Brawl In Cell Block 99

Title: Brawl In Cell Block 99

Director: S. Craig Zahler

Released: 2017

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas, Tom Guiry

Plot: Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) a former boxer and drug mule finds himself drawn back into his old life when he is laid off from his job at an auto-repair company. However when a pick up gets botched he finds himself imprisioned and with a debt to repay to his former employer Eleazer (Mucciacito) who has now kidnapped Bradley’s wife Lauren (Carpenter). Now Bradley has to assassinate a fellow inmate being held in a maximum security facility.

Review: Perhaps if Tarantino had not been on his own kick to revitalise the Western genre with “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight” we would perhaps see director S. Craig Zahler in much more of a mainstream light especially with his own take on the Western with “Bone Tomahawk” memorably bringing cannibals to the wild west while somehow managing to combine intelligent plotting with jaw dropping violence and now with this film he attempts to do the same for the prison drama.

Continuing the recent move into more serious fare for Vince Vaughn following his memorable turn on the largely forgettable second season of “True Detective”. Here Vaughn is very much the velvet glove inside the steel fist as he plays the hard hitting Bradley who thinks little of the brutal damage he inflicts on those who stand in his way and this is after we’ve seen him dismantle his wife’s car with his bare hands after he discovers that she has been cheating on him. At the same time he’s not just some mindless psychotic thug with his soft spoken and straight to the point attitude while frequently insisting he’s called Bradley and not Brad which makes him a very much a different sort of character than you would expect, especially considering the journey that we follow him on as he has to get from his initial imprisonment at a medium security facility to the maximum security facility of Redleaf by essentially beating the living hell out of anyone he can.

On equally strong form are the supporting cast which see’s Udo Kier as the go between from Bradley’s former employee and whose dark threats regarding the fate of Bradley’s wife in perticular the fate of their unborn child which hints at the violence to come. Don Johnson is on equally great form as Warden Tuggs who also uses the threat of violence and the generally dire conditions of his prison and much like Bradley plays against type as he constantly retains an air of cool, even when the situation around him is getting increasingly out of control never giving us the balistic meltdown we expect him to be building towards.

Despite the premise this is far from he all out action fest that you might expect. Yes there is certainly a lot of action here with some incredibly shot and wide framed brawls really making the most of Vaughn’s boxing training he undertook for the role but much like with “Bone Tomahawk” Zahler teases out these moments, spending the first hour establishing his characters and the botched drug deal which leads to Bradley being incarcerated but its never boring especially with Zahler showing the same kind of flair for dialogue as he has for violence

Shot with an intentional grindhouse eye for violence here it’s most jarringly cartoonist in how its approached with arms being broken and noses blooded it only gets worse when Bradley finally reaches the titular cell block 99 located in the depths of Redleaf and were order is maintained through the use of shock belts and less than humane treatment of the inmates considered problematic to be sent down there. Unquestionably these moments are cringe inducing and even slightly nauseating in places thanks to the fantastic sound design which really makes you feel the full impact of these moment. However compared to the superhero style of action and quick cuts its almost refreshing to see how Zahler holds back and just shoots the action almost from the view point of the onlooker. Yes Bradley might be overpowered in the damage he’s able to inflict with no real explanation as to how he’s able to achieve some of these almost superhuman acts of violence.

As of now Zahler might be one of the few directors alongside Richard Kelly, The Soska Sisters or Quentin Tarantino who I’m excited to see what they do next which at the time of writing is the equally evocatively titled “Dragged Across the Concrete” which will see him taking on the police procedural which after seeing his first team films has me only the more excited to see what other dark delights are yet to come.

The Purge: Anarchy

Title: The Purge: Anarchy

Director: James DeMonaco

Released: 2014

Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Zoe Soul, Michael K. Williams, Judith McConnell, Jack Conley

Plot: When a couple attempting to get home before the start of the annual Purge find themselves stranded in the city when their car breaks down, they soon find themselves rescued by a mysterious stranger (Grillo) who is on his own quest for revenge on the night when all crime is legal.

