actually working out next to Keanu Reeves, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, whose company for like four months or five months, I don’t know, I saw different numbers.
Joe: So awesome all.
Greg: Over. And the research, you know, it was like eight hours a day for seven months, four hours a day for five months, whatever it was, both of them were working very hard to make these movies. Let me ask you, how do you feel about the colors, like blue and red and green and orange and pink? Because if you like those colors, this movie is for you.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joe: When I said like. And it’s like, all hold the coldest versions of those colors. Like when I tell you, like, this movie feels cold. I mean, it doesn’t open with Charlize Theron in an ice bath. And that’s a common theme for her. Yeah, she’s healing from all of her injuries.
Greg: Right?
Joe: But just the look of it, it felt cold. You know, there’s supposed to be winter there, you know, and you know that they’re filming in, probably in the soundstage. Most of it. Anyway.
Greg: The past is where they. Oh, interesting. Yeah.
Joe: Okay, so there’s that. And then I remember when they released the first scene in the apartment, that first fight scene, like, ahead of the movie. I watched that, and I was like, I was in.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And it was so good. And it’s to Father Figure by George Michael. It’s so good. It’s such a like. And just all those little twists on like, gender and those sorts of things. You have Charlize Theron beating up police officers in this. You know, she’s going back to her former friend. Maybe you love her. We don’t really know their backstory trying to check things out, right.
Joe: You know, and then the police officers come and she doesn’t kill anyone, but she, like, beats up six of them.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And it’s just awesome. It’s so fun.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And for me, I was like, that’s all I need was like, I need to watch this movie on repeat forever.
Greg: Yep, yep. If that is what you’re looking for, this movie is for you. The graphic novel is called The Coldest City, and it was in black and white. And so all of the color stuff is really just coming from them. But obviously, if this movie didn’t change to become Atomic Blond for a while. So I bet The Coldest City was like, all right, guys, well, probably a lot of blue.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. And the colors change depending on where they are in Berlin, basically. And, which characters we’re hanging out with to kind of represent where they come from. A lot of pushback on this movie about their not really being a backstory and emotional backstory for Charlize Theron. And this kind of gets back to that article that you sent.
Greg: It’s an article by Caroline Side or Seed or C, and I’m not sure how to pronounce her last name, but it was in the A.V. club. It’s called Charlize Theron defined atomic Blond by the stereotypes she wanted to avoid. And she’s doing a series called Women of Action on the A.V. club. I noticed she also writes for Decoding Everything, which is a website that David Chen of Seattle does, which is a great website.
Greg: He also does the Filmcast, which is a great podcast. So that was just incredible. I mean, it’s both want to watch this? You want to talk about that article for a minute.
Joe: Yeah. So you know, and part of that was Charlize Theron saying she didn’t want an emotional backstory. You know, when a woman is anchoring a film like this, they have to give some sort of, you know, her kid has been kidnaped or killed or, you know, she’s been raped and she’s taking it. She’s got to avenge that. Right?
Joe: Whereas there are all these stories of men where they just don’t they don’t need a backstory. They’re just Ethan Hunt doesn’t need an emotional backstory. He’s just there to save the world kind of thing. I mean, they, they weaving in, in certain movies, but it was a specific choice to have her not be the most kind of likable heroine or protagonist that you get in the is you had a job to do, and she was going to do that job kind of regardless of what was going on around her.
Joe: And then we do see some of her heart throughout the movie, especially with, Sofia Boutella character. Yeah. What’s kind of brings that out in her, but the point of it was that she doesn’t need this backstory to root for her, and you shouldn’t need that. And and that was a purposeful decision by her and the director and the writer in this to write it that way.
Joe: And so I get the criticism of it. You know, you probably root for her a little bit differently throughout. At the same time, you know, when I watched it the first time, I didn’t miss it. Yeah, I enjoyed the fact that, oh, she’s just got a job to do. And I hadn’t read that article. You know, there was I didn’t have any information about those sorts of decisions the first time.
Joe: First few times I watched it. In fact, it just was an awesome movie.
Greg: So, yeah, Charlize Theron was trying to avoid those tropes and, take them out like they call it fringing, where you have a tragic kind of traumatic motivation in life. Yeah. Which we eventually got, I guess a little bit in Casino Royale for James Bond. But for the most part, for like the first 50 years of James Bond or 40 years or whatever.
Greg: Yeah, he was just a cold killer, you know? Yeah. Ethan Hunt kind of similar. Also, she is pretty torn up this whole movie. You know, she saw she’s her face is puffy. She’s got bruises everywhere. You know, she wasn’t, like, just this unblemished scratch free female. She was browsable.
Joe: Yeah. And they’re saying that that that was something that they don’t really like to show women beaten up on screen.
Greg: Yeah. No. Yeah.
Joe: And in that there’s that one shot, which is incredible. I had honestly forgotten about that. And then I remember that where she gets tired at the end of it.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And like that was new and I hadn’t noticed it before. But it makes sense. I mean she beat up like eight people pretty brutally hand to hand.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, it’s shot as a one shot with like a ten minute like this is the ten minutes of her time, right? Of course you’d be exhausted by the end of that.
Greg: There’s stairs involved. There’s toasters. Yeah.
Joe: It’s awesome. It’s a great I don’t know, we’ll have to do a, one shot comparison between that and the extraction and extraction too, which to me have have raised the bar.
Greg: We have to say that this movie opens with a spy kind of being killed that, has had a relationship with Charlize Theron, and it’s played by Sam Hargrave. Yeah. Director Sam Hargrave. And he also was, you know, the guy doing being both second unit director and stunt coordinator in this movie with David Leach, you know, and he’s doing what David Leach has been doing for years.
Greg: Right. And so it’s high praise that Sam Hargrave is the guy doing that in this movie with that crew. Yeah. So you have to think that this was the thing that started that itch for Sam Hargrave.
Joe: Yeah. And I feel like now it’s like the fact that we have these three directors, Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, and Sam Hargrave.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: Making some of the best, if not the best action movies of the last 15 years. Yeah, yeah, I think of, you know, Russo Brothers maybe or would be on the list, but they’ve worked. All of everyone here has worked. You know, I was like, when you start doing the, like six degrees of separation, there’s not six degrees or like one degree.
Greg: It’s them. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: And so it’s, it’s very cool to see them have their own careers and it almost feels like and there’s I’m totally like putting this on them of like a little bit of one upsmanship. That’s happening of like, oh yeah, I’m going to do this. Let’s, you know, and I think that that pushing of the genre is only making movies for us even better.
Joe: Like, you just I cannot wait for the next David Lynch movie or the next Sam Hargrave movie or next, you know, Chad Stahelski movie, because I want to see what they’re going to do from an action perspective that we haven’t seen before. And so I, you know, and I think what they are doing is blending, you know, because there have been movies that are great stunts, but terrible movies, these are great movies with amazing stunts.
Greg: And yeah, that.
Joe: That’s the difference.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: I’m like, they’re really good, interesting movies with interesting characters. I mean, the whole back story of, extraction is what was missing from this is, you know, they give kind of a tragic backstory to our main character of, like, he lost son.
