She kicked the crap out of a few guys in LW3, while Mel Gibson watched, enchanted. She was heavily pregnant and purely damsel in distress in LW4.
All the movies mentioned here where women get beaten onscreen, Kill Bill, Kick-Ass, Lethal Weapon 3, Long Kiss Goodnight, are all R rated films. I’m thinking a movie is more likely to get an R rating (we all know how much the studios avoid the R) if it features a fight scene where the woman gets hit. Woman on woman fighting could be an exception though.
Nah. The hero does get to punch the villainess right in the schnozz once in awhile if she’s firmly established to be sufficiently tough, really, really kick-a-puppy-evil and totally deserving it.
In the 1982 B-movie-clip-compilation comedy It Came From Hollywood, I saw a clip from a 1974 blaxploitation film, Black Belt Jones, where a woman – apparently using martial arts – pounds three or four guys singlehanded.
Nomi kicking ass in *Showgirls * is hardly the least believable bit of that gloriously horribly amazing movie. For anyone who has yet to see it, I highly recommend renting the version with the voiceover from some random witty dude. He wasn’t connected to production but would put on popular movie nights where he’d comment over the entire movie, sort of MST3K style. I thought it would get old, but it didn’t – he even has viewers fast forward over the remarkably brutal, out-of-place rape scene. On the whole, I consider rape revenge movies on par with the girls and women who survive horror movies. I’m not sure, though, why guys get to see their fantasies projected on screen while women’s are too out there to believe.
David Schmader’s commentary is a travesty. And by recommending you FF past the rape scene he shows just how much he doesn’t get it. That’s the point at which the movie forces you to realize that it’s not all fun and games, that there is a dark center to these dreams. That’s the fulcrum of the movie, where fantasies shatter and the real, dirty business of life rears its ugly head. Schmader wants to insist the film is nothing but a fun camp romp, but by excising that scene he reveals how untenable his position is. One of the greatest examples of unclear-on-the-concept I’ve ever come across.
Who is David Schmader? I wikied him but other than his commentary for Showgirls…what is he known for?
I did rent it a while back but I’m not sure I have the stamina to again. If I’m ever forced to watch it (like at a really bad party or a criminal putting a gun to my head), Cat Fight, I’ll keep that commentary in mind.
If you’re feeling patient you could pick the relevent media out of this list;
Also **The Messenger **(AKA Joan of Arc: Action Hero).
No mention of **Aeon Flux **with Charlize Theron or the original anime?
Every anime for that matter except maybe **Ghost of the Shell **or other anime where the woman is a cyborg or robot or superhero or something.
Any film with** Michelle Yeoh **or Zhang Ziyi - Crouching Tiger, Hero, Rush Hour 3, Babylon AD, etc.
Keira Knightley - Domino and the Pirates of the Carribean films.
The gals of** Sin City**.
Angelina Jolie - **Tomb Raider **films
Kate Beckinsale - **Underworld **films and Van Helsing (although she is supernatural in Underworld…but she’s fighting supernatural dudes.
**Cameron Diaz, Lucy Lu **and **Drew Barrymore **- **Charlies Angel **films.
Rhonda Mitra -** Dooms**day and Underworld 3.
Verhoeven, is that you?
I can’t tell if I’m being whooshed or not, so I’ll assume you’re kidding. Without his commentary most viewers don’t even realize that girlfriends can only talk about eating chips and doing their nails. Literally.
Not multiple men as per the OP but I like Patricia Arquette vs. James Gandolfini in **True Romance *** and Juliette Lewis out fist fighting the guy in the bar in Natural Born Killers.
*although she’s definitely taking a beating for most of the scene.
One scene I particularly liked from the TV show Veronica Mars is one where the title character is dealing with a tough hoodlum, things go south and she is quickly disarmed. It is then immediately revealed that without her stun gun or her large dog to back her up she is exactly what she appears to be - a teensy, tiny teenage girl who has virtually zero ability to defend herself hand to hand against a much larger, tougher, male thug. It was a remarkably realistic little moment.
What, nobody has mentioned D.E.B.S. yet? The only thing hotter than girls kicking ass is girls kicking ass in naughty schoolgirl outfits…TRM
Yeah I’ve heard his commentary, recorded and live. He doesn’t get the movie and his commentary is an immense disservice to it. Again, pretending the rape scene isn’t there instead of trying to understand it is borderline offensive. The rape isn’t entertaining enough, so skip it. Rape scenes should be entertaining, not brutal.
Kickboxer Kathy Long beats up a bunch of male cyborgs in Knights (co-starring Kris Kristofferson). It’s even worse than it sounds.
Speaking of being unclear on the concept, the OP asked about films in which a woman defeats multiple men in combat. “Showgirls” doesn’t qualify. Neither, in fact, do a number of your entries.
I Spit on Your Grave for example, is a revenge picture, but the woman is getting revenge on each man individually. Probably not all that realistic but not for the reason in the OP.
G.I. Jane - as a former “Army Chick” current “Air Force Chick” I have to say, I have a real soft spot for this movie 
Oh well, I’m not picky. Just looking for the woman-as-super-warrior cliche, really.