In G-rated movies, 81 percent of the adults who hold jobs are male, and none of the women who do have jobs hold positions in science, medicine, law, business, politics, or the like.
- from EARTH GIRLS ARE BUSY: GEENA DAVIS’ MISSION TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN ENTERTAINMENT, The Mary Sue
Geena Davis is optimistic for the future. She expects better gender balance in movies for the next five years.
I’m not sure why she’s optimistic. I’ve been doing a bit of poking around on my own… This is what I found:
On How Movies Are Actually Doing A Worse Job (than they were before):
The Little Mermaid was a game-changer for Disney when it was released in the late eighties because, for some reason, it appealed to adults as well. Disney jumped on that, and produced a whole bunch of ‘children’s movies for kids’. These types of movies went really strong all through the nineties, but began to taper off. In 1998, Hercules was a dud (by Disney standards) and Kathleen McDonnell writes (in Honey, We Lost The Kids):
… though Pocahontas and Mulan did better, their more serious and female-centered storylines kept them from achieving blockbuster success. Around the same time, the company faced a new problem — competition — as other studios tried to scramble onto the family-film gravy train and began to borrow the Disney formula.
- from Honey, We Lost The Kids: rethinking childhood in the multimedia age.
The ‘Animation Wars’ were between Disney and Stephen Speilberg’s Dreamworks, of course, symbolised most clearly by 1998 releases of Antz (Dreamworks) and A Bug’s Life (Disney).
McDonnell doesn’t go into why it might be that ‘female-centred storylines’ make less money at box office, partly because that’s not what the book is about, and partly because it’s a given.
Then I came across this:
Hollywood Insiders Admit Hollywood Hates Women is a response to the New Yorker profile of Anna Faris in the April 2011 issue (which I haven’t read); and this review of Bad Teacher, which, like me, questions what it means to be a strong female character:
Here, a “strong woman” means a lazy, lying, scheming, slutty, and obstinately materialistic one, whose sole redeeming virtue is her hard body (which the camera shamelessly ogles, as if the men watching need their hand held to look at an actress’s ass), who is so delusional that she thinks her ostentatious assholery is rock-star sexy, and whose delusions are essentially validated by narrative resolution.
In 2007, Warner Bros Producers No Longer Doing Movies With Female Leads. Was this just vicious hearsay, or have they done just that?
Surely, surely no one would do that. Why risk alienating half of your viewing population?
But then I went to Wikipedia and took a look at the movies Warner Bros have produced since 2007. I then followed links to the plot summaries of those movies, and I’m saddened to report that Warner Bros seem to have done exactly as they said they would.
Here’s a list of the films they’ve made since the beginning of 2008.
I’m going to do a bit of a mind bender on you this time: Pink ones star men; blue ones star women. (Black ones star both female and male leads, or else I haven’t seen the film and can’t work out from the synopsis whether a male or female takes the lead.)
I don’t expect anyone to actually READ this list – just look at the colours.
The Bucket List - Blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole meet for the first time in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
One Missed Call - Beth Raymond is terrified by the deaths of four friends (Taylor, Brian, Leann, and Shelley), three of which she personally witnessed, after they received chilling phone calls apparently from themselves in the future, showing the exact time of their deaths.
Fool’s Gold - Benjamin “Finn” Finnegan is a treasure hunter looking for a treasure from a Spanish galleon, known as the Aurelia, that was lost at sea with the 1715 Treasure Fleet.
10,000 B.C. - In 10,000 BC, a tribe of hunter-gatherers called the Yagahl live in a remote mountain range in the Urals and survive by killing woolly mammoths. D’Leh, a young hunter (m), has a companion named Evolet (f), an orphan who was found by the tribe.
Broken Angel - A young Turkish girl comes to America in search of the life she saw in the movies and on TV.
Chaos Theory - Frank Allen is a professional speaker who lectures on time management and he lives by example by perfectly maximizing his efficiency through scheduling and planning his own life down to the minute.
Speed Racer - Speed Racer is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents Pops and Mom run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Spritle, mechanic Sparky , and girlfriend Trixie are also involved.
Death Note - The series is about Light Yagami, a young man and college student whose life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the “Death Note”, lying on the ground.
Get Smart - Maxwell Smart, an analyst for the top secret American intelligence agency CONTROL, yearns to become a field agent like his friend Agent 23 whom he idolizes.