Review: The original Purge movie was something of a flawed creature as it took an intreging premise of a twelve-hour period every year where all crime is legal. At the same time it was a visually very arresting movie, but one which thanks to one annoying kid audiences struggled to get on board with. Here though director James DeMonaco returns to take another crack at the format as the action this time is transferred from the suburbs to the streets of Los Angeles.

This time round DeMonaco aims for something a little deeper than the siege movie the original descended into, as one year on from the events of the first film the divide between the rich and poor has never felt so obvious. More so when the wealthy view the impoverished as being disposable at best as seen at the start of this year’s purge when Eva (Ejogo) and Cali’s (Soul) father / grandfather is shown selling himself to be purged by a wealthy family. This is only further driven home by the death squad who appear to be targeting the poor under the command of the mysterious Big Daddy (Conley).

Rather than rest on his laruels and settle for rehashing the events of the first film in a different location, here DeMonaco actively attempts to develop this near future vision of Los Angeles with more disillusionment being shown towards the purpose of the Purge, especially when it is so weighted against the poor who are unable to afford the expensive security systems that the wealthy can. At the same time an anti-Purge resistance group lead by the revolutionary Carmelo Johns (Williams) hack the government propaganda feeds to denounce the ideas of the New Founding Fathers.

Once the film establishes its central group comprised of our stranded married couple Shane (Gilford) and Liz (Sanchez) aswell as Eva and Cali with Frank Grillo’s punisher esq Sergeant leading the group across the city to Eva’s sisters apartment with the film taking on a similar plot to that of “The Warriors” especially as this group have to constantly battle or escape various groups of frenzied Purge participants. This in itself changes things up from the siege setting of the first film, while also opening up the world to show how various groups choose to celebrate their right to purge. Much like the first film though this is a film strongly driven by its visual style from the colourful Purge participants though to the neon lit cityscape or the flame thrower lit tunnels of the subway system all making it all the more fascinating a world to explore.

As I mentioned already this entry in the series is keen to explore the deeper reasons behind the Purge itself , moving past the concept of what happens when all crime is legal and instead asking why the founding fathers would put in place such an idea to begin with? As to be expected the answer can be found in the division between the rich and poor, with the rich throughout this film being shown as seeing the poor as disposable and going off the black tie finale they also view them as being suitable sport as groups of rich hunters bid for the opportunity to hunt our group within the confines of an area they have constructed and which certainly brought back memories of “Hard Target”. In something of a missed opportunity we are introduced to a pair of machete welding twin sisters as one of the group bidding which sadly was not a role filled by the Soska Sisters who after seeing them playing a pair of twisted twins in their own “American Mary” meant that I was left feeling that DeMonaco had missed a trick by not casting them in this role.

Casting wise everyone is competent and likeable enough in their roles though this really is Frank Grillo’s film as he gives us essentially his version of the “The Punisher” with the right amount of gruff darkness to keep his character and his own mission interesting throughout. Jack Connelly is equally interesting as the big bad for the film though his role as Big Daddy only seems to get the recognition of being the big villain during the final few minutes when before then he just appeared to be just another government grunt.

A big step up from the first film as it avoids many of the issues which plagued the first film such as that darn annoying kid, this film really showed that this franchise has legs and scope to work outside of the confined original while making me keen to see where the franchise goes next.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Title: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Director:  Matthew Vaughn
Released: 2014
Starring: Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Taron Egerton, Michael Caine, Sophie Cookson, Sofia Boutella, Samantha Womack, Mark Hamill

Plot: Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Egerton) is an unrefined street punk who finds himself given a chance at redemption when he is recruited by Galahad (Firth) a member of the secret spy organisation Kingsman and soon tasked with stopping he villainous billionaire tech philanthropist Richmond Valentine (Jackson)

 

Review:  Having previously taken a stab at the superhero genre with “Kick Ass”, here Director Matthew Vaughn gives us his attempt to make spy movies fun again with the likes of Jason Bourne and the current more serious round of Bond film making the hayday of Bond, Flint and Harry Palmer seeing like a distant memory. Meanwhile the less said about teen spy Alex Cross  and the attempts to adapt his popular series with the abysmal “Stormbreaker” the better. Its also a project which sees him adapting another of “Kick Ass” creator Mark Millar’s comic books “The Secret Service”, while once more teaming up with long time writing partner Jane Goldman for the script.