Greg: You couldn’t be.
Joe: There when he was dying of cancer. And so that’s like, yeah, he just doesn’t care about himself or anybody. It doesn’t really care about himself. So he’ll put himself in the craziest situations possible. Like you need the job done. Call him. So I’m excited to see what happened. I know we have another extraction coming out, and I know David Lynch has at least and chance else give 2 or 3 other movies.
Joe: There’s a Highlander Chad Stahelski, who’s doing the Highlander reboot. I just cannot wait for that. So, like, I am so giddy with the thought of all of these movies coming out.
Greg: We got to say, Sam Hargrave has a movie coming out in the next couple weeks called Matchbox The Movie with John Cena.
Joe: All right. Yeah, I’ll be very curious to see how that goes. I mean, the trailer looks awesome, but, you know, any trailer is going to look amazing. Yeah, I’m I’m very curious. I mean, David Leach, after this, made the jump into the Marvel world by doing Deadpool two.
Greg:
Joe: You also the Hobbs and Shaw. So he’s done some of those tentpole and I would say of, of those, you know, I would much rather see an original work of his, you know, when you kind of go into those worlds or you’re kind of confined by the, the rules of the universe.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, a little bit. Yeah. Not to say that Hobbs and Shaw isn’t a totally amazing, totally fun movie to watch.
Greg: Stone cold classic.
Joe: And same with Deadpool two. I think it’s a great that’s a really fun movie. Yeah, but it’s notable that he’s kind of he hasn’t stayed there. He kind of dipped his toe in and, and and is now doing his own more of his own stuff.
Greg: So there’s definitely humor to everything he does. And I really like that he is staying with that because John Wick is so like it’s funny, but it’s very straight the whole time. Yeah. And this movie is fun, potentially because of David Leach and nobody else. McAvoy is pretty engrossing in this movie. He’s pretty fun when he wants to be, but like, just everything around it, like the way that they’re shooting it, the spray painting, the music, there’s not many, like, laugh out loud or even attempts at jokes in this movie, but it’s a fun movie in the way that it’s edited and constructed and some of the kind of screen kind of stuff that they’re
Greg: doing, like, anytime they say where they are, you know, like someone spray painted on the on the screen, that kind of stuff. I need to play one clip. And it is when they’re kind of having a little bit of a meet cute between the two of them, Sofia Boutella and Charlize Theron. And suddenly the paparazzi is going crazy right outside the window of the bar they’re in.
Greg: Let’s listen to it.
Clip: Maybe you’re relentless. Wait, what’s the whole David Hasselhoff skin? How lucky us. Oh, God. Berlin is truly doomed.
Greg: David Hasselhoff, stuntman. Joe. He was a very big deal in Germany back then, which is amazing. Yeah, he’s definitely hanging in there with the fun. And I really love that about David Lynch.
Joe: I agree, I think it is what differentiates him and Chad Stahelski. Even if you think about bullet Train and I said this, yeah, when I think we did when we did an episode on it, you know, it it’s kind of like a Guy Ritchie, but with better casting and like a more and to me, Dave, Guy Ritchie’s films were fun, but they just they didn’t have any female characters in them ever.
Joe: Like, that was just like the thing with Guy Ritchie was like, they. And they were really fun, interesting male characters. And then, you know, if you watch, like, I’m like two female characters have lines and then, you know, some re, you know, whereas the movie is really fun and funny in parts. But if you watch Bullet Train is really a Guy Ritchie film with a better cast, and it’s a really it’s a funny movie.
Greg:
Joe: And I would say the action takes a backseat in that to the story and kind of what the, the whole world of they’re painting and, and this is probably his least funny movie.
Greg: Atomic Blond,
Joe: Was the one his most recent one.
Greg: The fall guy.
Joe: The fall guy.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: That’s like a comedy, basically, in a lot of ways. Sure.
Greg: You know, funny Gosling. Yeah.
Joe: And then just like a total homage to the stuntman.
Greg: You know. Yeah.
Joe: And there and his love letter, basically, it’s a stuntman, so. But it’s a funny, it’s a really funny, fun movie. You know, it’s kind of like a romantic comedy action movie.
Greg: So this is our fourth David Lynch movie we’ve done, if you count John Wick, which we showed because he co-directed it, and he has how to Rob a Bank coming out about like YouTube influencers making content and robbing banks looks to be kind of a comedy, too. And then after that, we have Jason Statham Stole My bike, which he’s currently filming, which they’ve described as what if The transporter was in pee wee’s Big Adventure?
Joe: He’s one of those directors. All of these directors, Sam Hargrave included, like, I’m going to watch every movie they make just because they make them like, I you know, you don’t have to, like, I’m already sold. I’m probably, you know, the easiest to get on to buy a ticket for his, for their movies. But like, I’m going to watch every one of their movies that comes out.
Greg: Since it’s been 12 years since John Wick came out, I am wondering what’s next. And maybe it’s, you know, pee Wee’s Big Adventure in the transporter. I mean, maybe he’s already had to do it. Maybe it’s how to rob a bank. We’ll find out. But I am wondering, what is the next thing that action movies will bring?
Greg: Because this is peak one thing, you know? Yeah. I think it’s time for us to move on to something else. I want them to keep making these forever. Yeah. And I am wondering what the next thing is.
Joe: I’m curious too because it’s we’ve talked about it a lot but like the action and this is.
Greg: You know it’s.
Joe: Very.
Greg: You.
Joe: Know longer shots, longer takes.
Greg:
Joe: You know with this definitely is right from the John Wick averse.
Greg: 100%.
Joe: You know and this is like peak you know John Wick two is coming out. When is the point that it jumps the shark a little bit. You know, I was worried about ballerina. And then I watched that like, you know, and I think that’s the Halsey did some those directing on that I saw uncredited. But there was some new stuff in there that I hadn’t seen.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Which was, you know, it’s always fun to see.
Greg: Well, we’ll get to what’s next. Yes. Obviously. So I think there was a lot of push back on this movie that we were alluding to earlier, that it’s like an overly convoluted kind of Cold War plot that left Charlize Theron’s character kind of feeling like a blank slate. No backstory. They were trying to avoid splurging. Theron has been like pushing back on this ever since, saying, you don’t ask that about James Bond, ever.
Greg: So yeah, don’t do that here. So I’m going to grant this movie that her character is being played right in is written right. All of the twists at the end if I really think about them are awesome. But as it’s happening, I’m like, I am so checked out, I have no idea what’s happening anymore. I really just think if this movie had been structured differently, I would have been on board with everything like that.
Greg: Yeah. And so I feel like when people are complaining about how it feels like it, I lose myself in the movie because I don’t really know what’s happening. It’s not a pushback against what they did with her character. I feel like it just the movie just kind of gets off the rails at some point for me. And, I remember feeling this way last time I watched the too, but it turned out I was kind of out of my head when I was watching it before, but, I just kind of lose it when I’m watching this movie.
