Tribute to the bad girls

Anna Paquin

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001593/

When Blade came out and proved that a superhero movie not named Batman or Superman could make money, it opened the floodgates of the movie industry to want to try to secure properties that they could adapt into money making films. One of the more interesting things that occurred out of this was that the studios have done a great job of getting real talent to fill the roles of the characters. Everyone has done a dream casting where you cast movie stars as your favorite characters but it never really seemed possible. Why would real actors do these fantasy films?

When you look at the casting of the X-Men, the big pickups are the acquisition of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. They give the films a certain amount of gravitas by signing on. Perhaps though, a pickup that was deliberately down-played was Anna Paquin. She was an Oscar-winning actress for her role in “The Piano”. I always thought it was odd that the pre-marketing blitz didn’t play her up more but I think they were holding it back in order to hide how important she would be to the plot. (It also could be because pointing out acting talent necessarily doesn’t get people to go see action movies.) Unfortunately for her and Rogue, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine ended up being the huge thing coming out the movie and the next two films primarily focus on him to the detriment of everyone else in the film. And then X-Men 3 killed the franchise and Wolverine has gone off to star in his own films.

Anna has gone on to become a huge TV star though with the success of “True Blood” which is capitalizing on the current vampire craze. Although I don’t watch the show, it’s good to see her having success.

Movies I've watched her in: Fly Away Home; She's All That; X-Men 1-3; Joan of Arc; Trick 'r Treat

Saturday morning cartoons - Daphne Blake

If there is one consistent for the past 40 years, it’s that you can turn on TV and find a Scooby-Doo show somewhere. For a show that has the same plot episode after episode, it has a huge appeal and show-biz legs. As great as Scooby and Shaggy were, I always remember thinking that the show didn’t focus enough on Daphne. Scooby and Shaggy got into trouble, ate and ran away from monsters. Fred and Velma solved the case. Daphne was the fanservice character. She seemed like a girl who would have been a cheerleader in high school. She was dressed in purple and pink while Velma was dressed in an unattractive orange. And she taught us all how sexy nylons could be. I can’t really remember any other cartoon character who wore nylons other than her. (They probably were. I just don’t remember.)
Her portrayal wasn’t always the best though as she was constantly getting captured or falling into a trap. They even called her “Danger-Prone” Daphne on the show. Later on the one the shows, Fred and Velma left and Daphne solved the cases.

Christina Applegate

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000775/

One of the mainstays of the 90’s was “Married with Children”. It was a classic deconstruction of the TV of the 40’s and 50’s with its perfect families. The dysfunctional family provided for us the perfect representation of the ‘dumb blonde’ though. Kelly Bundy was ahead of her time for TV since today’s landscape is full of dumb attention-seeking characters but those are reality-TV stars just being themselves.
There is something of a tragedy with Christina Applegate in that she suffered from breast cancer and has had a double mastectomy. For a woman whose body was such a focus for so many years playing the ‘Ms. Fanservice’ character on “Married with Children”, it just seems like bitter irony.

Movies I've watched her in: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead; Mars Attacks!; Married with Children; Hall Pass

Amy Adams

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010736/

Amy Adams started slowly with guest-starring on several TV shows and doing bit parts in movies, usually as someone's younger lover. She did finally hit her stride though and take off on her own. She hit it big with Enchanted and then has continued to amaze audiences ever since. She held her own with Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in "The Fighter" and then moved over to showcasing her innocent side with the Muppets.

Movies I've watched her in: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Cruel Intentions 2; Smallville; Serving Sara; The Office; Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; The Fighter; The Muppets

Donna Reed

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001656/

I had to include her. She is the ultimate girl-next-door. She wins over Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" despite his disinterest in her at the start and the competition of affection from the bad-girl blonde that had the eye of everyone else in town. Just like everyone wants to Jimmy Stewart, they want to marry someone as awesome as Donna Reed. She also stands behind him no matter what. She even gives up her honeymoon to use the money to save the Building and Loan when there is a run on it. Now that this movie is a Christmas classic, there are going to be a lot of people growing up admiring Donna Reed.

Movies I've watched her in: It's a Wonderful Life

Jodie Foster

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000149/

It's funny that I watched some movies from when Jodie Foster was a young gal and I don't think she was that attractive as a young girl. Boy has that changed as she's gotten older. Seeing her play the southern belle in Maverick is just amazing because she is just so funny and desirable in that film. She is among the elite in Hollywood having won 2 Oscars. She also tends to star in smart films with concepts that give the audience something worthwhile to think about.

Movies I've watched her in: Freaky Friday; Candleshoe; The Silence of the Lambs; Maverick; X-Files; Panic Room; Flightplan; Inside Man; The Brave One; The Beaver

Jenna Fischer

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0278979/

I've been in love with Jenna Fischer since Michael fake fired her in the first episode of "The Office". I instantly felt so bad for her that it took me a while to actually like Michael Sciott. Her relationship with Jim has always been my favorite part of the show. One interesting thing about the show is that they have underplayed Jenna's natural beauty to keep the show more true to life but having her look and dress more like real people than TV usually does. The romance between Pam and Jim didn't seem to run to long as some of these TV show romances do. They have been allowed to advance their relationship as they are now married with two kids. Most of the conflicts on the show allow them to team up as opposed to teaming them against each other. We'll see how long the show continues now that it's in its 8th season.