The Dark Knight - In Gotham City, the Joker and his accomplices rob a bank used by the local mob as a front for money laundering. Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon decide to include new district attorney Harvey Dent, who is dating Bruce Wayne’s childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes, in their plan to eradicate the mob.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - The movie takes place three years after the first one, during the summer after the Sisterhood’s freshman year of college. Bridget is on the soccer team at Brown University. Lena is attending Rhode Island School of Design. Tibby is a film major at NYU. Carmen is attending Yale.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Separatists control the majority of the hyperlanes, leaving Republic forces stranded in different parts of the Outer Rim. Jabba the Hutt’s son Rotta is kidnapped as part of a plot to make the Hutts join the Separatists. Meanwhile, a fierce battle is taking place on the crystalline planet of Christophsis between the Republic’s small clone army and the Retail Clan forces. With the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, the clones steadily advance on the Separatists’ forces, gaining the Republic an early victory.
Hold Up -
Nights in Rodanthe - While picking up his son and daughter for a weekend visit, Jack tells his estranged wife Adrienne that he wants to move back home. Adrienne says she needs time and space to think. Adrienne drives to Rodanthe, North Carolina to a friend’s bed-and-breakfast for the weekend. The house is rustic, romantic and right on the beach and partially in the surf at high tide. There is only one guest for the weekend, Paul, a surgeon. A storm moves in and the two team up to protect the inn. They dine together, share stories and eventually turn to each other for emotional comfort. A genuine romance is born.
Body of Lies - Roger Ferris is a CIA case officer in Iraq, tracking a terrorist called Al-Saleem. He meets Nizar, a member of the terrorist organisation who is prepared to offer information in return for asylum in America.
Death Note: The Last Name - The series is about Light Yagami, a young man and college student whose life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the “Death Note”, lying on the ground.
RocknRolla - In London, the British mob boss Lenny Cole rules the growing real estate business using a corrupt Councilor for the bureaucratic services and his henchman Archy for the dirty work. The main characters are introduced in Archy’s opening voiceover (who acts as the narrator). A billionaire Russian businessman, Uri Omovich, plans a crooked land deal, and London’s crooks all want a piece of it. Other key players include the underhand accountant Stella and ambitious small-time crook One-Two leading a group called the “Wild Bunch”.
Yes Man - Los Angeles bank employee Carl Allen has become withdrawn and preoccupied with his personal life since his divorce from ex-wife Stephanie . Routinely ignoring his friends Pete and Rooney for hangouts at their local bar where Stephanie regularly visits, he has grown used to spending his spare time watching DVDs alone in his apartment, and has an increasingly negative outlook on life.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - In 2005, Daisy, an elderly woman, is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. Daisy asks her daughter, Caroline, to read aloud from the diary of Benjamin Button. In 1918, a boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of a very elderly man. The baby’s mother dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, abandons the infant on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie and Mr. “Tizzy” Weathers, who work at the nursing home, find the baby, and Queenie decides to care for him as her own.
Gran Torino - Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Polish American Ford factory worker and Korean War veteran, has recently been widowed after his wife of 50 years, Dorothy, passed away.
Chandni Chowk to China - Sidhu is a lowly vegetable cutter at a roadside food stall in the Chandni Chowk section of Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologers, tarot card readers, and fake fakirs, refusing to believe in himself despite his foster father Dada’s best efforts.
Slumdog Millionaire - In Mumbai in 2006, eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik, a former street child (child Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, adolescent Tanay Chheda) from the Juhu slum, is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and is one question away from the grand prize. However, before the Rs. 20 million question, he is detained and interrogated by the police, who suspect him of cheating because of the implausibility of a simple “slumdog” knowing all the answers.
Under the Sea 3D -
Watchmen - In the 1930s and ’40s, some of the vigilantes formed a group called the Minutemen. Decades later, a second generation of “superheroes” attempts to form a similar team called the Watchmen. Various historical events are shown to have been altered by the existence of superheroes, such as the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War. The American victory in Vietnam, due to the intervention of the godlike being Dr. Manhattan , leads to Richard Nixon’s third term as President following the repeal of term limits in the United States.
Observe and Report - An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronald “Ronnie” Barnhardt , makes it his mission to apprehend the offender. He is assisted by Charles and Dennis , and the Yuen twins, in his efforts.
Terminator Salvation - In 2003, Doctor Serena Kogan of Cyberdyne Systems convinces death row inmate Marcus Wright to sign his body over for medical research following his execution by lethal injection. One year later the Skynet system is activated, perceives humans as a threat to its own existence, and eradicates much of humanity in the event known as “Judgment Day”.
