Female-Fronted Action Movies
With Charlize Theron kicking ass in Atomic Blonde, we’ve got another movie where a heroine dominates the silver screen. There are plenty of films nowadays where a female action star takes charge – and ends up making a lot of money at the box office at the same time. For when you’re planning your next movie marathon, here are the female-fronted action movies you’re going to want to add to your list.
The Hunger Games
It’s the movie that put Jennifer Lawrence into the pop culture mainstream and gave us tons of quotable lines. If you don’t want to volunteer as tribute by the end of the first movie, the second, third or fourth might change your mind. They’re not a perfect film series, but they’re great to binge on a rainy Sunday.
Alien
A sci-fi classic that gifted us with Sigourney Weaver. Every geek should have this movie in their collection, regardless of how they feel about the rest of the franchise. It’s the movie that set the stage for all other female-fronted action movies that came after it, and it gave us one of the best movie monsters of all time. (If you’re not afraid of a xenomorph jumping out of your rib cage, you need to re-watch the movie.)
Lucy
Scarlett Johannsson is the world’s top grossing movie star – among both male and female actors. Lucy proved that she could lead an original movie (that wasn’t linked to an already existing comic book property) and reiterated that she kicks ass. This is a really fun movie to watch with friends, and the crazy plot makes for a good drinking game as well.
Kill Bill
Yes, there’s two movies that make up the Kill Bill franchise, but for good old kung fu fighting, you’ll want to stick with Volume One. It’s the movie that will convince you of Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking talents, and I promise you that you’ll never look at a samurai sword the same way again.
Salt
What is it with action movies with one-word titles? This spy thriller, led by Angelina Jolie, is a thrill ride the whole way through. The film’s origin story – that it was originally written with a male lead instead of a female one – is no secret, and being aware of that when sitting down to watch Jolie perform some killer stunts makes the film so much more enjoyable to watch.
Miss Congeniality
This might seem like a strange pick for this list, but every good action movie is balanced out with a bit of humor. Sandra Bullock is perfectly relatable to viewers everywhere (thanks to her characters’ geeky tendencies and down-to-earth style). It helps to know that there are women out there who can get the bad guy at the end of the day while also eating a large pizza.
