The first Machete could best be described as gleefully over-the-top; its upcoming sequel, Machete Kills, looks like it’s going to go so far over the top that the top will look like nothing but a dot. This wild-ass flick’s wild-ass cast includes Danny Trejo reprising his role as Machete, Amber Heard, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, and Lady Freakin’ Gaga. You can bet your butt that my butt’ll be among the first in line to see this grindhouse-inspired action bedlam. Machete Kills hacks its way into theaters October 11, 2013
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
Blood on the Canvas, son! This new series of articles will focus on some of the best combat sport fights in film/TV history. I’m not talking about back alley brawls, I mean those tournament-of-blood smackdowns that get your heart pumping and leave you speechless due to the sheer awesomeness of it all. This week’s fight comes from Ip Man, featuring Ip Man (Donnie Yen) throw down against ten black belt fighters. If you haven’t seen this flick yet, just watch the fight and you’ll want to get it immediately.
I could watch that fight all day long. Has there been another tournament style match that pits one vs. ten? The fact that Ip Man completely obliterates the guys without even breathing hard earns him a golden chicken from this Action Chick.
If you’ve got any favorite TV/movie combat sport moments, please let me know and I’ll try to feature it!
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
According to the Grudge Match trailer, “A great performer knows when to get off the stage.” Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro both agree that it’s not that time for them, because they’re still working like crazy, squeezing in every film they can. Next on their agenda is the boxing comedy, Grudge Match, in which the two of them play rival boxers who come out of retirement to have one last fisticuffs match. The film looks like it’ll make a lot of old man jokes and call backs to their previous works, so it could be some cheesy fun for the fans and act as a Christmas present when it comes out on December 25, 2013.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
The White Queen debuted August 9th in the US on Starz. Immediately, as a garment-centric kind of girl, I was wowed by the extravagant apparel the show exhibits. For a cosplayer like me, it’s a dream come true to have such a wide array of ideas and inspirations for future costumes . I couldn’t help but draw parallels between this sweeping historical drama and others that have dominated our imaginations, Showtime’s The Tudors and HBO’s Game of Thrones. While all three are atmospheric and majestic, the approaches taken in their costuming are actually quite different despite drawing inspiration from the same slice of history.
The White Queen
I have to admit, historical accuracy doesn’t mean much to me when watching TV shows. The White Queen’s writer, Emma Frost, says all of the looks are period-accurate, straight out of the Iron Age, and I believe her. But, as they have done with many period dramas, some critics have taken to the Twittersphere to challenge the accuracy. There’s been a lot of talk about zippers recently, saying how they can’t possibly be period-accurate when they are undone so quickly during the love scenes. But the show creators maintain that they made sure that the methods were true to the period of the 15th century, down to the eyes and hooks, and the quick removal of clothing is all due to editing.
What I’m more interested in is that every gown is hand-made and exquisitely fitted. The costumes support a surprisingly soothing 15th century backdrop, with gorgeous pastels and striking blues and golds. Against actress Rebecca Ferguson’s flawless pale skin and cunning blue eyes, the rich textures pop and frame the historical drama in lush fabrics. Costume designer Nic Ede recalls elegant simplicity for many of his creations, but increases the complexity (oh-my-goodness brocade!) for Elizabeth’s clothing as queen. I, personally, would like to see a hennin or two (the pointy princess hats with the veils attached). I know that if anyone can make them stylish again, it’s the The White Queen team.
The Tudors
The Tudors, taking place a mere half-century after the ongoings of The White Queen, utilizes many of the same silhouettes and fabrics. The general color scheme of the show is much warmer than that of The White Queen– and the bodices are tighter. Joan Bergin, costume designer of the show, indicated a fondness for delicate adornments on the necks and in the hair of the string of lovers and wives Henry VIII woos. This emphasized the beauty of the romanticized court of Henry VIII, the silks and textures as intricate as the politics on the screen.