The Hangover - Celebrating his impending marriage to Tracy , Doug and his friends Phil , Stu , and Tracy’s brother Alan travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, staying at Caesars Palace.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Harry is shown bleeding in front of the Ministry of Magic, which took place after the second to last scene of the previous film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Lord Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds and has chosen Draco Malfoy to carry out a secret mission. Severus Snape accepts Bellatrix Lestrange’s challenge to make an Unbreakable Vow with Draco’s mother, Narcissa, to protect Draco and fulfill the assignment if he fails.
Orphan - Kate Coleman and her husband, John, are experiencing strains in their marriage after their third child was stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is also recovering from alcoholism. They adopt a 9-year-old Russian girl, Esther, from the local orphanage. While Kate and John’s deaf-mute daughter, Max, embraces Esther almost immediately, their son, Daniel, is less welcoming.
Whiteout - US Marshal Carrie Stetko has been working in remote Antarctica for two years, since a betrayal by her partner in Miami that killed him and nearly killed her. She is finally planning to leave, but first is called upon with her friend Doc and pilot Delfy to retrieve a body spotted in a remote area.
The Informant! - Mark Whitacre, a rising star at Decatur, Illinois based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s, blows the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics at the urging of his wife Ginger. One night in November 1992, Whitacre confesses to FBI agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives — including Whitacre himself — had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, an additive used in the commercial livestock industry.
Shorts - The movie starts before the logo with a pair of twins who decide to have a staring contest. The game throughout the course of the movie as a running gag. Both brother and sister lose because their mom snapped her fingers in front of their faces, causing both to blink at the same time. As they wondered who won the game they began a new round, which starts the logo and begins the film.
The Firm - Becks is the leader of the West Ham United football firm, that travels up and down the country to fight other firms. Dom is a normal teenage lad who hangs around with his mates, and one night they go to a nightclub, where his friend Tel walks into Becks and after the two share words, Tel is headbutted in the face by Becks.
The Invention Of Lying - Mark Bellison is an unsuccessful lecture-film writer who is assigned to write about the 13th century, a “very boring” era. One night he goes out on a date with the beautiful, charming and wealthy Anna McDoogles.
Where the Wild Things Are - The film begins with Max, a lonely eight-year-old boy with an active imagination whose parents are divorced, wearing a wolf costume and chasing his dog. His older sister, Claire, does nothing when her friends crush Max’s snow fort (with him inside) during a snowball fight.
Goemon - As a child, Ishikawa Goemon’s entire family was assassinated for political reasons. His mother (Ryo) sent Goemon off moments before she was killed herself. Running away with his caretaker, they were attacked by bandits, but he was saved by Nobunaga Oda who offered him a chance to become stronger. Goemon followed Nobunaga and he was assigned to Hattori Hanzō to train him in the ways of the shinobi (ninja) along with Saizō.
The Box - In 1976, Norma and Arthur Lewis, a financially strapped couple, wake to find a package on the doorstep. Inside the package is a locked wooden box with a button and a note that reads: “Mr. Steward will call upon you at 5:00 pm”. Promptly at five, Steward, a middle aged, facially disfigured man, arrives.
The Blind Side - For most of his childhood, 17-year-old Michael Oher has been in foster care with different families throughout Memphis, Tennessee. Every time he is placed in a new home, he runs away. His friend’s father, whose couch Mike had been sleeping on, asks Burt Cotton, the coach of Wingate Christian school, to help enroll his son and Mike. Impressed by Mike’s size and athleticism, Cotton gets him admitted despite his abysmal academic record.
Ninja Assassin - Raizo is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become the most lethal Ninja assassin in the world. As a child, Raizo (being an orphan) was taken in by Lord Ozuno and is enrolled in severe brutal training to become the next successor of their clan. The only generosity he ever receives was from a kunoichi named Kiriko (f), with whom he develops a romantic bond. As time goes on, Kiriko becomes disenchanted with the Ozunu’s routine and wishes to abandon it for freedom. One rainy night, Kiriko decides to make her escape and encourages Raizo to join her; however he decides to stay.
Invictus - After 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela is released in 1990. His immediate challenge is “balancing black aspirations with white fears”, as racial tensions from the apartheid era have not completely disappeared.
Sherlock Holmes - In 1891, London detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner and roommate Dr. John Watson race to prevent the ritual murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong), who has killed five other young women similarly. They stop the murder before Inspector Lestrade and the police arrive to arrest Blackwood.