Right from the start its clear that reality is very much an afterthought for Vaughn as his team of super spies set about taking out a group of middle east terrorists with the various explosions they cause turning into the title credits. At the same time the agents of the Kingsman organisation are undeniably British in their approach to their work, as they are made up of well-spoken and smartly dressed agents who use the names of the knights of the round table for their codenames, making them of course the polar opposite of Eggsy who lives in a council flat with his mum (Womack), baby half- sister and abusive stepfather.

While the two hour run time might seem bloated for this kind of popcorn spy film, the pacing is handled well by Vaughn who uses the first half of the film to cover Eggsy’s training by Merlin (Strong) whose methods frequently threaten the lives of the potential candidates, a fact actually pretty open about as he requests the candidates fill out the details on their personal body bags before they can start training. At the same time he thinks little about throwing them out of plane with a failed parachute or flooding their sleeping quarters while they sleep all which add to the films impressive action sequences, with Vaughn manging at the same time to work in a healthy dose of humour to the proceedings with Eggsy being lumped with a pug after mistaking it for a bulldog when the candidates are made to choose a puppy to look after and train.

Refreshingly Vaughn is continually more than happy to play around with the audiences expectations with the expected passing of training not happening and Eggsy failing to graduate rather than passing with the usual flying colours when he refuses to shoot his now beloved pug when requested by Kingsman head Arthur (Caine) making his eventual journey into the Kingsman ranks an interesting one to follow especially when we have such a fun relationship between Colin Firth’s super spy Galahad and Eggsy helped further still by the great on screen chemistry that both Firth and Egerton share. Firth of course playing up his established persona of the well-spoken upper class Brit as he takes Eggsy through the importance of tailored suits and attempting to bestow on him lessons in manners and chivalry. At the same time Eggerton’s journey from chav to gentlemen spy is made only the more believable thanks to a strong performance by the newcomer, who effortless transfers from one persona to the next.

Unquestionably the real draw here though is with the films action sequences, which manage to go well above the expectations laid out in the trailers, with Vaughn racking up an impressive pile of casualties, as he crafts huge set pieces such as the showdown in Valentine’s mountain top lair and more impressively Firth taking on a church full of people driven into a psycho frenzy by Valentine’s tech in a scene made all the more giddily enjoyable  by being set to the strains of Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Free Bird”. The action scenes throughout constantly providing to be inventive while the camera is held at the centre of the action and moving with such fluidity it really puts the action up with the likes of “The Raid” films and certainly a higher standard of action than we have come to expect from these kind of blockbuster. At the same time Firth whose only real action scenes before this have been his two fights with Hugh Grant in the Bridget Jones films, here shows himself to be the kind of surprise action hero that Liam Neelson proved himself to be in “Taken”, while the fact that Firth did 80% of his own stunt and fight scenes really only making it the more impressive when you see him effortless flowing from one opponent to the next, while amusingly even turning his umbrella into a deadly weapon.

What is really surprising here though is just how violent the film is with fights frequently turning into bloody and brutal affiars with anything which can be turned into a weapon frequently being used so, while nothing compares to the mass head exploding sequence at the films finale set to the tune of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance”, though the fact they are exploding not in bloody showers of brain and skull but rather colourful puffs of smoke like fireworks I couldn’t help but feel was more a decision to ensure the film wasn’t lumped with a higher rating. Needless to say it’s still one of the more memorable scenes.