Greg: Like, what’s happening? Who are these people? Why do they keep saying these words? I don’t understand what we’re talking about. I don’t understand how any of this connects to anything else. And I think it’s because they keep coming back to that interrogation scene.
Joe: To me, it felt like they had that one action scene left the last one, and they weren’t quite sure where to put it.
Greg: You’re talking about the one when she shoots everybody at the end and like, the hotel room. Yeah.
Joe: Okay. That feels like it was like they had filmed it and they wanted to use it. So spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen this. The double agent satchel, she is satchel. And I think that if they had worked that out a little bit better in that reveal and taken that action scene out. So kind of, you know, she’s end up being kind of like a triple agent at the end.
Greg: And thank goodness by the way. Yeah. The whole time I was like this British accent is just not going to work.
Joe: Yeah. It’s it’s it’s a little rough in spots. Yeah definitely.
Greg: She’s definitely put on a British accent. And then it makes sense why at the end. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: But to me it’s like we kind of get to that you know like oh she’s satchel. It’s just like I do feel like they need a record of the last 15 minutes, and then it feels like it would make a little bit more sense, you know? And then maybe there’s. Is she really with the CIA or if she’s still satchel, like, if you get rid of that fight scene and you reveal that she is satchel, but kind of have a little bit of a question mark about her motives, that’s, to me, a little bit of a better spy ending, then, let’s go home, you know, and it’s her and John Goodman kind of laughing
Joe: it up on the plane. Yeah. Ride home.
Greg: Yeah, well, we’ll get to. How can this movie be fixed? That’s a very important question. We should probably ask later on that. I mean, let me write that down real quick. I’m just gonna. Okay, okay. Sure. I yes, that one over two later on. Okay, cool. I mean, this movie is mostly remembered for that kind of ten minute action scene, and it’s in that scene that I, I was definitely thinking about John Wick while I was watching it, but also something felt different.
Greg: And they had a completely different theory on her fighting style and what her character would do versus what John Wick does or Keanu Reeves does. She’s like throughout the movie, using people’s weight against them rather than John Wick, just being like a powerhouse of, you know, stability and making people do whatever he wanted them to do. She’s like fully just using people’s weight against them, and she’s also just grabbing whatever she can around.
Greg: So there’s like a cooking surface that she beats up a guy with. There’s like ease that she’s using a lot or like a corkscrew, just whatever she can find around, which I really liked.
Joe: That one shot is really fascinating to, you know, because more than once she’s like trying to grab a gun or put a gun together. And we’ve seen the scene where they, like, put a gun together really fast and then shoot people. But she couldn’t do it in time. And so she just uses it as a weapon to, like, hit people with, you know, and.
Joe: Yeah. And she is just grabbing whatever she can. It’s really fun to see. And, and the fact that to me, it’s like that to me lights the fuze for Sam Hargrave and what he does and extraction and extraction do. We also have the Sam Mendes film, what, 1917, which is just it’s an entire one shot movie. Yeah, I’m about halfway through it.
Joe: It’s okay. You know, it’s like, yeah, it feels like a play and in parts.
Greg: Because it’s.
Joe: It just doesn’t land as well as like what would a movie of this be like feel like start to finish. It feels a little exhausting. Yeah. You know whereas to me the beauty of this is like you know and I’ve watched the extraction ones many, many times.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: To the point where you’re like, I’m watching where the camera is going to cut. And you can kind of see as you get into it, but you know that it’s a prescribed amount of time, and I think you just need to have that with that, or else it just kind of feels a little overwhelming or it just doesn’t land as well to me.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. To make that scene, they brought in the editor, Elizabeth Reynolds didn’t hear totally sure, but I’m pronouncing that wrong. But she came in and was just in the building while they were shooting it, and so they would find the shot that they liked, and then they would know what the next shots set up needed to be.
Greg: Right, to match the one that they kept from before. And so they kind of were just editing as they went in order to do that. And she had edited, John Wick. And then after this, she did Deadpool two. Let’s see, she edited chunky, a great Marvel movie that I remember just feeling incredible with the edit. She edited Kate, which we watched last year.
Greg: You know, Bullet Train, the fall guy, love hurts. You know, all of these movies either directed or produced by David Lynch? Nobody two also same crew. And, she’s got how to Rob a Bank. So she just did an unbelievable job. And she did something in this movie that I, I really love. And that’s when they’re actually cutting to the song.
Greg: You know, I go way back just thinking about the world as a drummer, and I feel like everything should be edited with a drum beat. That’s just how I feel as a person, right? And I’ve read so many interviews with directors who were just like, don’t ever do it. It will ruin your life. It’s not good for the story.
Greg: It’s only for rhythm. It’s so dumb. Don’t do it. And so whenever I see somebody actually doing that, and a lot of this movie is actually edited to a beat, it’s a lot of it’s a lot like, baby driver in that way. Right. Where it’s just it’s edited straight from my heart. I just love it. Yeah.
Greg: You know, and it made me think that I think you really should do this forever on every movie made from now on, because it sets this awesome expectation that you can then mess with if you break it.
Joe: Right.
Greg: It can be super shocking, you know, like in design, the design world, which is the other thing I spent all my time thinking about. There’s Gestalt psychology, you know, like it from 100 years ago, about how people take in information and you’re trying to design to kind of be in the flow with how they decipher things. So you’re not making them think too much when they view a website or whatever.
Joe: Right.
Greg: And a lot of advertising uses that until it breaks Gestalt psychology to get your attention. And it’s jarring and it makes you notice something. And I feel like that’s exactly what editing to a beat does. Everybody should do it so they can break it every once in a while. On purpose. It’s totally a tool that everybody should be using.
Greg: And only this crew and whoever edited Baby Driver is doing it right.
Joe: Yeah. That’s why. Oh that’s interesting. You know, it’s what this sparks for me is what I like to see is they work with all the same people.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Like to me that shows that they, they have built a good crew and a good culture and like people like to work together. Totally. You know where you see when you see like lots of different people coming in and out of these roles. To me that’s always a sign that maybe you know, someone’s a jerk or they don’t like working with them.
Joe: Yeah, Wes Anderson is famous for that. Like you just works with all the same people.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, and I think that’s to the benefit of the movies because you have people that know how to work well together. And I heard the same thing, like the Edgar Wright thing about Baby drivers, that I could never do that again because that was so hard to do, especially the opening scene. You know, it was like, and then there are multiple tempos, but it is it’s really fun when you see it.
Joe: And there’s also.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Those are like winks to people. Like most people aren’t even noticing that that whole scene is in time to this one song, but it just creates a liveliness in that scene that you just wouldn’t get otherwise. So I’m with you. I think you should do it more is to bring in in the beats of the music that’s happening because it’s fun.
Greg: I love how much I don’t understand it, to be honest. I feel like it’s just how things should be, I think. And I’m like, you know, that these people are doing it. What I would do, that’s incredible. Yeah. Speaking of the family, kind of always staying together, the production designer of this movie, guy named David, Schuman, man, he’s been David Lynch’s production designer on every movie and has done very little else except maybe stuff that they have produced like Gunpowder Milkshake.