The Book of Eli - Thirty years after a nuclear apocalypse,Eli (Washington) travels on foot toward the west coast of the United States. Searching for a source of water, he arrives in a ramshackle town built and overseen by Carnegie (Oldman), who dreams of building more towns and controlling the people by using the power of a certain book. His henchmen scour the desolate landscape daily in search of it, but to no avail.
Edge of Darkness - Edge of Darkness follows a detective Tom Craven investigating the murder of his activist daughter, while uncovering political conspiracies and cover-ups in the process.
Valentine’s Day - It’s Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles, florist Reed Bennett proposes to his girlfriend Morley who accepts, much to the surprise of Reed’s closest friends Alphonso and Julia Fitzpatrick. Morley changes her mind and leaves Reed later in the day. Alphonso tells Reed he and Julia knew it would never work out between him and Morley, and Reed wishes they had told him.
Cop Out - James “Jimmy” Monroe and Paul Hodges, cops working for the NYPD, are celebrating their ninth year together as partners. After failing to capture suspect Juan Diaz and for causing a disastrous neighborhood shootout and beating up a child, they are suspended without pay.
Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? - Puneet is a screenwriter in Mumbai who is currently working on a film with director Bollywood Ranjeet. He lives a happy life with his wife Munmun, son Ayush and neighbor Pappu who is leaving for holidays now.
Hubble 3D - a documentary film about the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. (Out of this discussion because no decision required when of which fictional characters to represent on the big screen.)
Clash of the Titans - The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. The story resumes with a fisherman by name of Spyros finding a casket, bearing a baby still living, clasped in the arms of his mother’s corpse, afloat in the sea. Spyros and his wife, Marmara, raise the baby as their own and name him “Perseus”. Years later, Perseus is fishing with his family when they witness from their ship soldiers from the city of Argos destroying a statue of Zeus. The Gods, infuriated at this desecration, unleash the Furies — flying beasts who pursue mortal sinners. The soldiers are attacked and slaughtered by the Furies.
The Losers - The Losers are an elite black-ops team of United States Special Forces operatives, led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and formed by Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), Jensen (Chris Evans) and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada), who are sent to Bolivia in a search-and-destroy mission on a compound run by a drug lord. While painting a target for an upcoming air strike, the Losers spot slave children in the compound and try to call off the attack, but their superior, codenamed “Max” (Jason Patric), ignores their pleas.
Sex and the City 2 - Set two years after the first film, the film begins with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) meeting up with each other at a shop in New York which turns into a flashback to how Carrie arrived in New York City in 1986, then met Charlotte in 1987, Miranda in 1988, and finally Samantha in 1989.
Splice - Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) hope to achieve fame by successfully splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrid animals for medical use. They have just created the second in a pair of identical hybrids; the new male specimen, Fred, is intended as a mate for the original specimen, a female called Ginger.
Jonah Hex - During the American Civil War, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) served as a Confederate cavalryman until his commanding officer, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), a General for the Confederates who is obsessed with the fall of the Union, ordered him to burn down a hospital. Hex refused, and was forced to kill his best friend, Turnbull’s son Jeb. After the war, a vengeful Turnbull and his right-hand man, Burke (Michael Fassbender), a psychopathic man who often takes pleasure in those he kills or torments, tie up Hex and force him to watch as his house is burned down with his wife and son inside.
Inception - Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) perform illegal corporate espionage by entering the subconscious minds of their targets, using two-level “dream within a dream” strategies to extract valuable information.
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - At a satellite base in Northern Germany, a worker named Friedrich (Fred Armisen), delivering secret codes finds a Cocker Spaniel puppy outside his office. He brings the puppy inside, showing her to his Bloodhound, Rex. Rex senses something is wrong with the puppy and starts to bark at her, making the worker take him outside. Both are locked out of the office. Rex looks in the window seeing the puppy taking pictures of the top secret documents and later revealing to be Kitty Galore (voiced byBette Midler), an evil female hairless cat. Rex turns out to be a dog agent and reports to HQ.
Flipped - Flipped is a 2010 romantic comedy drama film…In 1957, when second-graders Bryce Loski (Callan McAuliffe) and Julianna “Juli” Baker (Madeline Carroll) first meet, Juli knows it’s love. But Bryce isn’t so sure. Girl-phobic and easily embarrassed, young Bryce does everything he can to keep his outspoken wanna-be girlfriend at arm’s length for the next six years, which isn’t easy since they go to the same school and live across the street from each other.