The other strength of the film is in its casting with Samuel L. Jackson clearly having a blast as Valentine who shakes up the usual villain model with his aversion to violence and blood preferring to leave the heavy lifting to his henchwoman Gazelle (Boutella) and her razor sharp bladed prosthetic legs who might be the most interesting villain since the clockwork gasmask clad Karl Kroenen in “Hellboy”. Elsewhere Michael Caine is on great form as he continues to pick up the senior spy roles that would have gone to Sean Connery was he still acting though here he once more gives us the great personality shifts we got with “Harry Brown” while hinting that he too was originally from the same humble beginnings as Eggsy. More surprising though is the appearance by Mark Hamill which I couldn’t help but feel should have been accompanied by the same kind of highlighting arrow that he got in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”.

On the downside Vaughn’s world crafting is painfully limited with society being divided into two groups of the privileged and lower class with no attempts to provide a middle ground for these two groups while at the same time no doubt reinforcing the general opinion that Brits are either cockneys or snobs. Equally frustrating is the sloppy ending which seems to deal that getting anal sex off a princess is in same way a modernisation of the typical Bond ending and as a result means that the film ends on more of a stumble than the high five its building up to.

Unquestionably this is an exciting and revival for the spy genre, reminding us that it doesn’t have to be bogged down with dour faced seriousness while laying the foundation which an exciting series can be built from, especially with a sequel already in the works at the time of writing which will no doubt determine if this series is more than a one shot film hung on a fun gimmick.

Why Don't You Play In Hell

Title: Why Don’t You Play In Hell

Director: Sion Sono
Released: 2013
Starring: Jun Kunimura, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Fumi Nikaido, Tomochika, Hiroki Hasegawa, Gen Hoshino

Plot: Ten years ago, the Kitagawa yakuza clan led an assault against rival don Muto (Kunimura), which saw Muto’s wife (Tomochika) being imprisoned. The retaliation for this attack would leave the Kitagawa clan in ruins and their top hitman Ikegmai (Tsutsumi) wounded. Muto however was left more concerned that his daughter Mitsuko’s tootpaste commercial was axed due to his criminal activities being exposed. Now Ikegami has taken over the Kitagawa clan vowing revenge, while Muto is more concerned about the imminent release of his wife and for her to see Mitsuko (Nikaido) star in her first movie. Here we meet “The Fuck Bombers” and enthusiastic group of wannabe filmmakers, whose dreams stretch well beyond their means who find themselves drawn into a madcap scheme to film the climactic battle between the two Yakuza clans.

 

Review: Right now having read the plot for this movie, you no doubt been left scratching you head as to how any of it could possibly make any kind of sense, much like the prospect I once more found myself in how I could actually start to review this movie. This is film making not for the faint hearted while at the same time this remains too much of a fascinating film to not attempt to get some form of thoughts down.

I first heard about this film through Jess over at "French Toast Sunday" and which is based on a screenplay written by director Sion Sono 15 years ago it feels almost like a tribute to sort of Yakuza epic he perhaps dreamed of making as a younger film maker, while he describes it as “an action film about the love of 35mm” making it as much of a film about the love of film making as it is of the Yakuza dramas it parodies.

Opening with the young Misuko performing in her toothpaste commercial which it soon becomes clear as the film progresses forms the unusual epicentre of this universe, as even ten years after it was axed it remains a shared memory with characters frequently bursting into spontaneous enactments of the commercial whenever mentioned. At the same time we are also introduced to the fuck bombers led by the eternally enthusiastic Hirata (Hasegawa) whose bring a who new meaning to the word Guerrilla filmmaker as they shot on the fly, incorporating anything they find of interest into their film projects which generally resemble budget remakes of Bruce Lee movies. This is of course we see the young Mitsuko stumbling into the aftermath of a failed Yakuza attack and the bodies of the gangsters her mother has just recently dispatched off, the floor filled with blood which suddenly turns into a warped slip and slide. This essentially is the getting off point for the film as things certainly only get weirder and more random from this point onwards.

