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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Emerging Roles in Cinema.

15:25 / 01.03.03

Damn, that sounds like college course...

Anyway, me and my friends were sitting around talking movies and we were discussing roles that didn't exist in the past and do now. Example, the Female Action Hero. This didn't really happen until the 70's it was sorta happening in the late 60's (Barberella) but they weren't exactly actiony and kept getting captured and in need of rescue. So what roles do you think will emerge in the next decade or so? Which roles do you want to see emerge?

Talking about Andrew (From Buffy) I thought what about the Male Gay Action Hero? Granted, Andrew doesn't exactly fit the role but in the coming episodes he's going to be put in the position where he's going to have to fight. If he survives and moves over to Angel and another spinoff (which may of course never happen) we could see a Wesley-like evolution. This kinda thinking also has to do a lot with the creation of the Midnighter and Apollo. (I'm excludeing Lesdian Action Hero cause that's already arived with the FAH. Xena, Willow... Male homosexuals tend to be portrayed much like women were in the past,
Self absorbed, weak and, well, hysterical.)

Another role I don't think will emerge but should is the raunchy comedy movie about women friends.... Like a chick version of Old School or Super Troopers. These are labeled "guy" movies, but there's fair share of funny as fuck raunchy female comedians all over Comedy Central and they never get to be in movies. Why is it women comedians are limited to stupid (or excellent) romantic comedies? (Um, As opposed to stupid dick and fart flicks!)

I don't know this is all the product of drunken conversation and hungover typing sooo... discuss.

18:19 / 02.03.03

I've noticed an upswing in the double-life meme, people trying to live both a 'normal' life and an exciting 'kiss kiss bang bang' one.Beyond the superhero adaptations which would naturally follow this theme (Spiderman, Daredevil, X-Men etc) we have Buffy (which possibly led the charge), Alias, 24, Spy Kids, Charlie's Angels, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, etc. Of course, maybe I've only just noticed this. Has it become more common recently, or is that just my perception?
As for roles I want to see emerge, I want to see more films where geeky people usually relegated to sidekick roles are in charge. And I don't mean pseudo-geeks like Thomas 'Neo the thin handsome hacker' Anderson either. Why? I just do.
Oh, i-lad, the chick gross-out flick exists in the form of The Sweetest Thing. Haven't seen it.

20:50 / 02.03.03

I also noticed the "double-life" trend a few years ago with Fight Club, American Beauty, Office Space.

23:02 / 02.03.03

Another role I don't think will emerge but should is the raunchy comedy movie about women friends.

I'll admit that I haven't actually seen it, but I remember that the promo material for The Sweetest Thing seemed to indicate that it was low-brow women-oriented humor like you're describing, although with a bit of the romantic comedy thing to it. Can anyone verify this?

23:09 / 02.03.03

Dammit, dammit, totally missed the Sweetest Thing mention at the end of Biz's response. Sorry 'bout that.

I remember hearing that Sandra Bullock wanted to do more physical slapstick comedy but that there weren't enough of that role for women in film.

I'd like to see more films in which women play "the muscle", like Angela Bassett in Strange Days. But without the plot development of romance with the film's protagonist or other love scenes chucked in (like the bit with May Day in A View to a Kill).

20:16 / 03.03.03

I think that they should crack out the Shallow Hal/Nutty Professor style fat-suits a little more often. The obese deserve to be represented.

22:12 / 03.03.03

More of what Brigitte Lin used to do: the inescapably sexy androgyne. Long live Hong Kong cinema.