Sniper 2 was worse than the original (and has the worst death scene, ever, in it). I rented it, very literally, because my wife told me I wasn't allowed to (hah! I showed her! It was awful, and I suffered through it!). She loves me to much to tell me not to rent Sniper 3.

I'd like to add:
Face - Benicio Del Toro (Snatch, Fear and Loathing ...)

I like the characters from Firefly. All of them could nicely drop into the Shadowrun universe. Jayne is a street sam, Inara is your face, Kaylee is your mechanic, Wash is the rigger, Zoe is another street sam, Simon the streetdoc, Mal is your team leader and River is a physical adept, mind reading, weapons expert. They all fit in nicely and as an added plus curse in Chinese.

Skimmed through but didn't see this one:

Michael Chicklis as Vic Mackey from The Sheild

"yeah and we give Vic 20% because...well hes Vic" -Shane

Seriously, if you haven't seen this series it absolutely DRIPS shadowrun, as its about dirty cops ripping off criminals. Great acting and gritty as all hell.

How about a young Sigourney Weaver as a street sam? Or current Sigourney as an evil exec or magician?

Or maybe Naomie Harris. There's her voodoo wizard in Pirates, but also her character in 28 Days later.

Sigh, there are so few truly cool and tough females in the movies any more. Now they're all famine victims at the mercy of CGI techs.

Eric Roberts would fit in. He's got the look.

Oh, and check out "Breakaway." The lead SWAT trooper in the tunnels, he'd be great...

I had an elf phys adept loosely based on brendan lee form "The crow"

And any of the characters from the guy richie london crime films "snatch" and "lock stock and two smoking barrels". Boris the Blade made for an entertaining fence/supplier.

Yeah, and even when a woman in a movie is at least slightly cool and tough, she almost invariably ends up falling into some man's arms, thereby fulfilling her true main importance to the plot - that of a pretty trophy to be won.

Sometimes I wonder whether the women's movement was really as successful as people seem to think it was.

There are quite a few movies where this isn't true.
In Underworld, the male lead is obviously the prize. By the end of the movie he is supposedly the most powerful being alive but he remains inept damsel in distress for Selene to rescue while completing her revenge.

In Tomb Raider Laura Croft rules the movie absolutly without a single romantic interest.

In Mr. and Mrs. Smith the leads are already married. They are quite obviously equals thoughtout the film and their decision to remain together in the end is one of mutual respect and mutual necessity.

In Blade:Trinity the secondary character Abigail Whistler is rather kick-ass and does not have a romantic interest.

In Catwoman, well Catwoman sucked.

In Batman and Robin, Batgirl had no romantic interest. Arguably, Batman and Robin were the romantic leads (or possibly Batman and Mr. Freeze).

In the entire Aliens series Ripply did not have a single romantic interest, the closest she ever came to romance was in Alien:Ressurection, with a wierd pseudo-incestuous pseudo-lesbian thing going on between her and the Alien queen and some lesbian sexual tensions between her and the young android (during which she was in full dominatrix mode).

In Hannibal and The Silence of the Lamb the closest Clarice every came to a romantic interest is Hannibal himself. In the book they do become lovers but the movie rejects this ending.

In Terminator 2, Sarah Conner does not have a romantic interest. She did have a romantic in Terminator, but her character was the Damsel in Distress in that movie as opposed to the action hero she was in the second.

In Pitch Black, Carolyn Fry doesn't have a romantic interest. All things being equal, she is the hero of that movie. Riddick may live but he isn't presented as the main character.

In the X-Men series Storm has no romantic interest. The relationship between Jean and Cyclops was always a major part of the series plot and it does not diminish the character.

In House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, Baby Firefly does not have a romantic interest (there's some hit of something going on between her and Otis B. Driftwood but they mostly have a borther/sister relationship)

In Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Sever did not have a romantic interest.

In Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, Estelle Getty's character did not have a romantic interest.

In G.I. Jane, Lt. O'Neil does not have an obvious romantic interest (I beleive she did but it wasn't important enough to warrent screen time but I may be wrong.)

In Alien VS Predator the Alexa Woods's only romantic interest was the Predator and their relationship, which is based on mutual respect rather than sexual attraction, remains unconsumated.

I could go on, but really it would take too long.

SL how can you say those movies sucked, most of them were terrific, I mean come on, Aliens is the consumate UB/ bug hunt movie,

in X-2 there was a burgeoning romantic interest between storm and Nightcrawler, but storm was the rescuer

that being said though, i also have to agree with fangirl, theres not much out there showing where hollywood shows women being anything but the weaker of the genders.

