YouTube, MySpace and their cousins have made it all the easier for action heroine fans to get their entertainment fix. Each month, we pick one clip to feature: this is the archives of the previous nominees.

December 2010

The LA Times once called Zayra, "An aspiring rock goddess…who prances around in cosmic blue cat suits like she’s Ziggy Stardust’s long lost Caribbean cousin." Here, she gets her Kill Bill on, with a trailer-park battle. I look forward to the feature-length version. :-)

November 2010

More of a Gallery of the Month this time than a video, but I think you'll still find it worth your while, even if it doesn't move. Over in LA, cabaret group Devil's Playground had its monthly show, this time themed as a "Ladies of Sci-Fi Burlesque". This included performances by Pris from Blade Runner, Ripley, Maria from Metropolis, Aeon Flux, Barbarella and Metroid's Samus Aran (below). Sounds like a great time, except for an unfortunate incident where Pris snapped a member of the audience's neck with her thighs. Ok, I made that up. Click on the pic for the full LA Weekly gallery of the event. The same group also did a Video Game Girls Burlesque. Hmmm, how far is it from Phoenix to LA again?

October 2010

Zack Snyder is certainly among the most creative of directors, whose work we have enjoyed since we first saw it in the Dawn of the Dead remake. He followed that up with 300 and Watchmen, carving a niche for himself with incredibly-stylish (and stylized) action films. Now, he's working on a Girls With Guns movie, Sucker Punch, which he has described as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns." Set in the 1950's, it's about a young girl (Emily Browning) and her female friends, who need to escape a lunatic asylum before they are lobotomized. Here's the trailer (that it uses Lords of Acid as the music is simply a bonus); it's due out in March.

August 2010

Two for the price of one! First off, we have the ScreenTeamShow.com video spoofing California Girls by Katy Perry - the new version is called Comic Con Girls. It feels a little like something The Guild might have done, and that's a pretty high compliment around these parts. Then, since it'll likely be out by (and reviewed in!) the next update, the redband trailer for Resident Evil: Afterlife. It's in 3D which means Chris won't able to watch it without throwing up. So looks like it'll be me and our son for that one. :-)

June 2010

Michelle Yeoh is back! Hurrah! She would certainly be one of the inaugural members of the Girls With Guns Hall of Fame [opening soo...er, eventually], and so it's great to see the star of Yes, Madam! and Crouching Tiger back in the action heroine genre. And she doesn't seem to be slowing down, even as she approached her fiftieth birthday. This is Reign of Assassins, the film co-directed by John Woo, which is due for release in the fall.

April 2010

The trailer for Samurai Princess, scheduled for release on DVD, May 25th. I got a Barnes & Noble gift-card for my birthday. I think I know what it might be used for...

March 2010

I have become aware of an odd Japanese sub-culture of sexy action heroines, which might be best described as Power Rangers for mature viewers. While it seems they contain rather too much bondage and torture for me to be entirely happy with them, they are certainly within the remit of the site. Here's a sample clip from Gravure Heroine Gaia Ranger, produced by Zen Pictures, who appear to be the market leaders in such things. Some of them appear to have received distribution in the West, so might follow up there. Obviously, this is the kind of thing where you need subtitles, to follow what's going on...

February 2010

Luc Besson has always been one of the directors most intimately connected to action heroines: most obviously in Nikita, The Messenger, and Angel-A, but his other works, such as Leon and The Fifth Element also contain GwG elements. He has been largely absent from the director's chair of late, except for his trilogy of kid-flicks based on the Arthur books, but returns to the field in April with Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec, which translates as The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (if you hadn't worked that out). Based on a series of comics, it follows the heroine through her exploits at the turn of the century, which appear to involve... Well, here's the official synopsis:

The year is 1912. Adèle Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, even sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, in Paris, it's panic stations! A 136 million-year-old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies. But nothing fazes Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises... Set in the carefree world before World War I, Adèle Blanc-Sec's adventures see the brave young woman fearlessly battling crooks, corrupt politicians, demon worshippers and mad scientists.

Given Besson's skill with action (I just watched Leon again this afternoon, and it remains one of my all-time favourites), I'm fairly hopeful for this one. A poster and the teaser trailer are below: it opens in Europe in April.

January 2010

This month's offering certainly falls into the category of "stumbled upon." I started off looking on YouTube for the Resident Evil 4 trailer, and somehow drifted from there to Babes With Blades. There appear actually to be two troupes by that name: one from Britain, under Cecilia Fay, and the other out of Chicago - the latter appears to be more theatrically-based, with the last production listed being an all-female version of Macbeth. The UK version is more...well, see the video below. They appeared on Britain's Got Talent - yes, the show that gave the world Susan Boyle - and even Simon was impressed. Rule Britannia!

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