Oh So Geeky

If Ethan Hunt is considered the quintessential American spy opposite MI6 British royalty James Bond, then his female counterparts are presumably bad-asses in their own right. Throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise led by Tom Cruise, Hunt's squad has offered actresses a wide range of love interests and agents. With the series's sixth installment Fallout  hitting theaters, I thought it was about time to take a look at how the women fare throughout the franchise.  Here's another edition of Wonder Women featuring Mission: Impossible. (Note: this list is in chronological order of the movies' release date and contains spoilers). Which is your favorite Mission: Impossible female character? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

The label It Girl is a complicated one. Originating in the 1920s, Clara Bow was a young up-and-coming actress who captivated audiences on-screen with her looks, vulnerability, style, and talent to become one of Hollywood's earliest icons. In one year, she made twenty-five movies, and was eventually dubbed the first It Girl, the simple definition of which is a woman with a magnetic personality and/or sex appeal. Despite becoming an instant sensation, her work and unique charisma from the silent film era continues to live on and inspire. Over the years, It Girl has often come to mean something else; a way of noticing women for their fifteen minutes of fame regardless of the industry in film, television, music, or fashion; treating them more as a promoted trend than a natural force to be reckoned with. It became less about celebrating actresses who rose from indies or obscurity to entertain and enlighten, and more of who could be more gif-worthy in interviews and on the red carpet...

Carrie Fisher didn't expect to become famous, let alone the icon of a major franchise.  Daughter to actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, she started studying the arts as a young adult, and then sort of fell into showbusiness by taking one small job and then landing the role of a lifetime. In 1977, Princess Leia in George Lucas's A New Hope became a beacon for what would become generations of fans. Her character's intelligence, tenacity and resilient attitude set herself among the best and most beloved heroines in film history. After being absent from the big screen for nearly thirty years, the fandom never thought Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia would ever return. When Disney rebooted the franchise in 2015 with The Force Awakens , one of the greatest most anticipating moments was to see the original characters come back. Leia returned as a sophisticated General still fighting the good fight against evil. Though Fisher unexpectedly passed a...

When one thinks about the intriguing elements of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, the abundance of "icy blondes" he utilized throughout his career is hard to ignore. He worked with a myriad of starlets like Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh, and Kim Novak, establishing them as femme fatales and victims on-screen. In celebrating Halloween by watching Rear Window , Grace Kelly's role as Lisa Freemont felt like a great character to highlight for  my Wonder Women series . Elegant and tenacious Grace Kelly dazzles in the classic thriller about an injured photographer L.B "Jeff" Jeffries (played by James Stewart) who's cocooned in his apartment and starts spying on his neighbors. Getting caught up in their own imaginations and theories, they suspect a grizzly murdered took place just across the street and try to prove their accusations to the authorities. Throughout his career Hitchcock examined the themes of a seemingly perfect crime, and the morals that came al...

Guts and blood? Check. Zombies? Check. Andrew Lincoln looking amazing? Check. Oh yeah, what does The Walking Dead also have: kick-ass women. BOOYAH. For a while now, we've been celebrating women of The Walking Dead like  Lori Grimes and Andrea , and then  Maggie and Beth . Lucky for us there are plenty of strong and complex survivors who are worthy of being under the spotlight. For this edition, we're moving onto the calculating straight-shooter, Sasha Williams. From her skills as a warrior to her devastating losses and post-traumatic stress, she's been an invaluable and complex survivor. We're going to take a look at how awesome this woman is, and how the flaws or achievements of the writing shape her. What do you love about Sasha? Feel free to share in the comments! Hope you enjoy!

Guts and blood? Check. Zombies? Check. Andrew Lincoln always looking amazing? Check. Oh yeah, what does  The Walking Dead  also have: kick-ass women. BOOHYAH. In the first edition of celebrating women of The Walking Dead , we evaluated two controversial survivors: Lori Grimes and Andrea . I personally love them both and it was fun to dissect how the writing served them in the best and worst ways. Each character on this show handles surviving the apocalypse differently. What works for one person may not work for another. There may be no better example than the Greene sisters, Maggie and Beth. In a previous post here  I've explored Beth Greene and her underrated layers as a survivor until the fifth season. For this post we're focusing primarily on the elder Maggie, and compare how they were both similar and different in terms of adulting in the apocalypse. We're going to take a look at how awesome this woman is, and how the flaws and achievements of the w...

