In this thread about actors who are typecasted, I mention two of my favorite movies; Aliens and The Long Kiss Goodnight. I like these movies because women kick serious butt in them.
I don’t mean Silkwood kinda I’ll-show-you-before-I-die whimpy stuff. I mean the step-aside-Ahnuld-before-you-get-hurt, bad-ass ninja, I ain’t PMSing I’m always like this, superhero girl stuff.
Does anybody remember Lady Kung-Fu? She was so bad she could take you out with her ponytail holder.
There aren’t too many movies like this. Run, Lola, Run would make it if Lola was more Powerpuff girl and less Alanis Morrisette. Barb Wire? Maybe, I haven’t seen it because Big Fake now-you-see-um, now you don’t Boobie woman gets on my nerves. Is she really that stupid or does she just act that way?
Well folks, do you know of any movies I can add to my Women Kick Butt list?
It’s not a movie, but Aeryn Sun in the sci-fi series Farscape kicks alien butt all over the set. Gorgeous, too, and Claudia Black is the best actor on the show.
Unfortunately :(, she seems to have died in the season finale, but her body was frozen, so she may come back. One can hope, anyway.
Tank Girl? She’s a harmless lil fruit fly! (Lori Petty, btw)
Let’s see, I’d go with Linda Hamilton. How about Maryl Streep in The River Wild! A departure role for her, but I thought her toughness was credible, if nothing else…
Or how about Pam Grier? Foxy Brown, Coffey, and, of course Jackie Brown…
Sigourney Weaver is hard to beat. Whether it’s “The Year of Living Dangerously” or “Aliens”, she always does a respectable job. (We’ll ignore “Alien Resurrection”)
Lauren Bacall and Kate Hepburn were queens of their time. Barbara Stanwyck deserves mention too.
Yeah, Bacall, Hepburn, and Stanwyck… Them was some brassy dames, I tell ya. You can add Ida Lupino to that, too, or even Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward…
Michelle Yeoh (aka Michelle Khan) in Supercop kicks all sorts of ass. Though technically she’s like “WITH” Jackie Chan, so she’s not really the “star” (though as far as I’m concerned they both are), but she’s the star in Supercop 2 (only on video, go hunt for it…It says Jackie Chan all over it but he’s only in it for a 2 minute cameo dressed up as an old woman, heh…it’s a good movie though).
Off the top of my head I can’t think of any others, though I know I’ve seen some. It’s been a while since I’ve gone through my video collection (which is basically all martial arts films anyway), heh…
Hepburn is strong, but genteel. I could never imagine her taking anyone out with her ponytail holder. Davis, on the other hand, would probably choke you with her ponytail if she had to.
Tank Girl was all right, but I think someone should tell Lori Petty that mixing caffeine and helium has got to be bad for you.
Yeah, Trinity kicked butt, but Keanu was “the one.” She didn’t get to fly around or de-res a single bad guy.
She’s foxy and she’s brown. Can’t beat that combination.
Rachel not only kicked butt, but she’s got that great last name. Go ahead. Say it a few times out loud and tell me you don’t start hearing Tito Puente playing in your head.
Milla Jovovich (too many Vs? not enough?) kicked much ass in both The Fifth Element and The Messenger. TFE was a more enjoyable film, IMO. (And, no, it’s not just because she was naked, or wearing nothing but latex straps for extended periods of time.)
Tsugumo: How about Cynthia Rothrock? She starred with Michelle Yeoh in Yes Madam and a half-dozen other flicks before coming to the U.S. and diving straight into the direct-to-video market.
I thought Geena Davis was fairly credible in Long Kiss Goodnight.
dantheman: Pam Grier rules. Good call.
And nobody’s yet brought up Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger? She’s gonna be a villain in Rush Hour 2.
Zhang Ziyi, if marketed right, could take on Michelle Yeoh for Queen of the Action film. She was great in Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon, and may get an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress.
I didn’t realize Cynthia Rothrock wasn’t from the U.S. - or that she was in a foreign market first. I know she’s done countless direct-to-video films, though… Where is she from?
Thanks to Dan for mentioning some of MY role models . . . I may now go further back in time and bring up Pearl White, the first action heroine.
I have “The Perils of Pauline” (1914) on tape, and it’s not “helpless girl tied to railroad tracks” at all. It’s about an independent woman who doesn’t want to get married, but goes out and has adventures (while a villain tries to do her in for her money). Half the time, Pauline winds up rescuing her boyfriend, rather than vice versa!
Cynthia Rothrock was the first name that popped into my head when I saw this thread. I’d also have to give a nod to Bridget Fonda for “Point of No Return”.
dantheman: Rothrock is an American, born somewhere on the East Coast (Rhode Island? don’t remember). She was a champion kickboxer for several years, which brought her to the attention of Hong Kong producers. They invited her to HK for the first Yes, Madam film, co-starring Yeoh, in (I believe) 1985.
After a string of HK movies (including what I think is her best Chinese production, Righting Wrongs, co-starring the amazing Yuen Biao), she was brought back to the U.S. in 1990 or 1991 for her first strictly American production, China O’Brien, under the direction of Robert Clouse – yes, he whose name appears on both Enter the Dragon (even though Bruce Lee was the creative force) and the first attempt at a Jackie Chan breakthrough, The Big Brawl.
Ever since then, she’s gone back and forth. She does most of her work here in the States (often in collaboration with that Jalal Merhi guy), while occasionally showing up in a guest-star capacity in HK films, though as I remember it’s been a while since the last one.
