Movie
Fair Game (1995)
This is the second movie adaptation of Paula Gosling’s novel to make my list, with Cobra having the lower ranked villainess at #97 (and a completely different plot, though both feature women in peril). Best known for starring Cindy Crawford as its leading lady and for being a box office flop, this is a pretty routine actioner, but 1990s movies can generally be relied on to deliver a decent villainess and Fair Game doesn’t disappoint in that regard.
Crawford’s character is Kate McQuean, a civil case lawyer who stumbles across a plot by ex-KGB operatives to carry out an electronic bank heist. Obviously they’re not too keen on nosy women poking around, so they blow up Kate’s luxury apartment – except she escapes unscathed (imagine that). That’s when a cop (William Baldwin) gets involved and essentially becomes a one man protection team. Of course, there’s an ex-girlfriend he’s fallen out with, which conveniently leaves him free to romance Kate, so it’s no surprise we’re treated to a sex scene before the climax.
Hollywood loves to use Russian bad guys, and we get Steven Berkoff hamming it up as the main villain with his usual thick accent. The villains are technically savvy, which keeps the tension up in the deadly cat and mouse game. While not a great movie by any means, Fair Game is servicable enough as light entertainment and better than its reputation might suggest.
Villainess
Rosa (Jenette Goldstein)
Better known as the tough cookie Private Vasquez from Aliens, Goldstein gets to play a villainous brute in this one. Most of her screen time is spent in the background either looking menacing (which she manages well) or sat in the villains’ hi-tech van while the Russian technical whiz does his thing.
Rosa gets some early action after the Russians track Kate and her cop bodyguard to a “safe” house. There the police make the mistake of ordering pizza with Kate’s credit card, giving Rosa the chance to impersonate a delivery woman and off a detective with a silenced pistol. Naturally the main hero proves far more difficult to take out, and so we get a lengthy action scene with Rosa and her goons in a shootout. The villainess shows how tough she is by kicking in a door and surviving while her team gets wiped out.
It’s a while before Rosa returns to action, but she gets a brief moment where she helps beat up a nerdy sales guy called Adam who assisted Kate earlier. Hardly a worthy opponent for someone of her prowess, so it’s a good thing Rosa offers Baldwin his most difficult fight of the film in the final act. When Rosa and a mook attempt to eliminate the pesky annoyance wearing all-black commando gear, the hero guns them down after surprising them.
If the hero though it would be that easy, Rosa has the foresight to wear a bulletproof vest. This leads into a moderately lengthy fight with Rosa proving more than a match for her male opponent. Intially she gives him quite a beating, before he responds in kind. They made villainesses tough in the 1990s, so Rosa shrugs off these attacks and turns the tables. Despite having a gun and knife, the cop manages to defeat her though, leaving one wishing for a slightly better demise (though it certainly isn’t the worst on this list).
Video Review
Honourable Mentions (Unranked)
Killer Wave (2007) – Woman Assassin (Valérie Wiseman)
This two part sci-fi mini series was later released as a three hour movie on DVD. As typical for this sort of the film, fiction definitely overrides science with the story revolving around some nonsensical plot by corrupt businessman to create tidal waves in the Atlantic. Cue some poor special effects and an overlong potboiler that could have been told in half the runtime.
The heroes are two scientists (gender balanced of course), and the baddies employ a number of assassins to stop their investigation. One of the hitters is a six foot she-hulk (Wiseman definitely should get more roles like this) who shows up at a remote cabin to battle the hero. He struggles to even hurt her as the muscle woman shrugs off his timid attacks, and it takes a two-team and some makeshift weapons to take this foe out. Sadly only a couple of minutes of screen time, but one of the movie’s few highlights for sure.
Patriot Games (1992) – Annette (Polly Walker)
Less of a toughie and more of a femme fatale, this woman was a member of an IRA splinter group up against Tom Clancy’s best known hero Jack Ryan (played by Harrison Ford in the first of two outings). After Ryan stops an assassination attempt on the British royal family – and kills the group leader’s brother – he and his family become targets.
Action shifts between Britain and America (with some scenes in Africa along the way), and Annette is mostly in the background. The villainess is a brunette but prefers to disguise herself as a redhead for spy work. Her best scene is an early hit on an IRA idealist who she bumps off after sex. After that, she’s most seen driving vehicles and provides the hero with his most important lead, before a final act raid on Ryan’s home.
Like Rosa, Annette shows up in commando gear but the closest thing to a “fight” she gets is being knocked out by Ryan’s wife. Don’t expect a great finale for this one – she goes out rather easily after the vengeful main villain turns against his own team.
Action Woman Fan 