Greg: So a movie will.
Joe: For sure get to, which is a really.
Greg: Fun. Yeah, totally. And Baby Driver, we’ll get to Baby Driver, but we should probably talk about the look of this film as well. And it’s the cinematographer has also worked with him forever. The cinematographer, his name is Jonathan Selah. He did law Abiding Citizen. Did you ever watch that movie Star Citizen?
Joe: I’ve almost watched it a few different times. Yeah, I feel like it’s popped up. It might be newly on Netflix or something because it keeps telling me that I should watch it.
Greg: So I really disliked it because it’s it’s like a horror movie. There’s like a bunch of kills, you know, they’re trying to do things and in crazy ways like that, but it is really well-regarded. He then did A Good Day to Die Hard, which just that’s when Planet Earth’s heart broke. But then he did, John Wick. He did one of the Transformers with Marky Mark the last night he had Deadpool two, Hobbs and Shaw, bullet train, fall guy.
Greg: So Jonathan Selah has been on board as well. And, I mean, isn’t it just better when you’re learning with people that you know and like around you and yeah, it’s the best. Yeah. And then obviously Sam Hargrave is just in the trenches with him.
Joe: And I just learned that on this watching.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And it was one of those just like the end of the usual Suspects when, you know, Chazz Palminteri figures everything out and he’s looking at the board like that was to me, you know, and of course, I’m like, I knew that they knew each other, but like the fact that they have all worked together.
Greg:
Joe: It just to me was the chef’s kiss of this movie.
Greg: Totally. And the bottom of my mug every time we’ve recorded just as Sam Hargrave.
Joe: So yeah next time I’ll say Kobayashi but we’ll get to obviously.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. And we’ll get to Kobayashi. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Let me ask you a couple questions. So.
Joe: Sure.
Greg: You think 1989 was maybe the most pants optional year according to this movie?
Joe: According to this movie, yes.
Greg: I think people forgot to put pants on quite a bit. Yeah, this.
Joe: Movie quite a bit. Yeah.
Greg: Was it just Berlin or was this, like a worldwide phenomenon? What’s going on here?
Joe: I’m wondering. It might have just been Berlin. I feel like I wore a lot of pants in 1989, so.
Greg: See, I remember it as 1990. I feel like in 89, you’re forgetting a lot of pants optional days. Yeah.
Joe: It’s definitely I mean, there’s I think for us, more nudity than word than I’m used to in our movie. Yes, I’m used to like a lot of action and felt gratuitous, but also like they knew they were bigger to this. And that was some of the point of like having a nod to a graphic novel. It still bothered me a little bit.
Joe: I do feel like I’m at this age where it kind of nudity in a in films and TV shows feels unneeded most of the time. And so, I and I don’t know if it, as I become a parent or just kind of I have a discomfort with it at times. And so I still felt it in this.
Joe: Some of.
Greg: That too. Yeah. Me too. There also was a vibe about just 80s European cinema, though, that I felt like they were trying to be a bit like a 80s German film, you know. Yeah. Or 80s, you know, French film or something. So I bet there was some influence there. But I did like that in this movie, you know, this whole thing was shepherded by Charlize Theron.
Greg: So Charlize Theron can do whatever she wants in a movie that she’s putting together, I guess. Speaking of that, where do you stand on ice baths? How often is just Guy Tucker taking an ice bath.
Joe: At zero zero times ever? I know they’re all the rage.
Greg: You’re not in the ice baths craze. Yeah. What’s happening here?
Joe: No. They’re cold and it’s. You know, for anyone who’s ever, like, gone swimming in water that is not warm. I just remember, like, inching into the water and just mistake.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You just got to dive right in. I know that every time I.
Greg: And it just.
Joe: So. No, I’m. I’m out on ice baths. What about you? Are you in ice baths? Are you going to the gym, getting a nice bath or never.
Greg: Ever. So you and I famously have started a new company called Just Taglines. Yeah. And our tagline for just taglines is we only have taglines. No, it was taglines only.
Joe: That’s what I thought. That’s right.
Greg: Taglines only. You know tagline was we only have taglines. Yeah. What’s your tagline for ice baths?
Joe: Don’t do it. It’s cold.
Greg: Yeah.
Greg: Don’t do it. It’s called. I feel like I thought you were gonna say they’re cold.
Joe: Yeah, I stood up. I was right there. Right there for.
Greg: Me. Yeah.
Joe: Okay. You’ll regret this later.
Greg: My third and final question in this opening block of this podcast. Joe, what do you stand on? Straight vodka. Charlize Theron is drinking a lot of Stoli in this movie. Yes. Now, granted, she is pouring it over impossibly perfect ice cubes.
Joe: I think I’m pro. I don’t know that I’ve ever had it.
Greg:
Joe: Really? The only liquor that I drink just straight is scotch.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: But I think if I had a really good vodka.
Greg:
Joe: On ice. Actually, it sounds pretty good to me.
Greg: I think I should go to Berlin when we have, great bad movies, you know, live appearance in Berlin. We should go out. Yeah, for vodka and perfect ice cubes and see if we’re into it. Yeah.
Joe: Oh I did, I have had gin.
Greg: On nine once.
Joe: And actually, it was really good.
Greg: What was the quality of this ice? Was it like see-through and perfectly square?
Joe: It was. It was really amazing. I think that’s really I think what we’re learning is that is the ice is what makes it or not.
Greg: I could be wrong, but I feel like I heard that restaurant cannolis in Seattle at the top of Queen animal, which is like an old school fancy restaurant in town. I feel like they had a guy whose job was just to make the perfect ice cubes every afternoon. Awesome. That’s right. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, Joe, I am a little I am.
Greg: I know I’ve said this before, I am a little bit wary that people have not tracked with Atomic Blond from 2017. It’s been almost ten years since this baby came home. We are celebrating. I mean, just got to be pretty close to the nine year anniversary of this movie. So that’s why we’re having this episode this week, obviously.
Greg: Why don’t we pretend you’re walking down the aisles of that East German bootleg underground James McAvoy video store? You’re picking up boxes off of the underground walls. You’re picking them up, you’re reading the back of the box you’re trying to figure out, should I rent this movie tonight? Is this even something I’d be interested in? That’s right. It’s time for the back of the box.
Greg: It’s the back.
Joe: Of the box. As the Berlin Wall begins to crumble, a game of espionage ensues. As the list of everyone’s asset has been discovered. What will the New World Order look like without the east west divide the rain. Broughton Charlize Theron doesn’t really care. All she wants is the list. Complicating things are the Germans, the Russians and the French.
Joe: The twists become dizzying right up until the final scene.
Greg: See if you can figure it out. That dumb? I’ve watched it. I’m not sure I could explain it to you. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: That’s pretty much what this is.
Greg: All right, well, that’s the perfect back in the box for this movie. No matter what underground East Berlin cave you’re in for a bit like. But, Joe, let’s get the honest, true, real back of the box from Joe Skywalker.