I'll give you... Silence of the Lambs, Alien, and maybe Pitch Black. The others just aren't quality films. Fun? Eh... Maybe a couple others. But most of those films are crap.

Good points all around, but I was thinking more about the performers. I just don't buy Angelina as a bad-ass or Halle Berry --I can't be bothered to check the spelling-- as gritty. You can dress any model up in skin-tight black leather and have them swing a sword while hanging from a wire, but that doesn't make them tough. Jessica Alba looks like she couldn't do a chin-up. Where's the lady who played Vasquez? Where's Linda "T-2" Hamilton?

Keira Knightley and the others from Domino
Antonio Bandaras as Mariachi
Vigo from History of Violence
Everyone from Munich even the assassin you must see this movie

I blame The Matrix for spawning an overreliance on CG and wirework as opposed to traditionally choreographed fight scenes. There is also a terrible tendency to present female action hereos as being superhuman, which can be cool but there tendency to go overboard with it.

J-Lo's portrayl of Slim in Enough was effective simply because she was obviously human. She wasn't presented as being absurdly strong for her frame and, in fact, she suffered an obvious strength disadvantage in the final fight scene. She didn't need superhuman powers to be strong. All she needed was some desire for vengeance and some murderous intent.
All of the great 80s and 90s action heroes were obviously mortal. Most of them were at the peak human fitness and skill, but they had all of the limitations of a human. All of the great action heroes today are mortal. They're the characters who dig bullets out of themselves with knives and then cauterize the wound with fire.

Halle Berry can be gritty. If you don't know that then you obviously have not seen Monster's Ball. Given the chance, she can be as gritty as they come. The problem is that she has never had the kind of character who digs bullets out of her own body and then cauterizes the wound with an open flame. Instead, like so many actresses today, she has been saddled with heroic characters who just dodge bullets and don't have to worry about getting hurt at all.



I'd like to see the Steven Segal character from a direct-to-DVD movie called Shadow Man transplanted to SR. Why? Because he has during a fight scene near the end uses his chi to make a man's eye's explode out of their sockets when he punches him in the face. Segal then leaves the hapless villian there as he feels around the floor of the very large room for his eyes, as it he could put them back in.
Later, Segal uses a similar attack to make a villian's internal organs explode out of his back.
Really, that is what killing hands is all about.

Thanks Hyz. You mentioned a couple of movies I haven't bothered to see. I'll check them out on your recommendation.

Noted.

My particular loathing regards Hollywood Heroines is where a female villain is set up especially so that the female hero can have a bitch fight with her whilst the hero deals with the main villain. I've seen this repeated numerous times in Hollywood movies. It's second only to the black guy making a noble sacrifice to save the white hero.

I found the Charlies Angels movies to be genuinely non-patronising to women, actually. I also made up Shadowrun stats for them which I'll post if anyone wants me to. They made a surprisingly good rival runner team. Charlie was a never seen hacker, of course.

Back on topic, for sheer background goodness, I like Britney Murphy's character from Drive. No special skills, no staggering plot importance, but someday I want to put her and the entire motel showdown scene from that movie into a Shadowrun game. Anyone who's seen it will know exactly what I mean!

Also in terms of background colour, I intend to use several characters from The Fifth Element, including the mugger with the "photo-hat", Gary Oldman's Emmanual Baptiste Zorg and DJ Ruuuuuuuuuuby Rod!

If the PCs ever get too publicly known, I also intend to have Robert Downey Jr.'s reporter from Natural Born Killers do a feature on them. Just possibly, it could even lead to a live interview on a run a la the end of the movie.

I'd give Rudy about a twelve-second lifespan, if your group is anything like some I've seen.

To help correct my derailling: consider Bruce Willis's character from Unbreakable as a freshly awakening adept.

There is an easy way to prevent the runners from geeking the guy or even maiming him - a percentage of the gross. Enterainment is big business and it is worth big money. It doesn't even have to be a big percentage of the gross. Even 1% each would enough to maintain a decent lifestyle if the show does well.

William Shatner!!!

/nuff said

I saw Strangers On A Train a couple of nights ago, and it was awesome. I loved Robert Walker as the foppish, mentally unbalanced Bruno Anthony, and I simply must steal him. At the very least, I have to steal the climax (spoilered below).

My face character looks like Janet Reno, all the girls love him...

...uh, I mean her.

Take that ya bitches!!!

Mark Wahlberg in The Big Hit would be an interesting adept.
...or...
Quite possibly, Robert Downey Jr. or Val Kilmer's characters from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang?