Good Action-Girl movies?

[Jeivar]

I have something of a fascination with good female action heroines, possibly because I feel the idea is so rarely handled well. It seems that most of the time, action movies with a female lead are either plain cheap and badly made, don't feature an actress than can pull off the role, or treat us to an obnoxious, hyperaggressive bitch with the emotional development of an 8-year old as some kind of misguided feminism thing.

But which are the good ones? Are they really so rare, or have I just missed out on them? Yes, I know about the obvious ones like Aliens, The Quick and the Dead and Underworld, and the perhaps less appreciated ones like The Long Kiss Goodnight and Doomsday. But what else is there?

And I'm not necessarily looking for western films. Just GOOD films.

[Stubbed Tongue]

Strange days. Angela Basset is pretty cool in that one.
Le Femme Nikita is awesome. The remake is good as well.
You probably know about the terminator movies also.
Trinity in Matrix also.
Barbarella.
Michelle Yeoh & Zhang Ziyi in crouching tiger hidden dragon.

[hamishspence]

Does the heroine have to be the lead? In quite a lot of movies, the Action Girl is supporting cast, rather than the star, but still plays a big part.

River, in Serenity?

[Fri]

Is the bride in kill bill an obnoxious, hyperaggressive bitch with the emotional development of an 8-year old as some kind of misguided feminism thing?

[Jeivar]

Is the bride in kill bill an obnoxious, hyperaggressive bitch with the emotional development of an 8-year old as some kind of misguided feminism thing?

I wouldn't say so, since that was due to justified characterization, delivered by a good actress. The Bride actually had some depth.

[Athaniar]

To take a recent example: Neytiri, from Avatar.

Also, I feel obliged to mention that the world of television holds many good examples as well: Xena, Max Guevara (Jessica Alba!) in Dark Angel, Ziva David in NCIS, Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5, Jo Lupo in Eureka, Turanga Leela in Futurama, the original Leela in Doctor Who... The list goes on.

[Yora]

Ghost in the Shell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj-hU1xHpig)!!!

Though it's not strictly an action movie and goes into extentialist philosophy, it has a female main charcter beating the crap out of people and handling big guns. But it's definately worth it if you can handle some pretty hard sci-fi.
I'd say the closest thing to GitS out there would be Blade Runner, but with action scenes that could have been taken straight out of The Matrix (and were in fact the main inspiration for The Matrix).

There are also the Appleseed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGMNyAsVgiQ) movies which are also based on a manga by the same guy. Interesting action girl heroine, but it's really just very simple and straight stuff blowing up. Fun to watch for the action, but lacks any deeper layers.

[Avilan the Grey]

Alien / Aliens.

The Incredibles.

[snoopy13a]

Jennifer Garner in Elektra :smalltongue:

[Closet_Skeleton]

Is the bride in kill bill an obnoxious, hyperaggressive bitch with the emotional development of an 8-year old as some kind of misguided feminism thing?

I think it's more of a homage to late 70s nihilism. Admirable protagonists just weren't popular in the kind of films Tarantino likes homaging.

[Fri]

In that case, he should watch kill bill :smallbiggrin:

[Raiki]

To take a recent example: Neytiri, from Avatar.

Also, I feel obliged to mention that the world of television holds many good examples as well: Xena, Max Guevara (Jessica Alba!) in Dark Angel, Ziva David in NCIS, Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5, Jo Lupo in Eureka, Turanga Leela in Futurama, the original Leela in Doctor Who... The list goes on.

You introduce the TV show as a viable alternative, which makes me proud, but then you go on to exclude some of the best examples, which makes me sad.

Buffy: From the series of the same name.
Zoe: From Firefly
Echo: Dollhouse

Actually...you and Joss Whedon would have alot in common, he's a big fan of (and I quote) Hot Chicks Kicking Arse™ (end quote).

~R~

[Athaniar]

Both Firefly and Buffy are on my "TV series to watch" list, but they are never broadcast around here. Recorded the Buffy move some days ago, though, but it wasn't Buffy at all, it was Tremors.

[Telonius]

Sorcia, from the movie "Willow."

[Hawriel]

Taranteno's Death Proof.

It's a slasher horror/car chase movie. All of the character are female exept the killer who is Kurt Russell. The second half of the movie turns into a real bad ass car chase. Two of the characters in the second half are stunt woman. Zoe Bell who basicly plays herself is a real stunt woman. She was Luci Lawless's stunt double for Xena, and Uma Thurman's double in Kill Bill.

Doomsday.

Its a brittish movie about a plague that hits Scottland. Scottland and part of northern England are walled off. Thats the setting. The plot is are Heroin is a bad ass spec forces operative that must go get the widget in scottland. The guys who made the movie come right out and say they loved the madmax movies so the style is similar.

[Finn Solomon]

Serenity and maybe Resident Evil.

[Vulkarius]

Akira. Kei kicks some telakenetic butt. If you liked the movie then you should definetly get the books she has a larger role in them.

[Iku Rex]

TS has probably seen this already, but it's still a good place to start.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActionGirl

[Amiel]

Charlie's Angels?

[JediSoth]

If you're going to include TV series, you may as well mention both Bubblegum Crisis anime series (Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040). Both feature teams of woman in powered armor kicking butt.

[thompur]

If you include TV series: Alias, starring Jennifer Garner.
And, of course, the greatest, coolest, and hottest a** kicker of them all; Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel on the seminal 60's TV series,
The Avengers.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Firefly, and then Serenity.

