30. Miranda Otto
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After eight fantastic hours of “Lord of the Rings”, we finally see a chick wield a sword.
Miranda Otto does the deed as Eowyn in the final act of “Return of the King”. It’s worth the wait, though, as she first decapitates a vicious giant bat-lizard and then strikes down a Witch King with a poke between the eyes. In between, she mostly just looks terrified, but who can really blame her?
Miranda’s career has otherwise been a series of supporting roles, but she’s been received awards for her acting. Couple that with her sword skills and she’s a winner. Oh, and her looks ain’t so bad either.
29. Ingrid Bergman
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No doubt Ingrid Bergman was beautiful. No doubt she could act as well — witness her two “Best Actress” Oscars. So anticipation must’ve been high when she signed on to play the ultimate medieval sword fighting babe — Joan of Arc — in 1948.
The only problem was that her portrayal of Joan left something to be desired. In particular, she barely used her sword. She mostly stood in the middle of the action, arrows flying around her, and spouted off religious mumbo jumbo. Sure, it’s the most dangerous cheerleading job of all time but you’ll be left yelling “C’mon, Ingrid, get in there and mix it up!
Ingrid was one of Hollywood’s biggest name leading ladies for decades and yet, sadly, never again had the chance to distinguish herself as a sword fighter.
28. Piper Perabo
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Piper Perabo starred in “Lost and Delirious”, a classic tale of girl meets girl, girl dumps girl, girl freaks out in fencing class.
It’s actually a pretty good movie. The boys take a back seat, though, so be ready for a chick flick before settling down with the popcorn. It does feature fencing and Piper’s quite the looker, so I’m not complaining.
Piper’s been in “Coyote Ugly”, “The Prestige” and some other Hollywood big-budget movies, but I don’t think she’s fenced in any of them.
27. Rhona Mitra
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Too bad “Boston Legal” didn’t feature more blood and gore. The writers didn’t know what they had in Rhona Mitra, but she seems to have it all figured out now.
She started slinging blood as Major Eden Sinclair in the recent movie “Doomsday” and will continue it with a leading role in the next chapter of the “Underworld” series.
In “Doomsday”, she fights convincingly in a deadly matchup with another sword fighting babe. The movie’s not bad — sort of a mashup between “28 Days Later” and “Escape From New York”. But it’s worth it if only to see Rhona.
26. Nichole Hiltz
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Nichole Hiltz rises up to become Queen of the Amazons in “Amazons and Gladiators”.
Too bad the movie never rises up much beyond the scrap heap. Don’t worry too much if you’ve signed up to watch it — it’s one of those so-bad-it’s-good movies. And Nichole muddles through, looking fantastic the whole time. She does a LOT of sword fighting, too, and some of it’s even pretty good.
Nichole is still plugging away as a TV actress so you might see her around. With any luck, she’ll make a smart career move and avoid “Amazons and Gladiators II”.
25. Alex Kingston
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I kept waiting to see Alex go all medieval on us in “Warrior Queen”. She spends most of the movie looking terrible but doing a pretty convincing job of preparing her troops for battle.
Then, in the last fifteen minutes of this movie, Alex gets nasty. She beats down a handful of bad guys, gets blood all over herself and then comes back for more. I bet her training as a doctor on “E.R.” helped her in this one.
24. Sophie Marceau
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Sophie is best known to American filmgoers for her roles in “The World is Not Enough” and “Braveheart”. They were decent roles, but she didn’t parlay them into a major Hollywood acting career. Instead, she’s been quite successful in French movies, including the 1994 flick “Revenge of the Musketeers”.
It’s not a bad show as far as Musketeer movies go and Sophie does a convincing job as a swashbuckler.
23. Catherine McCormack
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“Dangerous Beauty” is another of those hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold-and-mad-fencing-skills movies (see Hari, Mata). If there were an Oscar for that category, this would be the winner.
That’s a testament to Catherine McCormack. She picks the movie up and carries it on her back from start to finish.
Her swordplay is light-hearted and just a bit over the top, but still believable.
McCormack is a British-born actress known for her stage work as much as her films. She recently had a leading role in “28 Weeks Later”, but she looks a lot better without all that blood and gore!
22. Vicki Zhao
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Can a trained martial arts expert also be a computer geek? That’s what Vicky’s flick “So Close” tries to pull off, a movie that’s probably most notable for its action sequence set to cheesy Carpenters music.
Vicky puts on quite a show, along with several other supporting swordfighting babes. The frenetic sword fight near the end of the film is not to be missed.
Vicky hasn’t done much outside of the Hong Kong martial arts movie scene but stay tuned to see if she breaks out into Western stardom.
21. Susie Amy
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Note to Hollywood executives: give Susie Amy her big break! Didn’t her swordwork in “La Femme Musketeer” at least earn her that? What about her turn as a key player in “Footballer’s Wives”? Does she not deserve better than a two-bit role in the upcoming “Lesbian Vampire Killers”?
She’s certainly got the looks, now all she needs is a great script. Maybe I’ll start a petition.
Until then, enjoy her in one of the better Musketeer movies.