Joe: This is a dark and beautiful action movie. Many of the opening scenes could be cut from a graphic novel like the one that inspired this movie. The cast is great, but this is Charlize Theron’s movie through and through, and she is excellent excusing her accent slipping here and there. This is David Lynch’s first film, and the action is top notch.
Joe: As you’d expect, but I think his filmmaking chops get lost because his action scenes are so good. He is a great director, too. This movie made me long for the cold War, and the ease of having a ready made bad guy in hand. This movie plays the type until it doesn’t and it’s awesome.
Greg: Solid until it doesn’t. And so just what you say, it’s.
Joe: A place to type until it doesn’t.
Greg: They kind of until it doesn’t, it kind of subverts that. Yeah. Okay. Okay, let’s get to the box office. And, critical response to this movie, Joe.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Greg: But first to let’s talk about how much you think this movie cost to make what you think the budget for Atomic Blond was in 2017.
Joe: So Charlize Theron, we have David Leach, I’m going to say 60 million.
Greg: $30 million for this movie, but that’s.
Joe: Peanuts for a movie.
Greg: Like this. Budapest, I think, is the answer. Yeah. But domestically it made 51 million worldwide 48 total $100 million.
Joe: So there should be sequels on sequels for this. It made some money.
Greg: Yeah. There was some trouble with the sequel. I mean, they the sequel was greenlit and just kind of ran out of ran out the clock somehow. So we’ll get to that, though. All right, Joe, let’s talk about the critical response of this movie. What do you think the Rotten Tomatoes critic score is? We have 365 reviews. Okay.
Joe: It feels like a 70 because we’re doing it.
Greg: It sure does. Yeah. You’re right.
Joe: I’m a little off my game. I’m going to go a little higher. I’m going to go 83.
Greg: 79. You got was right on that one. Yeah. We only have 25,000 reviews by the audience. But what do you think the audience score is the popcorn meter.
Joe: And got 85. So I could be more than 64.
Greg: Really? This goes down on me, Very.
Joe: Very rare for our movies. And I’m surprised with this one. Although I think if you’re coming into it thinking this is going to be just like an action fast.
Greg: Movie.
Joe: And you’re hit with like a real movie on top of some great action. I mean, maybe that’s giving it also some a lot of views.
Greg: So yeah.
Joe: But yeah, still, it feels low to me.
Greg: Surprising. Let’s find out why. We like to start with our hometown paper, the Seattle Times and friend of the show, Moira MacDonald, gave the review for this movie. So let’s find out what Moira said. While it’s still an enjoyable novelty, spend time during an action movie wondering where I could buy the hero’s boots? It’s still no substitute for a good story.
Greg: Two and a half out of four stars.
Joe: Next time she’s on the show, we’re going to have some words about her review.
Greg: Of Atomic Blond. Moira, who interrupted us to say how much she loved Hobbs and Shaw when she was on the show here. So, you know, she’s on board with so much of what’s going on here. And also, we’ve noticed for most of the movies that she reviews that we cover their two and a half out of four stars in a positive sense.
Greg: This one is kind of two and a half out of four and negative sense, it seems like. All right, so we will we will confront Moira about that, which probably means she will never come on the show again. She’s like, attack me with my Atomic Blond review. All right, let’s get to variety. Andrew Barker says so much uncut, hard boiled posturing proves exhausting.
Greg: Over a nearly two hour runtime, and with zero emotional stakes and a plot that is both difficult and seemingly pointless to follow, there’s a fundamental emptiness behind all the flash.
Joe: Fundamental emptiness behind The Flash could be a name for this podcast. Quite frankly.
Greg: Somebody had to say it. It’s a good point.
Joe: I can’t find fault with it. And also, all of that worked for me on this.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. Newsday says an absolute blast with a never sexier Theron in some of the best action scenes to hit a screen. Four out of four stars. Yeah, nailed it. Kevin Ma, our favorite reviewer from the Times UK who is famously hot and cold, says what Theron says superbly, as she did in Mad Max Fury Road in 2015, is simply ferocity.
Greg: Four out of five stars. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. USA today says blond is a new wavy pretzel of twists on top of twists. It gets a satisfying conclusion, though. By then you’re wondering if you really knew anything about any of the various players. Two and a half out of four stars.
Joe: Yeah, I agree with that.
Greg: Kind of a more positive somewhere in there. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: All right. Helen O’Hara from the Empire magazine says it’s cool and brutal, but with such impressive action credentials, you almost wish there were fewer plot devices to distract you as Charlize gets up an atom three and a five stars.
Joe: I understand that one for sure.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. Let’s see. The Hollywood Reporter says as enjoyable as Atomic Blond can be at times, its main utility. Maybe its demonstration that Theron deserves better than this. Scott Tobias, writing for NPR, says Atomic Blond may be high in empty calories, but craftsmanship of this level is rare and exhilarating, and we’re surviving some muddled plotting to appreciate.
Joe: Yeah, I agree with that.
Greg: I mean, high in empty calories could be the name of this show, obviously. Yeah. Nigel Andrews from the Financial Times says watching Atomic Blond is a cinematic crash course. It’s a course in how to crash a movie and a script, and the cast had to crash them until nothing is left but smoking smithereens. Zero out of five stars.
Greg: Whoa, whoa whoa. So.
Joe: So not a fan. I don’t know that I’ve ever. We’ve ever had a zero out of five. Yeah, anything.
Greg: I don’t think that guy gets it.
Joe: Yeah, I don’t think he gets the ball. But this is to me, like, if there was a second one, it would be incredibly well received. Kind of how like Fast and Furious and then Fast five comes out and fast five everyone loves.
Greg: Yeah. But yeah it’s kind of cold on. Yep.
Joe: It’s like people needed to catch up with it a little bit.
Greg: Yeah. Well, funny you should say that, because Alonzo Giraldi from The Wrap wrote should this be a series, audiences can look back on Atomic Blond as the erratic but under something near miss that it is in a way that Double Seven fans honored Doctor No, but acknowledged Goldfinger was where the franchise really took flight.
Joe: Exactly what is the erotic but on the something could be the name of this podcast as well.
Greg: Nailed it. That’s a great idea. I mean, just shots fired there for, From Russia with Love. Yeah, but I’ll allow it. Let’s finish here. Emily Saint James from Vox wrote, sometimes in life.
Greg: That’s a great start. We’re starting off with the classic 30,000ft view of let’s get philosophical Emily Saint James. Sometimes in life, all you want is something that looks super awesome, regardless of whether it makes any sense. Atomic blond manages that trick in spades. Three and a half out of five stars. Yeah.
Joe: Nailed it. There’s a title in there somewhere. Yeah, if I were more clever and it was earlier, I would probably figure it out.
Greg: This week on sometimes in life, all you want is something that looks super awesome. Yeah, regardless of whether it makes any sense. It’s the whole sense. Yeah.
Joe: Perfect.
Greg: All right. Joe. Well, there were moments in this movie where I was kind of like, oh, this might be kind of a fun movie to watch with the crew. There are some things coming up here. So is it time for us to get to drinking games?