Game of Thrones
Because of its purely fictional source, Game of Thrones is liberated from any concerns of historical accuracy facing The White Queen or The Tudors. As such, ithas freedom to play with outlandish ornaments and designs. Whimsical embellishments abound. Designer Michelle Carragher is credited with the extraordinarily detailed embroidery on characters, depicting in lavish detail the animal guardians of each house. An inventive mix between medieval gowns and Eastern wraps, each costume reflects the distinct culture it hails from in the invented world.
George R. R. Martin’s spectacular tale, on which the show is based, was inspired by the Wars of the Roses that directly precede the events of The White Queen. But the differences in the clothing choices are staggering. Compared to the elaborate designs donned by Cercei and Sansa in Game of Thrones, Elizabeth of The White Queen has refreshingly simple and soothing wardrobe choices. Compared to The White Queen, the rougher materials of the show harken to coarser medieval inspirations and also the classical fantasy elements Martin wove into the story.
The unifying thing between these shows? A blessed lack of codpieces (they just didn’t cycle back into fashion the same way floral patterns did, you know?) Also unifying them is an attention to detail and a feeling of sumptuousness that must have been challenging and enjoyable for the costumers to play with. The extraordinary pieces worn by each cast member draws us into these worlds of beauty and politics. While The Tudors concluded years ago, you can see its influence in current period pieces. As for the future, I look forward to seeing what new creations Ede and Carragher have in store for us. Be sure to tune in to The White Queen through October to see more of Ede’s work.
Marie Sumner is a costume consultant and cosplayer. Her passions include Renaissance fairs and comic conventions, both of which she has attended in full costume.
The Family comes out in theaters this Friday, September 13, and it stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones. The story centers around Giovanni Manzoni, a mafia boss who has a falling out in the business, and when you fall out with the mafia, you don’t just walk away and live happily ever after. So, he and his family get relocated under the witness protection program.
What piques my interested about The Family is that Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron’s characters are portrayed as tough women… or at least the trailer paints them that way. It looks like they will not be damsels in distress, but forces to be reckoned with, which is a refreshing take on mafia/gangster films. There are few tough women portrayed in this genre so I asked Twitter about which female characters really made an impression on them in the genre. Here are the few badass characters I could think of: Janine “Smurf” Cody (Jacki Weaver) in Animal Kingdom, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) in Pulp Fiction, Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) in Goodfellas, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer) in Scarface, and Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco) in The Sopranos.
Twitter Answers:
@MattStone12: Angelica Huston in Prizzis Honor.
@emhig: Salma Hayek in Savages.
@ocularnervosa: Big Bad Mama
@PeterGatt: Married to the Mob, Shelley Winters Bloody Mama
@Hokuboku: Mama from Dredd pops into mind. Most others I think of (which aren’t many) are more gangsters like Bonnie from Bonnie & Clyde
@Unoshato: Lucy Liu in kill bill is a badass
@jakebozek: not a mobster but Salma Hayek in Savages.
@K_McChristian: Mama Fratelli- Goonies.
@eVil_sQuirrelus: not sure if she counts but Madonna in Dick Tracy?
@ed_space: does Sin City count? Plenty of tough organised crime women there – or kill bill, female assassins..?
@earthtostephen: Off the top of my head “Ma-ma” from the movie Dredd was a drug-lord/gangster leader. Also Lucy Liu’s character from Kill Bill.
@pablo100: O-Ren Ishi in Kill Bill?
@TheMarkASimmons: O’Ren Ishii.
@Burns909: Not a film but still have nightmares about the mother from Sleeping Dogs
@_Jackalope_: O-Ren from Kill Bill, who by far was the best character in that film.
@Mistress_Reedus: Bonnie from Bonnie and Clyde!
@NerdAppropriate: Mama Fratelli from the Goonies!
@TigersMS78: jacki weaver – animal kingdom, Rosario Dawson in Sin City.
@wyrddrgn: Does Violet, from Bound, count? Mobster’s g/f who turns against him, takes the money and runs?
@damianjh: I only know Michelle Pfieffer in that one where she yell “I wanna divorce!”