Lottery Ticket - The film takes place over the Fourth of July weekend as Kevin Carson (Bow Wow), tries to avoid losing his lottery ticket worth $370 million. Kevin lives in the Fillmore Projects with his best friend Benny (Brandon T. Jackson), a small-time unemployed hood, his religious grandmother (Loretta Devine), and college-bound Stacie (Naturi Naughton). On his way to Foot-Locker, they come across the neighborhood bully Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe) who tells Kevin to hook him and his boys up with three pairs of new Jordans each.
Going the Distance - is a 2010 romantic comedy film…Erin (Drew Barrymore) is a 31-year-old woman who is having trouble pacing her life. She is still in grad school and she recently got a job as a summer intern at a newspaper in New York. While out with a friend at a bar, she meets Garrett (Justin Long) who interrupts her game of Centipede. The two then drink together and end up at his place where they smoke from a bong and have sex while Garrett’s roommate Dan (Charlie Day) “DJs their hook up”.
The Town - Four lifelong friends from the dangerous streets of the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown—Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert “Gloansy” Magloan (Slaine), and Desmond “Dez” Elden (Owen Burke)—rob a bank, wearing skull masks to avoid identification and also carefully destroying any trace evidence. They also take as a hostage Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), thte bank manager.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole - Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young barn owl, lives in the forest of Tyto with his family: his father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving); his mother, Marella (Essie Davis); his older brother, Kludd (Ryan Kwanten); his younger sister, Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria); and Ms. Plithiver, (Ms. P.) the family’s nest maid, a snake. Soren enjoys hearing stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythical group of warrior owls, who once saved all owlkind from the evil “Pure Ones”. His elder brother, Kludd, however, thinks Soren soft-headed for believing in such stories. One night, while branching, Kludd pushes Soren and loses his balance, too; and they both fall to the ground where they are attacked by an animal resembling a Tasmanian devil. They are then kidnapped by two owls, Jatt and Jutt and taken to St. Aegolious, the canyon home of the evil Pure Ones.
Life as We Know It - is a 2010 comedy-drama film…Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) is the owner of a small Atlanta bakery, and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel), known as “Messer”, is a promising television technical sports director for the Atlanta Hawks, who will have sex with almost any girl he meets. Both are godparents of Sophie Christina Novak, the baby daughter of their friends Peter and Alison , who decide to set them up on a date. However, Holly and Messer have only two things in common: their mutual dislike and their love for their goddaughter. After Peter and Alison die in a car crash, Holly and Messer learn that their friends have named them Sophie’s joint guardians. Holly and Messer must put their differences aside and move into Sophie’s home to care for her.
Hereafter - The film tells three parallel stories about three people affected by death in similar ways – all three have issues of communicating with the dead; Matt Damon plays American factory worker George, who is able to communicate with the dead – who has worked professionally as a Clairvoyant but no longer wants to communicate with the dead; Cécile de France plays French television journalist Marie, who survives a near-death experience during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; and twins Marcus and Jason (played by Frankie and George McLaren), British boys touched by tragedy when Jason dies.
Due Date - Peter Highman is a high strung, type A yuppie on his way home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be present at the birth of his first child, a scheduled C-section, with his wife, Sarah.
FireBreather - On the last day of the war between humans and Kaiju, a woman named Margaret Rosenblatt (voiced by Dana Delany) and a 120 ft dragon Kaiju named Belloc (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) fall in love, and have a son named Duncan. Sixteen years later, Margaret and Duncan (voiced by Jesse Head) are moving into a new house as he gets ready for his first day at a new school. However, Duncan fears that his orange skin and appetite for coal with make others think of him as a freak and a prime target for bullies.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - The story follows Harry Potter on a quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s secret to immortality – the Horcruxes.
Yogi Bear - Yogi (voiced by Dan Aykroyd) and Boo Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake) are two brown bears who have a penchant for stealing picnic baskets from visitors to Jellystone Park, while park rangers Smith (Tom Cavanaugh) and Jones (T. J. Miller) try to prevent them from doing so.
The Rite - Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue), disillusioned with his job as a mortician, decides to enter a seminary school and abdicate his vows upon completion, thereby getting a free college degree. Four years have passed, and Michael is being ordained to the diaconate at the seminary. However, after ordination, he writes a letter of resignation to his superior, Father Matthew, citing a lack of faith. Father Matthew (Toby Jones), apparently wanting to talk Michael out of his decision, attempts to catch up to Michael on the street.