Zombies? Check. Guts and blood? Check. Andrew Lincoln looking hot? Check. Oh yeah, what else does The Walking Dead  have: kick-ass women. BOOHYAH. If there's one thing the zombie apocalypse breeds other than walkers, it's survivors, people who rise or fall to the challenge of learning new skills, losing their loved ones, making kick-ass walker kills, and waging wars against their enemies. These characters may be damsels and in distress, but they can handle themselves. This first part of Wonder Women: The Walking Dead series will cover two controversial figures, Lori Grimes and Andrea. Nobody on the show is perfect, and frankly, the show's writing can be imperfect too. With this in mind, we're taking a look at how a lack of development affected these characters and if there's more to these women beyond their acquired love-hate relationships from critics and fans. More parts celebrating other women will be coming along shortly with Maggie and Beth Greene, Sas...

The original Ghostbusters is one of me and my sister's favorite movies. It's right up there with other movies like Back to the Future   that we watch, quote, and analyze all the time. When news broke out about a  Ghostbusters reboot, frankly we weren't surprised. Hollywood has been and will be  remaking movies . Studios and producers are always up for revamping any kind of classic for a younger generation while also ignoring that the genre can be  a tiresome idea . Negative reception of the new version before the movie even reached theaters was, in fact, disappointing but again unsurprising. Unlike other re-imaginings that only get a whisper of unflattering reviews, Ghostbusters was put through the ringer of overwhelming misogyny. Fanboys by the masses opposed the reboot to one of  'their' beloved favorites. Not just opposed the movie but absolutely vilified it and the cast. Their reaction reached new heights of erratic behavior: IMDb was flooded wit...

It's no secret that Twister is one of my all-time favorite movies. I've watched it to the point of having memorized it, raved about it , and visited the now defunct movie attraction  at Universal Orlando Resort. Now with the 20th anniversary around the corner, I wanted to celebrate the film's two main women: Melissa Reeves and Jo Harding. Let's be honest: they are both true boss ladies of the disaster genre. If you want to celebrate even more Twister (who doesn't?), check out:  5 Epic Facts You Didn't Know About Twister !

Audiences and critics alike have been clamoring with more women-centric casts in movies. It's not that casts with a superior male cast are in the wrong. Their films have done well for the past 100 years of cinema. But there simply not just one type of hero's journey people want to see all the time. From the Sony hack emails to the constant fight by industry insiders to get women in an equal position of power, it's not a secret that Hollywood struggles putting women in diverse movies and roles. Since the beginning of film-making, women like men have proven their worth not only in money but versatility. From princesses to warriors, and in genres from comedies to action, leading women have racked in millions to almost billions of dollars in ticket sales . Hollywood has plenty of talented actresses, directors, and writers "at their disposal". The issue isn't that they aren't available or that audiences don't want to see them or they aren't...

I'm sure the triple threat above needs no introduction, and any attempt I could manage to thread together probably wouldn't encapsulate her talent or my admiration of her. In the two years of running Oh So Geeky so far, I'm surprised that I've only mentioned this actress and singer in passing. When anyone mentions movie star worship, Judy Garland is as close as it gets for me. Every one has his or her idol, someone that no other person in the history can hold a candle to. It may be a historical figure, movie icon, or music legend that arrives in the midst of our teenage years and wakes us up in a way no other person we've seen or read about had done before. Growing up, my mom was (and still is) obsessed with Classic Hollywood. My family has always treated films like its own religion; we devoured them for fun, debate, and even aspiring occupations. So when I say that I had seen Judy Garland movies during all of adolescent years, I truly did. Turner Classic Mo...

The young adult fandom is vast and growing, and there are a number of young stars moving up in Hollywood's ranks. While it's hard for many to pave roles in projects outside of their television or movie franchise, Shailene Woodley is a leading lady paving a path for young adult stars. Despite her rising popularity status for starring in films like Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars , Shailene Woodley got an early start in show business As the central character in ABC Family's  The Secret Life of an American Teenager, it could be said that my fandom for her started there. However, having never watched the show's episodes in their entirety, I might have seen clips of her characters' scenes on The Soup (an E!  television clip show that pokes fun at Hollywood's best and worst entertainment moments).   Throwing teenagers into one cliche debacle after another was often how the show was regarded, Woodley came through the show's five-year running, she seeme...

