We’re in for a dose of Harmon-Fu, as I take a look at Lady Street Fighter an attempt to establish Renee Harmon as an action movie heroine and make the onscreen eating of celery look sexy!!!
Charlize Theron is in her 40s and headlined an action flick with sex 'n' violence this year in Atomic Blonde. Maybe she was inspired by Renee? And that's the first and only time they will be compared.
I did take Atomic Blonde into consideration when I said that (haven’t actually seen Atomic Blonde yet, but a relative got it as a Christmas present, so I guess it’ll come my way soon). They do seem like slightly different cases though…I mean, Atomic Blonde had a quoted 30 million dollar budget and Theron is still only 42 and a well known and respected actress, whereas as Lady Street Fighter was a ultra, ultra low-budget affair and Harmon was a 48 year old unknown. Probably the accurate equivalent of Lady Street Fighter today would be some shot-in-Bulgaria, direct to DVD action movie, and you just don’t seem to see women in that late 40s age bracket headlining those. Obviously Lady Street Fighter does open itself up to some online ridicule in terms of its ineptitude and Harmon’s acting, but when you see people making jokes about her age, the way she dresses in the movie and expressing revulsion at her nude scenes, you can’t help feeling that a line has been crossed and a degree of unpleasant ageism and misogyny is creeping in there.
I've only seen Harmon in Executioner 2, and she wasn't exactly hideous, man, people are difficult to please with exploitation movies, the one area apart from kids' movies where you'd expect the audience to be extremely easy to please.
I wasn't being entirely serious with the Charlize comparison, although the movie was just OK, it was different for showcasing a woman of her age in a project like that, and I have no problem there. It is almost impossible to think of action hero actresses still going over 45, though - where are the female Charles Bronsons? Closest I can think of is Lucy Lawless in the Evil Dead TV show, but that's not a movie, Bulgarian-shot or otherwise.
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Charlize Theron is in her 40s and headlined an action flick with sex 'n' violence this year in Atomic Blonde. Maybe she was inspired by Renee? And that's the first and only time they will be compared.
I did take Atomic Blonde into consideration when I said that (haven’t actually seen Atomic Blonde yet, but a relative got it as a Christmas present, so I guess it’ll come my way soon). They do seem like slightly different cases though…I mean, Atomic Blonde had a quoted 30 million dollar budget and Theron is still only 42 and a well known and respected actress, whereas as Lady Street Fighter was a ultra, ultra low-budget affair and Harmon was a 48 year old unknown. Probably the accurate equivalent of Lady Street Fighter today would be some shot-in-Bulgaria, direct to DVD action movie, and you just don’t seem to see women in that late 40s age bracket headlining those. Obviously Lady Street Fighter does open itself up to some online ridicule in terms of its ineptitude and Harmon’s acting, but when you see people making jokes about her age, the way she dresses in the movie and expressing revulsion at her nude scenes, you can’t help feeling that a line has been crossed and a degree of unpleasant ageism and misogyny is creeping in there.
I've only seen Harmon in Executioner 2, and she wasn't exactly hideous, man, people are difficult to please with exploitation movies, the one area apart from kids' movies where you'd expect the audience to be extremely easy to please.
I wasn't being entirely serious with the Charlize comparison, although the movie was just OK, it was different for showcasing a woman of her age in a project like that, and I have no problem there. It is almost impossible to think of action hero actresses still going over 45, though - where are the female Charles Bronsons? Closest I can think of is Lucy Lawless in the Evil Dead TV show, but that's not a movie, Bulgarian-shot or otherwise.
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