While the film is multi-threaded in its construction for the most part it resolves around Misuko who in the ten years which have passed as gone from being a sweet little girl into a rebellious teen who having run away from one film production, now heads off again picking up the wide eyed Koji (Hoshino) to play her pretend boyfriend and later to pass off to her father as the only director she will work with despite not knowing the first thing about movie making. While Sono could have easily based the film around his feisty leading lady, his ambition much like the Fuck Bombers is seemingly limitless, as he finds times to work in ample time for the various other subplots at play such as Ikegmai taking over as head of his yakuza clan who he’s changed from their tailored suits to instead favouring komodo’s through to the Fuck Bombers who are just about ready to call time on their dream as the group is faced with the reality that they aren’t going to make the masterpiece they feel they are destined to make only to soon find themselves the answer to Koji’s prayers.

The film moves with such frenzied pace it hard to believe that the film has the generous run time, while some might be a little frustrated that the film spends the first thirty minutes setting the film up only to then skip ten years into the future. Sono however shoots the film with such high energy and inventiveness it envelops you to the point where you never question the frequently illogical or more surreal moments that are scattered throughout the film. True these moments have frequently been the trademark of Soto’s films

Needless to say the real draw here is the anarchic finale which has rightfully drawn comparisons to Kill Bill’s house of blue leaves showdown, even though here it is certainly not shot with any of the artistic flair that Yuen Wo Ping brought with his fight choreography, but instead here Sono aims for frenzied enthusiasm as blood flies in arterial sprays, limbs lopped off and a body count which easily goes into double figures as he finds ever more inventive ways for the two rival yakuza to dispatch each other. While all this is going on we also have Hirata screaming directions and even stopping an opening skirmish and requesting that everyone go back to their places so that he can reshoot it. Unquestionably it’s an exciting sequence and one only held back by the use of CGI for most of the blood effects.

Easily one of the more accessible films in the directors back catalogue, this is a truly unique and high energy entry point to his work, while it stands truly on its own merits for its fierce originality as it remains another film to be experienced to truly appreciate what could certainly be considered one of the most fiercely original films of recent years.

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

Title: The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

Director: Troy Duffy
Released: 2009
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Clifton Collins Jr., Julie Benz, Billy Connolly, Judd Nelson, Peter Fonda, David Della Rocco, Willem Dafoe, Bob Marley, David Ferry, Brian Mahoney

Plot: Eight years after the events of the first film the sibling vigilantes Connor (Flanery) and Murphy (Reedus) have put their guns to earth as they now live a quiet simple life with their father and former assassin “Il Duce (Connolly). However when they are framed for the murder of a Boston priest the brothers are forced out of retirement as they set out to clear their name
 

Review: Coming a ten years after the first film it was something of a surprise that this film was actually made, but then the same could also be said for the original whose troubled production was documented in the documentary “Overnight” which saw Director Duffy being heralded as the new Tarantino with his excitingly inventive script being picked up by the Weinstein’s only to soon becoming a property that no studio wanted after Duffy's general attitude soon found his project being dumped. Duffy would eventually get the film made if for a fraction of the original budget and over the years it has continued to gain a strong cult following as the fans clamoured for the return of the brothers.

True it might have been a longer wait than the fans might have wanted, thanks again to a variety of production issues which served to delay its release with many of the fans doubting that it would ever see a release. Needless to say now that it has finally been released it is something of a relief to find that Duffy’s debut wasn’t the fluke some may have written it off as, as here he truly delivers a sequel equal to that of the original. Equally pleasing to see is that the original cast have all been brought back for this sequel which considering how Reedus is now best known for his role on “The Walking Dead” I doubted that we would see his return here, much like Dafoe who even more surprisingly also makes an appearance even if it is pretty much a glorified cameo.

Unsurprisingly this film is essentially more of the same as the brothers upon their return to Boston waste little time in picking up were they left off cleaning the street of drug dealers and gangsters, while this time joined by their new Mexican sidekick Romeo (Collins Jr.) who is essentially a carbon copy of Rocco from the first film (who bizarrely also puts in an appearance via a random dream sequence)  as he generally is the source of most of the films comic relief, while Collins Jr. brings enough personality to the role to make him more than just the Mexican Rocco, especially during one scene were he misses out on an intense hotel room shootout due to the amount of time he’s spent trying to come up with killer catchphrase.