Over the past year, BBC made waves around the world with  The Fall . Created and written by Allan Cubitt, it has become one of the vastly most popular crime shows in recent history. Centered around a handsome psychosexual serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) of professional brunette women in their 30s, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) trails his violent depravity in Belfast, Ireland. At first, I streamed the show on Netflix because HELLO, DORNAN with a beard . Instead, it was hard not to fall more in love with Gibson and Anderson's precise and gratifying performance. In fact, she inspired me to start a new series Wonder Women , which is my attempt to shine a light on fascinating and versatile female characters.

From television shows like The Vampire Diaries to mega-blockbusters like Divergent and The Hunger Games , a collection of eccentric, beautiful, and talented leading ladies has been born out of Hollywood. While a lot of attention focuses on U.S. stars like Shailene Woodley, Nina Dobrev, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence - and the list goes on, one of my favorite stars happens to be from across the pond: Jenna Coleman. Born Blackpool, London, Coleman participated in dance during her childhood. Eventually her love of performing transitioned into acting at a local school theater during her early teens. At only nineteen years old, she won her first major role for a British soap opera Emmerdale. During her three-hundred episode arc, she had planned to finish university but performing would lead her elsewhere. Her career may have just been starting out but already she was garnering awards for the heartfelt performance she was producing. Following some three hundred episodes later pl...

Beth Greene is not on most fan's radar from  The Walking Dead . As a minor character shown by the writers when the storylines call for it, she is not a central figure like Rick Grimes or Carol Peletier who carry the brunt of securing protection through violence. As a young adult and mother figure, Greene's importance to the group (or lack thereof) opens up an intriguing discussion about the role of a survival in the walker apocalypse. At the beginning of season two, the Greene family was introduced; a small religious-minded clan living on a peaceful, isolated farm out of the dog-eat-dog climate. Their knowledge of the world coming to an end was mostly shown to them through the television and various happenings with members of their community. In the safety net of their barn, they didn't square off what Rick and his group had to deal with: violent invasions of walkers into their camp, scrounging for food and water, and dealing with dissension between the ranks.

Before Travel Channel became obsessed with men gorging on food and treading into limited access sewers, a female host took the network by storm. Her exuberant personality and sense of humor were something I was obsessed with a teenager. Her name was Samantha Brown. Brown started out with giving tours and staying overnight in ritzy houses and in the tropical United States. Having no previous experience in hosting for television, Brown had been found through The Travel Channel through an audition tape. Luckily the network knew they had someone really special on their hands, and Brown grew to be the first lady of on-air travel. With her next series Great Hotels , Brown scoped out the North American landscape staying at the finest hotels and exploring the local culture. You couldn't help but fall in love with her. She was the girlfriend and best friend you wanted to hang out at home and abroad. Her love for chocolate and ice cream was your cravings. While you wished to be bouncin...

"If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" When I first heard actress Amy Adams answer  "Green" quite blondily in the film Drop Dread Gorgeous (1999) I was in love. Years later, and this actress became a four time Academy Award nominee. And her career has never slowed down. She kicks ass and takes names in every film, photoshoot, red carpet event - you name it. You just can't merely call her an actress. She's a super one. From her early start as the bimbo classmate trying out for Miss Mount Rose American Teen Princess in Drop Dead Gorgeous and playing inexplicably adorable Daddy's girl in Catch Me If You Can , she's incomprehensibly able to fit every single role. Her supporting role in the 2005 film Junebug  confirms how easily she's able to capture then break our hearts. Not appearing in the film for more than a few scenes as pregnant Ashley, she earned the Academy's attention with a heartbreaking scene where she grie...

John over at Hitchcock's World began a marathon earlier this summer about Women in Film; a challenge for bloggers to spotlight a female character from any film genre or time period and explain the various qualities that make them a strong character in the masculine entertainment industry. There were a lot of interesting choices. As a big Harry Potter fan I thought I'd write about J.K. Rowling's range complex witches like Hermione Granger or Professor McGonagall, or George Lucas's Princess Leia. However, Elizabeth Swann in the  Pirates of the Caribbean franchise caught my attention and held it more strongly. Growing up, I remember seeing the first three films in theaters, and of course, was overjoyed by Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow - as most of the world was at that time. But also Keira Knightley as the governor's daughter turned pirate, wife, and mother was an interesting evolution I didn't notice as the films rolled out. The adventurous Pirat...