She's Dangerous-5 Underrated Female Action Heroines

 

When it come's to action film's and the female action hero, there have some badass women on the silver screen. Often in films they can hold their own and don't let anything get in their way. If you ask the average filmgoer about badass female action heroes, for most of them you will hear about The Bride in Kill Bill, Charlie Baltimore in Long Kiss Goodnight, Trinity in The Matrix, and of course the pioneers in Ellen Ripley from Aliens and Sarah Connor from the Terminator series. Well I'm here to share 5 underrated female characters in action movies that kicked ass and looked good doing it.

Sam

Gunpowder Milkshake is a 2021 Netflix original, that I honestly think got lost in the shuffle of being released in that weird pandemic phase, where people were trying to return to normalcy but we weren't quite there yet. And as such Netflix didn't promote it as much as they should have. Starring Karen Gilliam (Gamora in Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Sam. A young lady who has been raised to be an assassin since her mom who was also an assassin was killed in front of her as a child.

When she pivots on a job and rescues a little girl instead of doing her assignment, all hell breaks loose. Sam alongside her sisterhood of assassins show they can fight and handle heavy artillery with the best of them.

 Lorraine Broughton

If you say to someone not well versed in movies that Charlize Theron, one of the prettiest woman in the world kicked ass in a movie. You may get the really treatment? But that was the case in 2017's Atomic Blonde, a trippy 80's set action movie set before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Theron stars as Lorraine Broughton a MI6 agent tasked with recovering "The List". A document containing every agent from every covert and intelligence agency around the world, currently working in Berlin. As you can imagine many people want that list, so Lorraine puts her best foot forward and ensures that doesn't happen.

Colombiana

First, congratulations to Zoe Saldana for winning an academy award for best supporting actress. She deserves the honor and has been putting in work for years with a versatile resume. One example being the 2011 film Colombiana. Saldana stars as Cataleya a young lady who is an successful assassin, and has been plotting for revenge since she was 9 against the drug lord who killed her parents.

Once she starts down the path of taking down the drug lord and his army. She uses survival skills, smarts, stealth, and some kick ass gunplay to get the job done. 

Selene

The Underworld film series has become a cult classic, since the first films debut in 2003. However, I still don't think the film gets it's proper credit for it's world building and mythology of the constant battle between vampires and lycans (werewolves). 

Right in the middle of the action is a vampire "Death Dealer" named Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale. Being a vampire, Selene benefits from hyper reflexes to aid in fights. Besides hand to hand combat, she was skilled in multitude of weapons from ancient bow and arrows to modern machine guns. She more than held her own against armies of henchmen and the final boss of respective films in the series.

Alice

Alicia Marcus better known as Alice, has endured an awful lot across the six films in the Resident Evil film franchise. Played by Milla Jovovich in the film's, Alice does everything in her power to limit the spread of the T-virus. Which was created to cure her from a rare disease.

Fighting large swaths of not so average zombies can be exhausting. Somehow Alice got it done, whether using her fist as a weapon, her body, or some trusty weapons. She often came out on top against the competition, prepared to fight another day.

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B's Top Five Vampire Movies

Auburn leaves are falling and the air is getting crisp. Apple cider and candy apples are in abundance. Those who like pumpkin flavor are on cloud nine. It's also Halloween season which means its time for horror marathons. One staple of horror films are vampires.

In pop culture zombies are the pinnacle creatures of the horror genre. Personally I've always preferred vampires and feel the love towards vampires is severely lacking. In all mediums the mythology behind vampires is what draws me in. They have certain rules to abide by in order to survive, they can morph from human form to demonic creatures or bats in a snap. Not all vampires die the same, some explode other's simply dust away, some scream like hell as their bodies burn. All playing a role in the deep mythology of the living dead.

Since I love movies and vampires here are my top 5 vampire movies.

1. The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys on the surface is a campy tonally completely 80's film. The clothes, the hair, the music, the famous beach concert scene all a product of it's times. The film still holds up well and damnit it is a fun ride in the process. Known for it's tagline "You'll never grow old, and you'll never die, but you must feed". The film has so much to offer, Keifer Sutherland who is an underrated actor brings a ice cold cool factor to vampire lead David. Jason Patric shows talent that lead to many thinking he would be a bigger star than he is. Jami Getz  plays her torn lover role well, let's not forget 80's superstars the two Corey's Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. 