While on the subject of copies the same could also be said of FBI agent Bloom (Benz) the apprentice of agent Smecker (Dafoe) who share many of the same mannerisms even if she doesn’t exactly scene steal the same way as Dafoe did in the original, their methods are essentially identical, while director Duffy takes advantage of having Benz in the role as he includes a sexy cowgirl fantasy as part of one of her analysis, complete with some pretty fancy gun tricks which have zero to do with her explanation but sure looks cool and kind of made me want to see her play a gunslinger role like Sharon Stone in “The Quick and the Dead”. Like Smecker she is once again joined by the bumbling trio of detectives Greenly (Marley), Dolly (Ferry) and Duffy (Mahoney) who are still trying to cover up their involvement in the vigilante plans of the saints and this time play more of an active role in assisting them in a nice move for the series as it goes from just being the brothers, to now becoming more of a group, even if it is still largely down to the brothers to do the real grunt work.

The other focus here revolves around the background of Il Duce, who we were given the minimal amount of information about in the original, while generally being surprised that Scottish funny man Connolly was capable of playing such a badass, much less giving a convincing Irish accent, especially considering how a strong an accent he has normally. Unsurprisingly it is a background filled with similarities to the brothers own path to becoming vigilantes only with a dose of betrayal to explain away his incarceration.

Despite being more experienced than they were in the first film, the brothers still rely as always on what they’ve learned from the movies and general luck and instinct than any real kind of training. Infact judging from their questionable beards and new life as goat herders it would seem that they we’re exactly planning on returning to Boston after the first film and explaining away why they are none the more planned this time around. As before Duffy uses this inexperience frequently as a source of humour for the action scenes which are essentially as inventive as before aswell as featuring the extensive use of slow motion shots to really work each of these scenes. The real standout moment however has to be the butt clenching game of Russian roulette between Il Duce and the assassin responsible for framing the brothers, which Connelly truly unleashes his inner badass with a simple “Easy boys...Daddy’s working” as he maintains an icey cool demeanour.

Duffy once again shows an ear for dialogue as he once more delivers a boat load of quotable dialogue, making it unsurprising that so many people were keen to compare him to Quentin Tarantino and yes while both bring a fresh energy to the crime genre, it remains to be seen if he can work outside of the world of the saints which currently seems to be his sole focus, especially with “Boondock Saints 3: Saints Preserve Us” currently in the works aswell as a rumoured TV adaptation, but if they are as much fun as these first two entries I’m hardly going to complain about his current lack of range.

Mixtape Movies: The Suprise Badass Mixtape

Over at Fandango Groovers Movie Blog he has given the blogging community yet another great blogathon to get excited about with "Mixtape movies"
 
So many times an actor will find themselves being typecast as a particular role, be it the wisecracking hero, the ditzy heroine or comedy sidekick. However what has always held a fascination with myself is the idea of the surprise badass. A character type which frequently comes from nowhere, more often than not when we have classed an actor of playing one type of role, only for them to suddenly unleash a radically different and as is the case with several of my movie choices a much darker side. So lets explore this cinematic curiosity further by allowing me to present my Surprise Badass Mixtape

Shoot ‘Em Up (Paul Giamatti)

For the longest time Giamatti has been a favourite on the indie scene, making a name for himself as a supporting character and frequently in roles which saw him playing flustered supporting or social awkward characters. Always a dialogue driven actor, “Shoot ‘Em Up” take his strength with dialogue and essentially puts a large gun in his hand, as here he truly makes for a great villain as he snarls, wisecracks and even trick shots his way through the film, with a single minded determination to get his hands on the baby which Mr Smith (Clive Owen) has been tasked with protecting, in this life action version of Bugs Bunny Vs. Elmer Fudd.....only with a shitload of guns.

 

Largely ignored on its release it has only now started gaining the cult following it deserves as it frequently lives up to director Michael Davis’s claim that “This is John Woo’s wet dream”.

Cliffhanger (John Lithgow) 

 

When this film was released most of us were more familiar with Lithgow madcap antics on “3^rd Rock From The Sun” as Dick Soleman the leader of a team of undercover aliens trying to study human behaviour with more than questionable results. Here he gives us what could only be described as the flipside of his on screen persona with his portrayal of Eric Qualen the leader of a group of thieves. So evil is his character that he doesn’t even think twice about killing off his girlfriend, so that he can maintain the upperhand while generally caring more about collecting his ill-gotten gains than any member of his team, who are frequently seen in his eyes as disposable, while also proving himself surprisingly handy in a fist fight with Stallone. 

It is such an amazing performance he gives here and one only made all the better from his audience likely being more familiar with his usual happy-go-lucky style than anything so dark. True unlike some of the characters on this list he might not kick a lot of ass, his pitch black evil streak is more than enough to earn him a place here.

Aliens (Jenette Goldstein) 

You need only look at Goldstein’s acting resume to realise the reason that James Cameron calls her “The Human Chameleon”, I mean do you remember her as Jenelle in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”? What about the maid in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”? Hows about the Irish mother in “Titanic”? Chances are that if you’re like me you didn’t, which is what makes her such a surprising badass (only kind of in reverse) as rather than carve a career playing roles similar to her stand out performance here as Vasquez it remains her sole badass role.

Vasquez is memorable not only for being a badass, but for giving us a rival alpha female to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, as she proves herself more than (aswell as frequently more) capable to holding her own with her male marine counterparts, as especially proven during the marine’s first contact with the titular aliens, as while those around her are losing their heads and turning themselves into easy alien pray, she simply weigh up the situation and screams “Let’s Rock”. So much of a badass is Vasquez she even ensures that she goes out with a warrior death with the help of a handy grenade.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Linda Hamilton)

If there was one badass on this list that I wouldn’t want to face it would have to be Sarah Connor, who here is a far cry from when we met her previously, having spent the years since her first confrontation with The Terminator having left her training for the prophesied Judgement Day.  However having been confined to a mental institution after her failed attempt to bomb a computer factory, she is has taken on an almost feral state when we meet her again. It’s a startling transformation and one which only becomes only clearer when you compare the Sarah Connor of the first film with the version we see here.

Hamilton’s commitment to accurately portraying the role only further helps here, as she went under an extensive training regime, which saw her losing 12 pounds via a non-fat diet, while also taking on judo and military training to help further hone the character to the pinnacle of badassery, as here is 100% pure alpha female!

Zombieland (Woody Harrelson)











When I think of Harrelson it is always his more comedic roles, which he has spent most of his career, usually playing in some variation of his breakthrough role as Woody on "Cheers"

True he might have given us a badass turn prior to this film as Mickey in “Natural Born Killers”, but it was mainly showcased at the end with everything else being generally mindless violence as part his and Mallory’s psychotic nature. Here however as Tallahassee he is purely about kicking zombie ass, with enough time having passed since “Natural Born Killers” to ensure him a place on this list, as it truly feels like a new side we are seeing to Harrelson, while his last stand from a carnival stand over further cementing his place here on the list.

And now for my wildcard entry on this mix I give you….

The Rock (Sean Connery)

Okay, Okay I know your all no doubt questioning how Sean Connery could be considered a surprising badass, after all here is a man who 95% consider to be the definitive James Bond, who all future Bonds are measured against.
 

So why did I choose to include him on the list? Well while Connery might have kicked a lot of ass as Bond, but it was always with a witty remark which defused the violence of what had just witness him do. Here as ex SAS member Mason, he essentially gives us an elderly Bond only with a more badass edge, as he proves that age has zero effect on his ass kicking abilities, judging by the impressive body count he racks up while still snarling out classic lines like

"Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.”

True Connery might be an established badass, but here he proved that he was still as capable even in the twilight years of his acting career.

So there you have it my personal favourite surprise badasses, but who else has pulled their own Surprise badass moment?