[faceroll]

The chick with the machine gun leg in Planet Terror.

[khoregate]

Tank Girl!!

[Mauther]

Angelina Jolie has a new movie this fall called "Salt" about a female CIA agent. She got the role after Tom Cruise passsed because the character was too similar to his character from Mission Impossible. Sticking with Jolie, you can take her Mrs Smith from the movie "Mr and Mrs Smith" Stay away from Tomb Raider.

[Mewtarthio]

Both Firefly and Buffy are on my "TV series to watch" list, but they are never broadcast around here. Recorded the Buffy move some days ago, though, but it wasn't Buffy at all, it was Tremors.

Protip: Don't record the Buffy movie. Joss Whedon created the series explicitly so that it would overwrite the memories of that movie in the public's mind.

[tonberryking]

...Tank Girl was not a good movie. The character was more so highly annoying and ...eh. It just wasn't really good as most of it was just a high pitched girl trying to get you (the audience) to laugh at her shenanigans, screaming for attention and in typical 90s fashion the characters were just either outright stupid or annoying as hell and we're meant to laugh at that.


Try Ichi. It's a recent film based off the Zatoichi samurai/chanbarra films, which were about a blind swordsman, all but one of the 20 something films starred the same guy. Ichi, on the other hand, portrays a female character as the blind blade swinger and it's very very good. She's not...as amicable as Zatoichi behaved, in fact she's usually more frigid but she portrays herself with different fronts. A cold warrior, a gifted musician, even something of an elder sister type and you don't get the feeling that any of these are simply facades; they're just different sides to her.

On the same side of the ocen, only in anime form there are a ton of things to choose from but the Slayers TV series (and oavs) are excellent material, though Lina Inverse is more of a sorceress, they don't skimp on action. Iria: Zeiram the Animation is another good one but it's something of a meatloaf, taking elements of Aliens, Predator, even the Venom Symbiote, and rolling them all into one.

However the grand-mama of them all would be the Project A-Ko series and the Project A-ko Battles. It's a series that's... well the original 4 movies are kinda short on plot but, especially the first, makes up for that with some of the most over the top balls to the wall crazy action that's all really well animated. The Battles OAVs are more scifi in nature and could be considered a shark jumper, but it was the last thing done with the characters. Only the first one really has any T&A (thank you 80s anime) but it doesn't get in the way of enjoying it.

[Excession]

Charlize Theron, plus the supporting Action Girls, in the Æon Flux (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402022/) movie.

Kate Beckinsale in Underworld (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320691/).

Spirited Away (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/), even if Chihiro isn't exactly an Action Girl.

[Seonor]

Seirei no Moribito. Balsa is awesome. That is all.

[Frozen_Feet]

Have Princess Monoke and Nausica of the Valley of the Wind been noted yet?

[Raiki]

Well, if we're expanding this into anime as well, I might as well toss in Ikki Tousen and Tenjho Tenge. Both have gratuitous amounts of action-girl...and also gratuitous amounts of fan service.

~R~

[pita]

Painkiller Jane (It's a movie and a TV show, and I've only seen little bits of both), maybe.
Dollhouse starts off as typical Action Girl fare but gets better. And Eliza Dushku is Eliza Dushku, after all.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has both Sarah Connor and Cameron as awesome Action Girls.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith has Angelina Jolie as a much more competent assassin than her husband, played by Brad Pitt.

[Meshakhad]

Pretty much anything by Joss Whedon. Man loves his action girls. I think he's building an army of them to take over the world.

[Platinum_Mongoose]

Actually...you and Joss Whedon would have alot in common, he's a big fan of (and I quote) Hot Chicks Kicking Arse™ (end quote).

~R~

HCKA? Y'know, rearrange those letters and what do you get? HACK! Bazinga!

No but seriously, I love Joss Whedon with... probably about a solid 70% of my available fan-ness.

I disagree with whoever it was above me who said to stay away from Tomb Raider. Also, there's a very obscure Chinese film called Peking Opera Blues, directed by Tsui Hark, that is... very strange. Hard to describe, but it boils down to being a fairly wacky, almost absurd action-comedy with three of its five heroes being women.

[Athaniar]

I disagree with whoever it was above me who said to stay away from Tomb Raider.
Me too, I liked both of them. But then again, I haven't played the games, so I don't really have anything to compare the portrayal with.

[Mauther]

Me too, I liked both of them. But then again, I haven't played the games, so I don't really have anything to compare the portrayal with.

I wasn't refering or referencing the games. My understanding is they were reasonably faithful to the spirit of the games. I just didn't like the movies, too much flash I found them kind of silly. But of course that's purely my personal opinion, and from what I remember they gross'd decently so clearely some people enjoyed them. If you watched them and enjoyed them, more power to you. Any time I see an action movie and am not completly disappointed I chalk it up as a win.

[Krade]

Someone mentioned Appleseed (and the second one) and that reminded me of another Japanese 3D animated movie called Vexille. I can't go into the details of the movie since that would be giving out lot's of spoilers that are supposed to be a shock.

The basic premise is it's the future (like always) and there was a point when the nations of the world determined that they had gone far enough into the realm of robotics and it was time to slow down. Japan did not agree. The country severed it's ties to the UN, sealed it's own borders, and scrambles all forms of electronic imagining. Vexille (main heroine) and the others of her team are sent to finally figure out what's going on after a couple of strange confrontations related to Japan. They find some pretty distressing stuff.

[Surrealistik]

Tank girl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A8ApxnGc_U).