Joe: Oh, absolutely. Again, you don’t have to be drinking alcohol or Stoli on ice if you are Charlize Theron in this movie, or Jack Daniels if you are James Mcavoy’s character in this new water coffee, whatever. We have no judgments here about what you’re drinking or not drinking or nonalcoholic Guinness as Greg is drinking right now. So. And as Moira McDonald point out, friend of the show, not a fan of this movie.
Joe: Different from the trope in a drinking game is whether you have a drink in your hand at the time. So we start with our start drinking games. We do not have a solid helicopter. That’s rough. We have them sitting in a plane. But that’s that’s it. You can die like that’s where the budget cuts are, where it’s like you know.
Joe: Yeah. She’s met outside the airport. There’s no shot of you know there’s clearly a set. So you know that you can see where they cut their corners. But no no low flying helicopters.
Greg: No none of that.
Joe: We do have an old school pushing an and in hand. When James McAvoy is looking at the list through a microfilm or whatever that is.
Greg: Yeah. Microfiche.
Joe: Do you remember doing research in the library and look at, like, I remember doing that for, like, old time magazines from the 40s and you’d find and stuff like that. So I vaguely remember doing that way back when. I feel like a million years old when I say that.
Greg: Now, you also just expose that you were a spy in Germany.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: When the wall. Yeah. Then. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. That was my bad.
Greg: That’s fine.
Joe: It’s fine. Spice girls, one on one. They tell you not to admit that. I feel when two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos.
Greg: There’s a sneaky.
Joe: Use of a slow mo in this movie. In bars, especially in here.
Greg: Yeah, in the clubs. Yeah.
Joe: We do not have an explosion or a silent suffering or ringing in the ears. No opening credit scene is spray.
Greg: Painted in, so.
Joe: It does with with a sound. It does. Flash back to dialog. I gave this one. Although I feel like the CGI there isn’t bad CGI in it, but there are few moments where it feels a little like they’re sitting in a set with lots of green screens around them.
Greg: So I.
Joe: Am right. Bad shots. Every shot of Berlin at night has an inexplicably wet street, so God bless.
Greg: There’s that.
Joe: There’s no. Give us the room. No Interpol and no cell phone.
Greg: Smash of our stock drinking game.
Joe: So I toss it to you. Greg, you had said that you have a drinking game that we’ve never had before, and I’m dying to know what this is, so I toss it to you. No pressure, but I cannot wait.
Greg: Okay, so when she is having that fight in the apartment, please come. And she decides to jump out the window. She ties like a rope to a guy, and then she jumps off the deck. And when he is yanked down and dragged across the floor, he makes a noise and it sounds like this. Oh! Oh, that’s awesome. They give it a Wilhelm scream.
Greg: I can’t believe this has never come up. But anytime you hear a Wilhelm scream, take a drink. Awesome.
Joe: I have any time. You see bruises on Charlize Theron, take a drink.
Greg: Wow. That is throughout this movie. Anytime someone is hit or kicked in the junk, take a drink. Awesome.
Joe: And it uses in that fight scene that you referenced.
Greg:
Joe: She like grabs someone behind the neck, pulls them backwards and then they kick someone in the junk.
Greg: For her in that scene. Amazing.
Joe: One of my favorite moments. Yeah. And so yeah anytime they spray paint the location of where we are in the film taken.
Greg: Yeah yeah yeah, totally. I have that one too. Any time we cut to Sofia Boutella as she was on a mike on a motorcycle.
Joe: Oh, I think it’s that one too. Famously, the boots that my McDonald want, I’m assuming.
Greg: Yeah. And then, yep.
Joe: I have. Anytime the music goes back and forth from the soundtrack to the scene and back again, take a drink. So Blue Monday, they do this at the beginning and then it’s in the car on the radio. Yep. So anytime that happens and that’s me.
Greg: Like I walk back a lot.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. Totally. Fine. Yeah.
Greg: Any time Charlize Theron takes a drink of vodka, take a drink. Haha.
Joe: I have that one too. Any time they reference the Prince by Machiavelli, take a drink.
Greg: Wow, nice. That’s awesome. Every time she takes a drag from a cigaret, take a drink.
Joe: I think I had a smoking one as well. That one’s way better than mine, so I like that one. Any time you see a.
Greg: Watch, take a drink. Nice. I’m out there more.
Joe: I do, I have any time. They are listening to tapes of the. Because they planted bugs on each other.
Greg:
Joe: Like James McAvoy and Charlize Theron. Take a drink. Any time there’s a conversation about being a poet or a rock star, which is Sofia Boutella, his character should have been.
Greg:
Joe: And then two more. I have any time. There are. Clock’s ticking. And like bells going off, the kind of overwhelm that’s used a couple times in there. So I kind of demonstrate and then anytime there are shots of reflections and mirrors take a drink.
Greg: Oh that’s solid, that’s solid. Joe, there are things in this movie that might make you wonder if you were watching a movie that would kind of fit on this show. Yeah. So I think we should get to Joe’s trope Lightning Round, aka signs. You might be watching a great bad movie, and I am going to start the timer starting now.
Greg: Let’s do it.
Joe: Okay, awesome. We have a sniper scope. We have multiple.
Greg: Passports.
Joe: We have a file list or something that is hidden that is the driver of the plot.
Greg:
Joe: We have trope of jumping into water where the sound disappears, color filters. So east and west are shot in different filters. We have the best of something. Charlize Theron is the best at writing. Essentially. We have the henchmen who are allowed to inflict pain on our protagonist. Amazing recovery time, medical care from a loved one that’s off of them, and checking if a gun is loaded and that’s it.
Joe: It’s actually not as many tropes as usual, so that’s incredible.
Greg: All right, you made it with, 18 seconds to spare, sweets.
Joe: Nailed it.
Greg: Joe, listen, this has been great talking about this, but obviously there have been some things we’ve kind of been dancing around, and I’ve had it. Let’s get to important questions.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Greg: All right, Joe, first important question. Did Atomic Blond hold up. Then in 2017.
Joe: I think it.
Greg: Did. Yeah, yeah. Doesn’t hold up now.
Joe: I think it holds up really well. I think I probably saw it right around 2017 when it came out 2018. Right. That it holds up to me really well. I love this director combo.
Greg: Yep. This team.
Joe: Yeah I’m in the tank for them clearly. So it’s hard for me like, yeah, there’s some flaws a little bit with the end of the of the movie, but it’s still hold up for me. What don’t what do you think.
Greg: Yeah, I think it holds up the same but for different reasons as before. I think back then it was like, oh my gosh, these new movies are incredible. And now it’s like, yeah, they were incredible back then. They’re still incredible now. But also, you know, because the sequel didn’t quite work out for this movie, it’s kind of a special thing, you know.
Greg: So 2017.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: All right, Joe, a couple of questions that don’t really apply to this movie I feel like, do they sell the good guy in this movie? Did how do they sell the good guy?
Joe: They have one scene in the beginning where they sell Charlize Theron’s character, so they go through all of her skills.
Greg: Oh, like, okay.
