Rising in the early afternoon, as is my wont, I found myself confronted by Gort and his girlfriend in the Mothership canteen. "What time do you call this?" Gort buzzed haughtily, arms crossed, wearing a black turtleneck and a ridiculous black beret. "Give it a rest, mate, it was a late one last night..." I began, but was immediately cut off by Helen Cox, Gort's girlfriend, who was sat at one of the tables in similar attire, but with the addition of dark glasses and a sour expression: "Quiet, chauvinist pig!" she bellowed.
I slowly rested my head against the fridge door, "I didn't drink nearly enough for this..." Still, Gort continued: "We have decided that it is time for a change. Your continued oppression of the human female gender cannot continue." "Eh?" I asked. Helen jumped to her feet and thumped her fist on the table, "We demand the end of your anti-feminist agenda of exaggerating the male contribution to low-grade cinema! We demand a B-movie Heroine!" she said, raising a fist in the air.
I looked to Gort. I looked back to her. "So, you want me to do a female B-movie Hero?" I asked. Slumping back down into her chair, she mumbled: "It's a start."
Bio
Part Irish and part Bengali, yet born in London, Rhona Mitra is nothing if not a unique mix. Sent to Catholic boarding school following her parents' divorce, she was expelled twice, but met one of her classmate's mother, Judi Dench, and decided she wanted to become an actress. Exploiting her looks, she landed several small acting roles in TV series, before achieving fame in Britain as the "live-action model" for the Tomb Raider game star Lara Croft, appearing at press conferences and conventions. Despite losing out on a starring role in the Tomb Raider film to Angelina Jolie, for obvious reasons, she still managed to turn heads as an un-named victim in the Invisible Man update Hollow Man. Since then, she's impressed in plenty of small roles, but never managed to launch herself into the big time.
B-movie Highlights
Shooter
Shooter is one of DayHWStoodStill's favourite movies and Mitra's role is one of the best parts, though to be frank, her character is completely extraneous. As our outlaw hero's woman on the inside of the CIA, she femme fatales her way through the film and gets some of the best lines. Her performance has a combination of smoulder and kickass that has has become Mitra's trademark.
Doomsday
Neil Marshall's de facto remake of Escape from New York is a mess, uneven and often nonsensical, but it is a hell of a lot of fun, largely due to Mitra's female version of Snake Plissken. It's a shame really, because this Ripley-esque heroine deserves a better movie.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
The Underworld prequel was always going to be more of a footnote to the series than a movie in its own right, with a severely-reduced budget, no Kate Beckinsale and a plot that was merely an expansion/retcon of a flashback from the original movie. Despite these failings, the film isn't terrible and one of its best features is Mitra's proto-version of Beckinsale's Selene. Mitra even manages to hold her own against the twin talents of Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy. Is there a better indication that she's ready for the big leagues?
One of my favorite B-Movie Vixens thanks!!!
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