Girls who Kick

I went to go watch The Mechanic tonight.  It's about a hitman who takes on an apprentice who just happens to be the son of a man he killed.  There's not a lot of plot but there is a butt load of action!  With all the recent talk about Valentine's day, I felt the need for a bit of violence =) 

On the way to the theatre, I got thinking about strong female characters that kick ass just as well as any macho man while wearing stilettos no less!  Trying to name 5 kick butt females resulted in one of the longest and most hilarious voice recordings to date.  In over 20 minutes, I manage to name exactly 2: Wonder Woman and The Bride from Kill Bill.  After the movie, I asked my younger sister to name 5 and she came up with 2, possibly 3: The Bride from Kill Bill, Lara Croft, and Evy Carnahan - Rachel Weisz's character from The Mummy.  That last one does see some action in The Mummy Returns when she channels her former self Nefertiri, to fight off Anuck Su Namun.  How pathetic is it that between 2 people, we could only name 3-4 characters?  Thankfully IMDb has come to the rescue with another 5 to make this list a bit more respectable.

Obviously the characters already mentioned need no extra explanation as to why they're on this list but I would like to point out that Wonder Woman tops them all (in my book at least) - bullet bracelets, the lasso of truth, an invisible jet - what more could you want?  After WW, Lara Croft (plus any other badass played by Angelina Jolie), and the Bride, we've got Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (brought to life on the big screen by Kristy Swanson and on the boob tube by Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Sydney Bristow from the J.J. Abrams series Alias.  I'm not sure how I missed the last two since I used to watch both of those shows regularly (and still do from time to time thanks to syndication and DVDs).  Maybe it's because I was thinking strictly about movies...

Two additions I have to put in are Milla Jovovich who has been kicking it since The Fifth Element and her Resident Evil co-star, Michelle Rodriguez.  These two ladies are not ones you would want to face down in a fight - much like the rest of the characters on this list, these are the ladies you want backing you up.

UPDATE:  I thought of 2 more but much like Evy, they don't really count - Super Girl and Batgirl.  At this point, we'll take it!