Joe: Equipped at hand to hand combat, you know, good at undercover, you know, those sorts of things. Sure.
Greg: Okay. Okay, so a little bow, a little bit. Yeah. And how how did they sell the bad guy?
Joe: Not really at all. We don’t really know who the bad guy is. I mean, no, no, not really. I think that’s part of the point of this movie is that like in Berlin at that time, everybody was kind of looking out for their own interests, and there weren’t really good guys and bad guys.
Greg: All right, next important question. Why is there romance in this movie?
Joe: It’s really to show Charlize Theron softer side with you. I guess you could tell her.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And Sofia Boutella is really the main like the most like honest character. And they have an interesting conversation of like, your eyes change when you tell the truth.
Greg: Yeah. You know.
Joe: And Charlize Theron response like, I need to do a better job of hiding it from you or hiding.
Greg: It. Yeah.
Joe: To me, like, those are them. Those soft little moments really sell this.
Greg: Movie to me. Yeah, I thought at any moment it would not be sweet anymore. And it kind of maintains its sweetness. Although when she’s sad that Sofia Boutella spoiler has been killed, she gets a little bit emotional. And it’s kind of like, I don’t know if this is earned here. Yeah, but I do like that it isn’t like all one or the other.
Greg: You know, for Charlize Theron, she isn’t just cold blooded, you know, spy. Yeah. They also allude to how she kind of has a heart too, so I like that. Are we bad people for loving this movie?
Joe: I don’t think so. I really like this movie. Probably whoever did that. Zero out of five stars review probably things for stupid
Greg: But it’s not like a character judgments necessarily.
Joe: No, I feel like this movie is, you know, was made for interesting reasons as well of Charlize Theron wanting to.
Greg: You know.
Joe: What, if we had a female protagonist who acted like a man, you know, and I think that some of the reviews of this, I really wonder, like, let’s just say Keanu Reeves is starring in this or. Yeah, James McAvoy is playing the lead character in this same exact movie. Start to finish, basically. Yeah, but swap out Charlize Theron for a man.
Joe: Do we have the same kind of reviews? I’d be curious.
Greg: Yes, I’m going to say yes and no. The structure of the movie is still a problem for me, but I think there would be less criticism of her not being frigid. Yeah, right. Yeah. Joe, does Atomic Blond deserve a sequel?
Joe: My God deserve so many sequels?
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It’s a crazy. I know that there are lots of reasons why it didn’t have one, but it made money. And, you know, they they’re making the fifth John Wick. Yeah. Unneeded. Quite frankly, I’m sure this is coming from someone who’s one of the biggest fans of that franchise ever. Yeah, at least one sequel. I can’t believe there isn’t more.
Greg: So yes. Deserves a sequel. Yeah. And it was supposed to get one. It just was owned by enough people that it was just complicated. It was very hard. David Leitch has talked about how there were just kind of too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s hard to get a vision approved by everybody involved. And then it was a eventually just we’ll we’ll just do it at Netflix.
Greg: And Netflix was just going to take care of all that, and they still had some trouble. And then I think the moment had passed before. They can get it figured out. Yeah. And Charlize Theron has said lately, like, I think we just missed the window. Okay. Does this movie deserve a prequel?
Joe: I tried to think of what it would be. And there’s nothing that jumps out that we know. I mean so no. And I’m anti prequel anyway. So what about you Greg. What do you think.
Greg: I think it’s a two hander Charlize Theron and Sam Hargrave. Oh okay. Going on I mean I’m interested. Yeah. Yeah. And the idea of the sequel for this would be that Charlize Theron would have a partner as well, and it would be two women who were kind of teaming up to do some mission. But I think the Charlize Sam Hargrave mission, we need a prequel right now.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I grudgingly greenlight your prequel.
Greg: All right. Joe, I, I feel like this is all been set up for this moment right here. I don’t even know if you can handle what’s about to happen right now. Yeah. Should Atomic Blond have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in 2018?
Joe: What did up.
Greg: Against. Okay, this is a complicated year for us at great bad movies in the in the Gbbo, the great bad universe, because this is also the year that John Wick two came out and The Hitman’s Bodyguard, both movies that we have covered on this show. So I’m going to tell you just the list of Best Picture nominees that year were The Shape of Water.
Greg: Which one? Call me by your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. That’s only nine movies. So we decided John Wick two was nominated for Best Picture that year as well. Okay, we decided as much as we love it, The Hitman’s Bodyguard was not nominated for Best Picture that year, so we have ten nominees right now.
Greg: If you want to add Atomic Blond, we need to get rid of one of these movies.
Joe: I am adding Atomic Blond.
Greg: Love it.
Joe: And I’m getting rid of the Three Billboards movie, which just looked like a movie that was written and directed to be nominated for.
Greg: An Academy Award.
Joe: And I mean, not as derogatorily as possible about that.
Greg: Wasn’t that directed by the guy who did In Bruges?
Joe: Maybe you would know more than I.
Greg: Would on that. I think we might need to watch that movie. I think you might like it.
Joe: Is it on the list?
Greg: It’s not on the list.
Joe: Next week.
Greg: Yeah. We’ll be covering. By the way, congratulations to Atomic Blond. And we’re so sorry to everybody in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. We misread these cards. We would like. I just think it’s an honor to be nominated. And Atomic Blond just got a massive honor from the Great Movies podcast, so congratulations, everybody. All right, Joe, next important question.
Greg: How can this movie be fixed? AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: I don’t have a very good answer for this, but I want more. Sam Hargrave I want maybe a little bit longer of a one shot, and let’s clean up the ending a little bit. So that was all I could really come up with on this, but. Yeah. What do you have? I know you you’re usually better at this than I am.
Joe: I know how to fix these movies.
Greg: I think the ending is fine. It’s everything that leads up to the ending that we’re already exhausted by the time that comes in. So I think if we. If we kill the interrogation framing device, that gives us a lot of room to work with the pacing of this movie, there’s, you know, a few, like, one line fixes. We need to get in there to kind of patch things up, probably because that’s definitely used as a way to kind of explain what’s going on, but also, I love the full cast of this movie.
Greg: Yeah, we didn’t even talk about how John Goodman is in this movie. And, you know, he’s just always going to be good. Toby Jones is usually a bad guy. He plays like a British MI6 guy in this movie. Both of them. Fantastic. Yeah. And so we need to get them in the mix. A bit more throughout the movie than just in the interrogation, but I think we can do it.
Greg: My hope is that that would be enough, that kind of trying to get the microfilm throughout the movie, is intuitive enough. You know, we have what we need, but there’s a chance we might need to kind of tear some things away. So it’s a bit more simplified.
Joe: Yeah. Because I’m thinking if you took out the interrogation scene and just kind of played it as a straight movie.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It doesn’t really.
Greg: Lose much.
Joe: You lose Toby Jones, who’s he’s awesome in it. Yeah, yeah, you could totally do that. And you’d probably get it down to an hour. 45 probably feels a little less hard to watch.