Movies I've watched her in: The Office; Slither; Hall Pass

Claudia Black

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0085227/

Not funny story. I very rarely get sick but one day I didn't feel well so I stayed home. The next day, I found out that Claudia Black had been at my work the day before since she was moving to Victoria for the filming of Stargate. I had just started watching Farscape and was only in Season 2 but I had missed an once-in-a-lifetime to meet her. I hope that she will one day come to comiccon so I can correct these egregious error.

Movies I've watched her in: Pitch Black; Farscape; Dragon Age: Origins

Saturday morning cartoons - Aerith Gainsborough

My first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy III (which is actually Final Fantasy VI) for the Super Nintendo. I loved the game immensely so I was excited when I finally got to play Final Fantasy VII. The first FF game for the Playstation, the graphics were leaps and bounds beyond what had been before. The battle scenes had a 3-D camera and the characters weren’t limited to little tiny sprites like the previous games.

Aerith Gainsborough first appears after Cloud, the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, falls from a ledge after an explosion. He finds her in an abandoned church where there is a group of flowers that grows in the middle. They have a really sweet story that covers the first disk of the game and even leads up to an interesting love triangle between Cloud, Aerith and Tifa. But one of the most memorable things from Final Fantasy VII is that Aerith is killed at the end of the first disc. There’s no bringing her back and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Unlike other games where the deceased character vanishes away, Cloud has to lay Aerith to rest in a watery grave. It’s not uncommon to see posts online from people who cried when this happened. I personally finished Disc One and then didn’t start Disc Two until a while later. I loved the innocent, cherry flower girl and didn’t want the game to go on without her. She ends up still playing a huge role in the game as a motivation for the other characters and later helping Holy along when it’s cast to help heal the planet. Her and Final Fantasy VII’s popularity helped propel her into a cameo appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics where you buy a flower from her as part of the quest to acquire Cloud as a party member. She also guest-starred in the Kingdom Hearts and the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy games where she helps the party. Her next huge role though is in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which is the sequel to VII. She shows up as part of Cloud’s guilt and appears at the end to give him forgiveness allowing him to move on in his life. Part of what’s cool about that though is that they show her in the afterlife with Zach (another important Final Fantasy VII character whose story is really told in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII). Even though they are dead, they are finally reunited. Square-Enix has hinted at a VII remake at some point if they can figure out how to quickly and inexpensively update the graphics to HD. Remaking the opening of VII with modern day graphics just wet everyone’s appetites. So Aerith may return one day anyway and looking good when she does.

From Final Fantasy VII; Crisis Core: Final Fantasy; Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children; Final Fantasy Tactics; Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy; Kingdom Hearts; Kingdom Hearts 2

Kate Beckinsale

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000295/

Recently there was talk about the idea that the only woman who can headline an action series is Angelina Jolie with Tomb Raider and Salt. One that I think was left out is the lovely Kate Beckinsale. She has been a vampire at war with the werewolves in “Underworld” and did help out Van Helsing in his movie. In fact it seems like recently she has done more action movies than dramas or comedies. Interesting for someone who started out in “Much Ado about Nothing” and “Emma”. When she started to get national attention after doing “Pearl Harbor”, I didn’t even realize that she was the same actress from “Emma”.

She has just come back to the Underworld franchise after sitting out the last one (which was a prequel anyway). You have to worry about the quality of the films that she’s doing and why she isn’t doing more films that would be taken seriously by the Academy to get more recognition for her talent more than her looks. Her last two roles have been more of just being the “wife” (Click and what I’ve read of Contraband).

Movies I've watched her in: Much Ado About Nothing; Emma; Underworld 1, 2&3; Van Helsing; Click; Whiteout

Jennifer Connelly

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000124/

One of the large creative forces in the 1980’s was the Jim Henson Company making a lot of interesting films to see what they could achieve in the world of puppetry. One of the films that they did was Labyrinth. Labyrinth introduced the world to a wonderful actress named Jennifer Connelly who has successfully survived the transition from child-actress to Oscar nominee. When I went off to college, one of my dormmates worked at Target and showed me the film “Career Opportunities” which was a dumb film but it did feature Jennifer Connelly riding on an electric horse ride which was still pretty awesome. Recently, she has come back to doing more sci-fi fare with “Hulk” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. It is weird though when you see her though and realize that she is missing one of her most recognizable features having had breast-reduction surgery (especially since actresses tend to go in the opposite direction in order to advance their careers).

My favorite look of hers though is the 1940’s gal from “The Rocketeer” and “Dark City”. She does just look like a 40’s lounge singer in those roles and the outfits compliment her looks and features very well.

Movies I've watched her in: Labyrinth; Career Opportunities; The Rocketeer; Dark City; Hulk; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Inkheart; 9

Alicia Silverstone

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000224/

Alicia Silverstone is another girl who is about my age. She hit her stride in the 90's with "Clueless" which was an Emma (a Jane Austin novel) remake. After that she was the "it" girl for a while which lead to her getting her own production company and being cast as Batgirl in "Batman and Robin". Unfortunately for her, her debut film for the company was a huge failure and she fought accusations of being overweight during the production of "Batman and Robin". Although her career only had a brief high point, she still is one of the most important 90's gals.

Movies I've watched her in: Clueless; True Crime; Batman & Robin; Blast from the Past