The MTV style fast camera shots and quick cuts depictly how fast the vampires seek and destroy it's still an editing marvel. The theme song "Cry Little Sister" is infectious and you will find yourself humming it randomly. The house seige at the end of the film perfectly depicts the many ways vampires go out. Vampire lore in this film includes the "head vampire" of a pack who must be killed to save any half-vampires.

The movie is legendary and  sparked two too late too little sequels in the 2000's that attempted to cash in on name value. There has been a planned TV show in development at the CW for a few years that just can't get new life. One iteration for the show included a pretty cool idea of following the core vampires through various decades . Even if the show never gets off the ground, the demand for more Lost Boys content is there and the first film is undoubtledly a classic. 

2. Blade

Before Marvel Comics as a result of the MCU became the juggernaut that it is today, they were just trying to survive and sold film rights to help stay afloat. In the process came Blade released in 1998 and starring the 1990's Black king of action films Wesley Snipes. Blade is a Dhampir a half-human  half-vampire whose lifes mission is to eradicate the bloodsuckers of the world. He finds himself in a battle with Deacon Frost (bad ass name) played by Stephen Dorff who gives a vicious villain performance. 

Blade has kick ass action scenes, and more kick ass action scenes. It also gives the vampires of it's world a deep mythology and show how sophiscated their society is. They are wealthy, they have mere mortals who wish to be vampires doing their dirty work during the day. "Pure Bloods" or born vampires are considered superior to those who were converted. They keep archives of their history and worship their own religion and blood gods. 

The sequel delves deeper into the vampire culture in this film universe. The third film introduces the original vampire Dracula but falls very flat compared to the first two. Blade is considered a comic book movie above all else, but the inclusion of vampires give its horror attributes. 

Besides the two sequels, Blade also spawned a mini anime series and a  TV show in the mid 2000s starring rapper Sticky Fingaz.  Marhershala Ali is set to bring the character back in the MCU this decade.

3. Underworld Series

This film series all six of them have all the ingredients about vampire lore I love. A full mythology of origins, powers, hierarchies and way of life. Vampires in this film series having ruling elders who take turns hibernating and awakening to lead the species in their war against the lycans (werewolves). Both sides were the result of a genetic mutation centuries ago, and have established their own communities living alongside humans. 

The films are all about the action and have bare plots, especially the first one it's nothing more than a film trying to capitalize of the Matrix's aesthics and special effects, with a Romeo + Juliet love story. All set against the backdrop of a centuries long war between mythical creatures. Despite that I'll stop what I'm doing and watch these films when they come on. 

4. Fright Night

This vampire film released in 1985, and stars Chris Sarandon of Scarface fame and William Ragsdale as  an 80's lovable loser who is obessed with old school horror films,  he suspects something's not quite right with his new neighbor. He set's out on a mission to prove that his neighbor is a vampire and responsible for the recent abductions in the area.

Fright Night is 80's comedy/horror at it's finest. William Ragsdale plays his role well, and Chris Sarandon plays creepy vampire Jerry with enough convinction he wanted to drive a stake through his heart yourself. A sequel was released a few years later, followed by a remake in 2011 starring Colin Farrell and another sequel in 2013.

5. Once Bitten

Released in 1985 and starring Jim Carrey in his first film role as high schooler Mark. Once Bitten has the typical teenage tropes of the 1980's...a teenager just wanting to get laid. Mark has been desperate to lose virginity but his longtime girlfriend won't budge. At the same time there is a vampire countess played by Lauren Hutton who must drink the blood of a virgin three different times by Halloween to stay immortal. A bit of a spin on traditional vampire lore, the film follows Mark as he starts to slowly convert while still trying to get lucky.

Once Bitten isn't gory by any means, and it's a horror comedy but isn't really laugh out loud funny. It deserves some praise for switching up the vampire mythology just a bit on how some may survive. It's one of those films you can turn on and check out from reality for a couple hours. 

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