Greg: I think I would understand what was going on a bit more. We’re kind of jumping in and out of things and then it doesn’t. I kept thinking it was going to surprise us in ways that it doesn’t end up surprising us. Isn’t that? And so I feel like it just it’s just clunky, you know, I think it has to do with the screenwriter on that one.
Greg: Do you have anybody for who should be in the remake?
Joe: I like the cast on this.
Greg: Yeah. Me too. But if it deserves sequels, maybe we just have to start it over. Yeah. Here’s who I think should be in the reboot. Okay? Vanessa Kirby. Oh, yeah. I don’t percent. So Vanessa Kirby is now Lorraine Broughton. She’s worked with him in Hobbs and Shaw. You know, David Leach, she’s amazing. So she’s in I think James McAvoy is now Robert Pattinson.
Greg: Oh, okay. Yeah. This is a great movie already. Yeah.
Joe: I mean.
Greg: I think we give a little bit more to the Delfino character. She’s in a bit more of the, the action scenes. Pom Clements yeah.
Joe: I agree like this. I don’t, I don’t.
Greg: Those were the only three.
Joe: I don’t need anything else. I, I agree like this right now.
Greg: And then the magic that happens there, that’s just obviously going to happen gives us at least two more movies. If not. Yeah. Five more movies. Yeah. Okay. All right, Joe, next important question. What album is this movie?
Joe: I went back and forth. I have two albums. I have one that’s from 1989. Okay. And it it kind of fits because of me from that year. But really the album to me that fits the tone of this movie is Portishead’s Portishead album.
Greg: Wow. Sure.
Joe: It’s just dark, sexy. My other album was going to be Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine. Which kind of would have fit more with the kind of the musical vibe of the movie? Maybe. But to me, the look and feel of this movie is Portishead through and through, and I can’t get away from it.
Greg: So, okay, I was thinking while we were watching this movie with Olive, or while I was watching this movie with all the needle drops. These are all bands that led to Nine Inch Nails. Like this is all the chapter before. Yeah, we get to Joe Scott Tucker’s favorite band of the 90s. Yes.
Joe: Yeah, and I, I wanted to I even have it written down, but I just when I think about this movie and Mike the opening song Cowboys on that part of that album, it’s just instantly, to me, perfect for this movie.
Greg: Yeah. And where are they from?
Joe: They’re from England.
Greg: Okay, that I think that’s better than mine, but I think I like my album more than I like that album. Yeah. I was going to say that this album is well, first of all, a lot of the songs in this movie were from the early, earlier in the 80s.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So this movie doesn’t like reek of 89 when you list the songs. Yeah, no, it’s a little bit earlier. So I went with the with an album from, I think, 1985 by Howard Jones. You know, Howard Jones’s I don’t.
Joe: Think I.
Greg: Do is an English singer solo dude. He had an album called Dream Into Action, and you’ve heard the song No one is to blame for sure. I’m office album. So I’ll, I’ll say that that’s the song I want to use on our playlist that we do not maintain. So if I had to pick one song, it would be No One Is to Blame from this album.
Greg: I think Planet Earth agrees with me on that. But there’s other great songs like, Things Can Only Get Better. There’s another song called Life in One Day. It’s a great album. It’s more it’s a more poppy album. So I think Portishead is the better answer to this question, but I think I would listen to this album more than I would listen that album.
Greg: But I also chose this because it’s it has some songs in it that are just perfect songs and should be listened to every year. But then also there’s some stuff in there where you’re like, I don’t know. Yeah. All right, Joe, it’s time for us to get to our rating for this movie. We have a scale.
Greg: Great bad movie. Good bad movie. Okay, bad movie, bad, bad movie. Worst case scenario. Awful bad movie. How do you rate this movie?
Joe: It’s a great bad movie to me.
Greg: Yeah, I.
Joe: When we first didn’t, we kind of had it ranked as a great, great movie for all the reasons that we pointed out. It’s not a great, great movie, but it’s a great bad movie. There’s so much stuff working for it, and the things that are working against it are easily forgiven in my mind. Yeah. So that’s where I have this.
Joe: What about you? How do you rate this movie.
Greg: You’re alluding to a recording that we did in our practice episodes before we started releasing episodes. Yeah, yeah. And this was the first movie that we watched where we decided, you know what? If we watch a movie that is so good, we should still do an episode on it? Yeah, being a great movie should not be something that discredits you from being on our podcast.
Joe: Exactly.
Greg: It’s something we were wrestling with at the beginning, so I’m thankful to this movie for that. I’m same campus you great bad movie. I think this is amongst the best. David Leech I want his box set on my shelf for the rest of my life. Yeah, a great yeah.
Joe: Like we said, I will watch every single one of his movies no matter what it is. Whenever I comes out and you know, he’s just top notch for what he does. We’re better for it.
Greg: I completely agree. All right, well, Joe, we did it.
Joe: Yeah, we had the conversation that needed to be had about Atomic Blond. I mean, nobody else to really talk about this movie as far as I’m concerned.
Greg: Or everybody should scream about this movie from the rooftops forever. One of the other one of them, either way. Yeah, yeah yeah.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. And if you like this episode or like episode like this, you know, find us on Great Bad Movie show on Instagram or maybe our movie show. Com on our website.
Greg: Just great bad movies.com.
Joe: About movies that’ll be edited out by our amazing editor, Sam, who just does the Lord’s work and making sure that we Sam coherent. We’re in our 25 of this recording, and he will shave it down to a tight hour and 17 minutes or whatever the final edit comes out to be. He’s a new father. So, if you have work and are needing an editor for your podcast, we will get you in touch with Stan Cunningham saves the world.
Joe: So I think this is one thing. If it’s not, it should be. So anyway, if you need a if you need the best editor for your podcast.
Greg: We know one. So look us up. Yeah. Find us. Yeah. And you know I have a million things I can say about Sam, but there’s really just really all boils down to one thing. You know that if you’re going to be talking about Sam Cunningham, which I think we should. Yeah, I would just say, you know, in one simple phrase,
Greg: Oh, my gosh, I just saw the time. Joe, I’m so sorry. Listen, this has been great. So great. I don’t want to take away from what we have, but I. I really need to head out. I feel a little bit like, I’ve got some bruises and it’s time for me to go take an ice bath.
Joe: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that track that tracks, you know, I’m out of ice from all the ice baths I’ve been taking, and I. I’ve got to go find more so I can drink my Stoli, because I can’t drink it without ice.
Greg: So. That’s so weird. I need to go, drink some straight vodka on some perfect ice cubes, so I need to leave. Maybe I be going to the same place.
Joe: Probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That track that. Oh, father figure just came on the stereo. I know that that means I have to go beat up six police officers, so I’ll be right back.
Greg: Here, take my rope.
Joe: Okay. Thanks.
Greg: Okay, that works for me because I need to catch a flight, to Paris to finish off, Soviet hindrance.
Joe: That works there. I have to catch a flight to the United States because, I need to get home.
Greg: It’s a great reason. It’s a great. All right, well, that works for me, Joe. So I will see you soon. Yes, sir.
Greg: You do?