Because Lists Are Fun, And Always Wrong...

Mike's Official Top Five List of Female-Driven Action Movies (Favorites are listed first):

1: Aliens.  Growing up, I had two idols: one was Schwarzenegger, and the other was Ripley.  This is one of my all-time favorite movies. 

2: Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  More James Cameron.  More awesome.  Linda Hamilton is basically what I was going for when I wrote the character of Sam in TRY NOT TO BURN.  A tough-as-nails female survivor with a ponytail and a big gun.  Plus, the movie's got Arnold in it, too, which doesn't hurt.

3: The Descent.  (Possibly more horror than action, but I'm counting it, since it's my arbitrary list, and I can do what I want with it.)  I really dig this movie, even though it's pretty messed up.  On a side note, this is likely the movie that made me claustrophobic.

4: Kill Bill Parts 1 and 2.  Because this list wouldn't be complete without it.  Or them.  Whatever.

5: Domino.  I found some parts of the movie a bit off-putting, but it's still worth a watch, in my opinion.  Especially the documentary about the real-life Domino that the film is based on.  That's really the main reason why it made my list.  She's absolutely fascinating, and it's a real shame she's not still with us.


Honorable Mentions:

Foreign Films I've Never Heard Of: you know who you are, and you're probably Korean, if I had to hazard a guess. 
Films I've Never Seen, But Probably Should Have: Hanna, Haywire, Hunger Games, Columbiana, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Charlie's Angels, Doomsday, the list goes on and on. 
Films I Really Wanted To Include, But Probably Aren't Actiony Enough: Alien, MirrorMask, The Labyrinth.
Films That Weren't Quite Female-Drive Enough: The Matrix, Kick-Ass, The Fifth Element, 28 Days Later.
Films That Didn't Quite Make My Top Five: Resident Evil 1 and 3, V for Vendetta, Red Sonja.
Films I Can't Remember, Because I'm Doing This Entire List Without Searching Online, Using Only My Movie Shelf And My Brain: again, you know who you are. 

I know I must be missing some super obvious ones, and I admit that I have a ton of blind spots in my movie knowledge, but that'll do it for today's Mike's Official Barely Researched Top Five List.

Feel free to leave a comment below to yell at me about how wrong I am, or--better yet--recommend something awesome that I've never seen.  I'm open to suggestions. 

Trying something new

I just sent a donation to one of my favorite podcasts, Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider.  I "bought them lunch," in exchange for a bit of promotion for my book.  I'm not sure if I sent the donation in time for it to appear on this week's podcast, but hopefully they'll talk about it soon.  This is the first time I've done anything like this.  I don't hear too many people advertising on most of the podcasts I listen to, and maybe there's a reason for it. 

However, even if this doesn't lead to a ton of sales, at least I can feel good about helping support a show that I enjoy.

The Kindle edition is now on sale!

The Kindle edition of Try Not to Burn just went on sale last night for under five bucks.  You can find it here.