Female Action Stars

You know, any Hollywood actress can kiss their leading man.
But it takes real talent to be able to kiss him, then dive through a window and take out four assassins with a 9mm...and look good doing it.
Yeah I know Hollywood is fake and these women only look as good as the stunt women that take their place when the director yells cut.
But some of these women have moved right up to take their place as action movie icons.
It's the 21st Century people, and some girls wanna have more than just fun...

Uma Thurman
It's hard to judge, but Uma may be THE female action star of the current crop of female action stars.
She's vamped it up in the ill-fated Batman and Robin as Poison Ivy, wore a black leather catsuit as Emma Peel in The Avengers, waded through tons of movie blood and gore to get to Kill Bill, made us believe a woman could fly (and throw sharks) in My Super Ex-Girlfriend and may very well return to kill...someone... in Kill Bill 3.

Halle Berry
Halle appeared with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans in The Last Boy Scout, Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal in Executive Decision, John Travolta and Hugh Jackman in Swordfish, Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day, Sharon Stone in Catwoman (::shudder::) and of course as Ororo Munroe/Storm in all three X-Men films.

Jessica Alba
Well Jessica Alba got her start as a genetically-engineered super-soldier named Max in the Fox TV show Dark Angel.
She played Sue Storm / Invisible Woman in two Fantastic Four movies. Although actually Sue just pointed at things.
Into the Blue was kind of an action flick, and she'll be starring in Robert Rodriguez's Machete (which I cannot wait for) as Sartana, an immigration customs enforcement agent.

Jennifer Garner
Like Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner started getting her action creds on the small screen, as CIA agent Sydney Bristow on the ABC TV series Alias.
Then she showed up in Daredevil and Elektra as...well... Elektra.

Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar's claim to stomping the crud outta the bad guys is of course as Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The Slayer battled the forces of evil from 1997 to 2003 on The WB.

Kate Beckinsale
The beautiful Kate Beckinsale appeared as the vampire Selene in the three Underworld films.
Well she was kinda in the third one.
Kate was also one of the best things in 2004's Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman.

Sigourney Weaver
Just on the weight of Ripley being able to hold her own against the Aliens by itself, Sigourney Weaver needs to be on this list.
She brought Ripley to life so well, that she is one of the few actresses to get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in an action film.
Did you know that she was almost Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct, and Emma Frost (The White Queen) in X-Men: The Last Stand?

Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu has been pretty active in the action genre.
Shanghai Noon, Charlie's Angels, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Cypher, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Lucky Number Slevin ( I loved that movie) and Rise: Blood Hunter.
Even her brief cameo in Chicago was violent!

Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has done more than her fair share of action flicks.
Starting out with Cyborg 2 and moving on to The Bone Collector, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Wanted and the upcoming film Salt.
And though she wont be back for the Tomb Raider reboot, she may very well show up in the Wanted sequel.

Lucy Lawless
How could Lucy Lawless not be on this list?
I mean c'mon, she was Xena: Warrior Princess from 1995 to 2001 and may have really helped kick off the modern female action star movement.
She pre-dated Buffy by two years.
Of course you have to give props to Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle) that went from farm girl to warrior in the same series.

Famke Janssen
Before Famke Janssen was kicking butt and taking names in the X-Men series as Jean Grey/Phoenix, she was the woman with (literally) killer thighs in GoldenEye as Xenia Onatopp.
She also appeared as Special Agent Rachel Wright in I Spy, but let's not talk about that.

Milla Jovovich
And next we have Milla Jovovich.
She has played Alice in both Resident Evil films (and the upcoming third film) and she starred as Violet Song jat Shariff in Ultraviolet.
VH1 has gone so far as to refer to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt" and MTV said that she was "Every Geek's Dream Girl."
By the way, Milla "walks the walk" too as she practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in addition to several other forms of martial arts.

Cameron Diaz
Although not a action film mainstay, Cameron Diaz has had enough action flicks to rate on this list.
She was Natalie Cook in Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and she was June Havens in Knight and Day opposite Tom Cruise.
And even though it was just her voice, Princess Fiona in the Shrek movies ain't no push over.
And it's said that Cameron insists on doing a lot of her own stunts.
I wonder if that was really her on the back of that Ducati in Knight and Day?
I do know that she and the other Angel's trained eight hours a day for three months to get their martial arts right for Charlie's Angels.

Rhona Mitra
She was a real -life Lara Croft at one time, and that should give her some action cred on it's own.
But the "Dirty Hot" (inside joke for Boston Legal fans) Rhona Mitra has a few action films under her gun belt.
She was Rachel Talbot in Skinwalkers, Special Agent Alourdes Galindo in Shooter, Eden Sinclair in Doomsday (I loved that movie...sorry) and the daughter of the vampire elder Viktor, Sonja in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Honorable Mention: Lee-Anne Liebenberg
Though she has only had a few films and is usually a stuntwoman, Lee-Anne Liebenberg as Viper is half of what made "Doomsday" to me.
I just wish her character had more screen time.
I would have liked to seen her be the "Big Bad" of the film.

Gina Carano
Well Philosopher suggested her and you know, from what I have seen he may very well be right.
Of course Gina Carano is an actress now via MMA, not an actress that takes mixed martial arts training.
She kicked butt first with a 7-1-0 female MMA record.
But from all reports, Gina did VERY well in the film.
Except for the few usual naysayers, most critics seemed to like the fighter turned actress in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire.
(Of course stay away from IMDb, they hate everything except "Firefly" and "Arrested Development")
So maybe Gina will rise up and become the new female action star.

Honorable Mention (Actually it should be Hall of Fame): Pam Grier
I couldn't close this out without mentioning one lady that was keeping the bad guys in line while most of these ladies were still in diapers, or not even born yet, Pam Grier.
One of the very few African American actresses to get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, Pam may have been the first big time female action star.
Most of her movies roles from 1971's Women in Cages on down have been action oriented.
Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), Friday Foster (1975), and Sheba, Baby (also 1975) were some of her most famous movies, and Quentin Tarantino thrust her back into the spotlight in his 1997 film Jackie Brown.