@misterx313: in film not so much, on tv u have georgia rae mahoney from #Homicide
@ddogfilm: Bonnie Parker and Mia Wallace first come to mind
@notmikestark: Does Bonnie from “Bonnie and Clyde” count? That’s the only one remotely close that I could think of.
@NickSilly: I mean you could say Tony Soprano’s wife and Pacino’s wife in GF and what’s his name’s wife in Goodfellas
@DouglasCP: the Ladies of the Night in Sin City
@AzwarRico: Mama in 2012 Dredd
@steo76: Geena Rowlands in Gloria?!
@Shadowbat: Only one. Bonnie
@Daneresti20: Keira Knightley on Domino
@BrowncoatAnge: lucy liu’s character in Kill Bill.
@darklordoftheIT: the wife of Jimmy the Gent in Goodfellas was a bad ass bitch…not sure if she qualifies
@Tweek_Robles: Did you see Savages? All I can say is Salma Hayek…Damn 🙂
@SAssassian: Connie Corleone Godfather 3 not the best of the triology
@JakeChatty: There are female mobsters in Bloody Mama, The Goonies, Ma Barkers Killer Brood, Big Bad Mama, Cleopatra Jones, Savages, Traffic
@Ryeguy695: Big Bad Mama with Angie Dickenson
@oshidori: Mercedes Ruehl’s character in Married to the Mob and Ornella Muti’s in Oscar (though they are both comedies), Tommy Cotter (Pam Ferris) from Death to Smoochy!!
@boatloadsbaley: From the looks of it, Michelle Pfeiffer and the daughter in The Family. Have to wait and see for that.
@brandonjcarr: Mama Fratelli from Goonies.
@JohnHenderson73: Griselda Blanco in Cocaine Cowboys. It’s a doc but wholly hell does she put every fictional mob boss to shame.
@wyldride: Livia Saint from Punisher might qualify, depending on your point of view.
@mr_popcorn: O-Ren Ishii. Kristin Scott Thomas in Only God Forgives, most recently.
@tom0557: As for organized crime badass women, why not O-Ren from “Kill Bill”?
@jordan_is_ok: Lucy Liu in Kill Bill.
@mattsouthworth: Kristin Scott Thomas in ONLY GOD FORGIVES is chilling. Scary as hell.
@CooperChristina: basically no. @josswhedon shall we change that?
@Ms_Melee: Connie Corleone in Godfather 3 (only redeeming part of that movie).
@hennemong: Connie Corleone if you count the Godfather III as a mob movie.
@AndyAlvarez: I’d say Laura Linney in Mystic River. She had the whole Lady MacBeth thing going on.
@btsmgl: Would “Set It Off” count? Or Mamma Fratelli from “Goonies”?
@kpierce624: I have to go with the crowd saying Bonnie.
@occarter120: little miss sunshine!
@kennhoekstra: Bonnie and Clyde?
@mangetout: Sonia Braga in the Rookie?
@Jtwofresh: boss tanaka in the 1989 Punisher movie. O-ren Ishii from kill bill.
@unamatrxj: Check out the show Orange is the new Black. The chick that runs the kitchen is Russian Mafia
@IBM3081D: Anjelica Houston in “Prizzi’s Honour”
@CrimespreeJon: Helen Mirren in Red?
@cornellartworks: It’s TV as opposed to film, but I remember they had a woman mob boss in Caprica.
@C_Forrest: Momma in “Throw Momma From The Train”. She’s badass.
@BarkMarley: not quite film, but Margo Martindale’s “Mags” character in S2 of JUSTIFIED is very badass.
@badwebsites: that’s a good question. i can’t think of any. except for Shelly Winters as Bloody Mama
@pissedOgeek: Bonnie
@NocturneTomDeja: Shelly Winters in BLOODY MAMA?
@LGwenn: Ma-ma from Dredd?
@rage_A ……… Dredd? 😀 (also: MA FRATELLI)
@WilliamBibbiani: Gloria.
@Kazumone: cat halbery woman
@Mathieas: Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde
Thanks for the answers! Who would you say are badass mafia women?
