Movie

The Alternate (2000)

A B-movie where most of the budget was apparently spent on recognisable actors, this action thriller is laughable at times. Eric Roberts plays an ex-CIA man known only as The Replacement and does the Die Hard thing when bad guys kidnap the US President. For the last act, there’s just one villain: The Leader (Bryan Genesse), who takes on the authorities and hero all by himself.

The Alternate (also known as Agent of Death) features extended cameos by Ice-T and Michael Madsen. The former is a glorified security guard who spends most of his screen time behind a desk. He’s probably Secret Service, though it’s not specified. This guy is terrible at his job, since it only takes a team of five to infiltrate a hotel, disable the agents on duty with blowpipes, and abscond with the President.

Turns out this is a fake kidnapping orchestrated by the campaign manager to increase popularity. Except the Leader and his henchwoman Mary fancy a bigger payday, so the hostage situation becomes real.

Madsen’s character is the “guy on the outside”, who stands about in his tinted shades and manages (more like botches) special forces raids. The hotel has no alternative access routes, a lame excuse to keep all the action in one location. Good job that the Replacement offers some actual resistance.

The last half hour is especially silly, as the Leader comes after the Replacement with a flamethrower. This leads to average shootouts and poorly staged fights between the two men on the hotel roof. Fortunately, the female villain is more memorable, otherwise the film would be entirely forgettable.

Villainess

Mary (Brooke Theiss-Genesse)

No, the actors’ names are not similar by coincidence. Brooke Theiss-Genesse is the real-life wife of Bryan Genesse and seems to have a martial arts background. Or trained a lot before filming, since she’s very able in her lengthy fight scene, one of the rare highlights.

Viewers are first introduced to the athletic Mary during a training sequence. She gets plenty of action here, dropping from the ceiling and mowing the opposition down with blanks. Not long after, she swaps those for real bullets and shoots it out with the Replacement. The hero is forced to leave the President behind, and the Leader sends his top (and only!) ally after the one man who can stop them.

Mary’s initial attempt doesn’t go so well. She steps into an obvious trap: loose wires in a pool of water. The villainess turns on the power, goes all shaky and collapses. Many first-time viewers probably cursed this “wasted” opportunity. Fortunately, there’s much better to come.

See, this woman doesn’t go down so easily and comes back for round two. She now has a metal rod to even things out and enjoys working over the Replacement. The fight lasts almost two full minutes, and there’s no cutaway shot to another scene. Pure brilliance for any villainess fan. Both parties exchange blows – this is a woman who can receive damage and dish it out. She lands some heavy strikes and ultimately gets the better of her opponent.

Mary, like many action villainesses, gets cocky and lets down her guard. This allows the Replacement to grab the henchwoman as a human shield when the Leader shows up. And so Mary gets taken out by her own team. With a better demise, this villainess would have ranked much higher. But this fight is a must-see.

Honourable Mentions: Tough to Kill

Tagget (1991) – Mrs Sands (Sarah Douglas)

Hon Mention TextThe actress, best known for playing Ursa in Superman II, has a brief but brilliant role in this conspiracy thriller. Her brutally efficient hitwoman kills an old man, beating him with a stylish wooden cane after a clandestine meeting. Then the assassin goes after the hero, a crippled Vietnam veteran who suffers from paralysing flashbacks.

Mrs Sands plans to stage Tagget’s suicide, but he outsmarts her by switching off the lights. Action continues with a shootout and a drag-out fight on the floor. The crippled hero angle works well and gives the hitwoman a physical advantage in the struggle. But the hero overpowers the assassin, then knocks her through a window and over a balcony rail to her doom. At least she put up a good struggle.

Post Impact (2004) – Sarah Henley (Joanna Taylor)

The villainess in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller is a British ex-SAS (Special Air Service) agent who wastes no time seducing the hero (Dean Cain). This includes a steamy sex scene in a shower (in uncensored versions).

The world has entered a second ice age after a comet impact, and a satellite microwave beam weapon has fallen into rebel hands. It’s up to Dean, the Brit, and a team of soldiers to recover it. Henley is depicted as brutal, gunning down people without remorse. A second female is a romantic interest, so no surprise that Henley is a plot twist villain.

After a brutal knife fight in a control room, the hero tosses the traitor through a window. Unlike Mrs Sands, a high fall doesn’t kill this woman, and she returns for a second go. There’s more combat, some boasting, and Henley is shot. Another long drop, then a sharp icicle falls and skewers the villainess. The best demise of the three reviewed here, but the action scenes are average.