Mama.
Fort Apache the Bronx
With Paul Newman, seem to recall a very disturbed prostitute as a cop/serial killer.
And probably doesn’t count as action however
Fatal Attraction
Damn she was scary.
Hansel and Gretel Witchhunters, already mentioned, is a great choice. I second it.
^Speaking of witches, Miranda Richardson’s character is the big bad in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.
Martial arts movies do count as action, right?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon then, with Cheng Pei-pei as Jade Fox.
It’s more in the direction of traditional wuxia than the more modern kung-fu type movies, but fighting definitely plays a huge role as a problem-solving tool there too, as required by the OP to qualify as an action movie.
Kindergarten Cop features a woman who kills the only witness to her son’s crime before using her trusty car to run over Ah-nuld’s partner, at which point she starts shooting at our hero in the climax of the movie – which, of course, makes her the sort of problem that can only be solved by a baseball bat upside the head.
If I were Skald, there would be an additional rule to exclude movies like this. The big bad is because the protagonists are semi-misogynist male fantasy version of women. This would also cover movies like “Supergirl” and “Catwoman.”
I’m not entirely sure if obvious comedies should count, either. Having a farcical female villain is not really what I would call a “big bad.”
But, hey, I don’t have the fembots and flying monkeys, so I defer to my superior.
But I will mention Cruella De Ville, if only because the hobbits have been pissing me off lately and need to be taught a lesson. (And because I think the live action version is kinda Action-y, and I can’t think of anything else right now.)
Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?
Since we’re past the point of spoilers, I’ll add that SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is all about this. (Heck, it’s pretty much right there in the title!)
“Cleopatra Jones” – a blaxploitation / martial arts flick from 1973
Also, “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold” – the sequel, from 1975
Mangetout:
She’s certainly bad, but is she really the “big bad” when Voldemort makes an actual appearance?
Paul
Bonus Points because
The Big Bad is Sigourney Weaver, Good Guy in the Alien franchise, who gets to quote her “Get away from her you bitch!” line from Aliens as the baddie
I know the OP specified not-TV movies, and Action movies, but I can’t resist mentioning Madame Sin, and ABC Movie of the Week in which Bette Davis -=- Bette Freakin’ Davis! – plays essentially a female Fu-Manchu.
In that light, consider the 1932 Mask of Fu Manchu, in which Boris Karloff plays the evil Dr. Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy plays Fah Lo See, his equally evil daughter. (racist film, with white actors in the lead roles playing oriental villains, but it’s a fragment og its age.)
One should also not ignore the many versions of H. Rider Haggard’s She, especially the 1935 version that was the only starring role for Helen Gahagan. Lots of people stole images from this film, including (by his own admission) ray Harryhausen (who oversaw the recent colorization and restoration). But also the image of the Evil Queen in Disney’s Snow White. See?:
Another novel that was adapted multiple times, especially in the silent days, with an Evil Queen in it was Pierre Benoit’s l’Atlantide/Atlántida, filmed most famously in 19032/3 with three different casts in three different languages, with Brigette Helm (heroine in Metropolis as the beautiful and cruel Antinea, and filmed in 1949 as Siren of Atlantis with Maria Montez.
Christine.
Doctor Detroit! The villain is a woman/mob boss known as “Mom” - great stuff!
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST is structured like this, since the one thing Magneto and Professor X and future-Logan and past-Hank see eye-to-eye on is that – for the good of the world – the quick-kicking criminal with her own reasons for committing cold-blooded murder has to be stopped before she can strike again.
Constantine comes close, but may have to be discounted because Swinton was portraying an androgynous character.
Speaking of flying monkeys, does The Wizard of Oz count as an action movie? I mean, given that it’s resolved by the hero dumping acid all over the villain that melts away her flesh.
Mother Russia in Kick-Ass 2. She was definitively both big and bad.
Wha . . ? Huh . . ? We’ve really had two people try to pass of Wizard of Oz as an action movie?!
Are you guys thinking of a different version than the one I am?
Can we include Aquanetta as the Gorilla Girl in 1943’s Captive Wild Woman? Or Susan Cabot as The Wasp Woman, a Roger Corman flick from 1959?
Probably not. But their posters are cool enough to search for.