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has read my reviews that I’m not a huge artsy-fartsy movie fan. I can appreciate the hard work that goes into creating a very stylized film, and do, on occasion, watch a film for the beautiful imagery. But, like a trip to the dentist, I need to know what I’m getting into before watching an artsy-fartsy movie, and I wasn’t prepared for The Grandmaster. Having the right kind of expectations for The Grandmaster can make the difference between loving it and feeling very unsatisfied.
At first glance, Kar Wai Wong’s The Grandmaster tells the story of the legendary Ip Man, grandmaster of Wing Chun. After getting further into the film, you’ll come to realize the film is actually telling the story of kung fu as a whole, using Ip Man (Tony Leung) and Gong Er (Ziyi Zhang) as pieces of the puzzle. Ip Man begins and ends the film as the main character, but the middle of the film shifts to tell the story of Gong Er, the daughter of Northern China’s martial arts master, Gong Yutian.
The fight scenes are skillfully choreographed and look both effortless and difficult. They are also surprisingly non-violent, as most of the martial arts matches are exhibitions to teach Ip Man about the different styles of kung fu. These gentle, non-stakes fights are a nice display of skill, but don’t incite any emotions. A few all out showdowns do occur and are fantastic, with beautiful, stylized scenery enhancing the overall drama. For example, the opening fight sequence takes place in the rain. While one can gloat about how beautiful the slow motion rain drops and splashes of water around the martial artists are, it makes it difficult to see the actual fight- which is what I’m looking for in a martial arts flick.
The rest of the film follows in the same style, with frequent use of slow motion to emphasize the imagery. It’s all very well done and beautiful…a.k.a artsy fartsy and not what I was expecting. The U.S. version runs about 20 minutes shorter than the original, which may be why the story gets a little confusing here and there, so pay close attention and it’ll all be okay.
The Grandmaster is a beautiful, well-crafted film that showcases many different types of martial arts. Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang did a wonderful job, as did writer/director Kar Wai Wong, in bringing the story to life. If you like action movies with a bit of artistic flair and gentle violence, The Grandmaster is for you.
Action Rating: 2 1/2 Artsy Farts, out of 5!
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
Vin Diesel reprises his role as the anti-hero nobody can seem to catch in Riddick. After a very brief reminder of what happened at the end of the last film, The Chronicles of Riddick, the audience is given a puny excuse for Riddick’s exit from the Necromonger’s society and he finds himself stranded on an unfamiliar planet. The whole film’s focus revolves around him being chased by eleven bounty hunters and escaping the planet, leaving the entire exercise feeling like an unrelated, unimportant side excursion from the real Chronicles of Riddick.
While the first chunk of movie is a dull sequence of Riddick wandering the desert (for nearly half an hour!) once the bounty hunters arrive in the second act, things pick up. The finale features an all out brawl with some solid fight choreography and plenty of snappy one-liners from Riddick, but for the most part the film’s pretty sparing with its action.
Riddick swings like a pendulum back and forth from being interesting to aimless, and averages out as being kind of… average. Diesel plays a great anti-hero, and the love he has for the character shines through, keeping him entertaining to watch. There’s only one girl character in the entire movie (played by Katee Sackhoff), and her shift from the badass bounty hunter she’s introduced as to the flirty kitten she is at the end of the film is irritating and senseless. This isn’t the worst film out in theaters right now, but there are better options. Riddick will still be mediocre on blu-ray.
Action Rating: 2 Shiny-Eyed Furyans, out of 5.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
Movie-wise, Keanu Reeves has been pretty quiet the past few years… until now. He’s not only the lead in 47 Ronin, but he’s also starring in Man of Tai Chi. This martial arts flick, co-starring relative newcomer Tiger Chen, will mark Reeves’ directorial debut; in it a man of Tai Chi (Chen) finds himself being sought after as a competitor for an underground fight club. As with all fight clubs, we will not be talking about this fight club. Threadbare plot aside, it looks like Man of Tai Chi will have some awesome beatdowns and stunt choreography, which has me super excited. It will be available on demand September 27 and out in theaters November 1, 2013.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
