1. Director David Leitch has been around motion pictures for a while now. Early on as a stuntman, second unit director and most recently a co-director on “John Wick” (2014). Needless to say, he knows his way around a filmed fight scene. And this film features and unending supply of fight scenes. Some may be surprised to see that Charlize Theron is in all of those scenes. She’s earned her fighting chops is films like “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) and “The Fate of the Furious” (2017). But neither of those performances feature a non-stop ball-busting heroine like British MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton. Theron, who is also a producer, bought the rights to the graphic novel series “The Coldest City” on which the film is based. Set in Berlin in 1989 in the days leading up to the official integration of the east and the west, Lorraine is sent to recover a list of spies stolen from another agent who was killed. He also happened to be a former lover of Lorraine’s. It appears he was killed by the Soviets or their East German Stasi allies. Lorraine meets up with her MI6 contact, David Percival (James McAvoy) who seems to be a bit off kilter compared to Ms. Broughton. We know something went wrong early on as we see all of this action in flashback scenes. Lorraine is being debriefed in London by her immediate boss, Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and his CIA counterpart, Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman). The MI6 chief, “C” (James Faulkner), is looking on behind the one-way glass. Leitch and his cinematographer, Jonathan Sela set a color palate early on. Shades of blue when Loraine is in wind-down or recovery mode. Check out the scene (in trailers) when we see her pull her battered body out of a bathtub filled with ice cubes. When the action gets hot – including scenes with French character named Delphine (Sofia Boutella) – the red coloring is prominent. Another great character in the film is the soundtrack with songs from David Bowie, George Michael, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash and even Nena and Kaleida’s different versions of “99 Luftballons.” It all sounds great in Dolby ATMOS. While the spy list seems a bit too illusive, we discover that a potential defector called Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) also has the list…memorized. So he becomes a key element in the story. Lorraine’s mission becomes more complex as she is tasked to escort him from East Berlin to West Berlin then back to England. In a fight scene reminiscent of one out of a Paul Greengrass “Bourne” film or Gareth Evans’ “Raid” film or yes, “John Wick,” Leitch, Sela and their stunt coordinators pull off a 10-minute sequence that appears to be uncut. It’s amazing! As is Theron who never flinches. Well she does, but you understand what I mean. She does the work. What pulls the film back a bit from perfection is a convoluted story with too many changes in direction and absurd plot points. Don’t be too concerned however. Miss Theron has proven to be one of the best action characters on the screen today. Recommended.