Unknown - Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Liz (January Jones) arrive in Berlin for a biotechnology summit. Upon arriving at their hotel, Hotel Adlon, Martin realizes his briefcase was left at the airport. He takes a taxicab driven by Gina (Diane Kruger), but on the way to the airport, the cab crashes off a bridge into the river. Martin is knocked unconscious upon impact, but Gina saves him from drowning before fleeing from the scene to avoid the police, since she is an illegal immigrant from Bosnia. On Thanksgiving day, he gains consciousness at the hospital after being in a coma for four days.
Hall Pass - Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are best friends as are their wives, Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate). They are both unhappy with their sex lives and missing the old days when they were single. Realizing this, their wives talk to their friend Dr. Lucy (Joy Behar) and decide to give them a “Hall Pass”: A week off from marriage during which they can have sex with other women.
Red Riding Hood - Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) lives in the village of Daggerhorn, which is on the edge of a haunted black forest. As a child, she developed an affinity for hunting and sneaking out when she was told not to for a boy who she grew to love, a woodsman named Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). Despite her feelings, however her mother Suzette (Virginia Madsen) and father Cesaire (Billy Burke) disapprove and instead promise her to wed Henry (Max Irons) the son of the wealthy blacksmith Adrian Lazar (Michael Shanks).
Sucker Punch - In the 1960s, a 20-year-old girl nicknamed “Babydoll” (Emily Browning), is institutionalized by her sexually abusive stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) at the Lennox House for the Mentally Insane after she is blamed for the death of her younger sister. Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac), one of the asylum’s orderlies, is bribed by Babydoll’s stepfather into forging the signature of the asylum’s psychiatrist, Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino), to have Babydoll lobotomized, so she cannot inform the authorities of the true circumstances leading to her sister’s death.
Arthur - a remake of the 1981 film written and directed by Steve Gordon. It starsRussell Brand in the title role, with Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Nick Nolte in supporting roles.
Something Borrowed - an American romantic comedy film…Rachel White (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a single, talented attorney working in a New York law firm. After too many drinks on her 30th birthday, Rachel grabs a cab with Dex (Colin Egglesfield) and playfully reveals she has had a crush on him since law school. The problem is, Dex is also her best friend Darcy’s (Kate Hudson) fiancé. They wake up in bed together the next morning to Darcy calling both of their phones. Dex sneaks out and they do not have time to speak about what happened between them. What Rachel thinks is a one night stand, is actually the beginning of an emotional roller coaster once Dex tells Rachel he is in love with her.
The Hangover: Part II - Two years after their escapade in Las Vegas, Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are traveling to Thailand to celebrate Stu’s impending wedding to Lauren (Jamie Chung).
Green Lantern - is a 2011 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins, with Martin Campbell.
Horrible Bosses - is a 2011 black comedy film…Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) and Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) are friends who despise their bosses. Nick works at a financial firm for emotionally abusive Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) who dangles the possibility of a promotion to Nick, only to award it to himself. Dale suffers sexual harassment from his boss Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) who threatens to falsely tell his fiancee (Lindsay Sloane) that he had sex with her unless he actually has sex with her.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - The story continues to follow Harry Potter‘s quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort‘s Horcruxes. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongsideRupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends.
Crazy, Stupid, Love - Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) gets the surprise of his life when he learns that his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) cheated on him with a coworker, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), and wants a divorce. After moving into his own apartment, Cal begins frequenting a bar night after night, talking loudly about his divorce, until he attracts the attention of a young man named Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Jacob is a womanizer who successfully beds women each night, although a young woman named Hannah (Emma Stone) recently rejected his advances. Taking pity on Cal, Jacob agrees to teach him how to pick up women.
Final Destination 5 - is the fifth installment to the Final Destination film franchise and stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, and Tony Todd.
The Last Circus - In 1937, a “Happy” clown is forcibly recruited to serve in the Spanish Civil War, where he massacres an entire platoon with a machete still in costume. In 1973, near the end of the Franco regime, the clown’s son, Javier, follows in his father’s footsteps to become a clown, but he is too miserable to be funny and is instead relegated to play the part of the Sad Clown. There he is repeatedly humiliated by the Happy Clown Sergio for the entertainment of others. Javier later falls in love with Sergio’s gorgeous acrobat wife, Natalia. A love triangle ensues between the three of them, and the two clowns engage in a horrific battle with one another.
CONCLUSIONS
1. While Warner Bros are still producing a few films starring women in lead roles, these tend to be either tried and true stories (e.g. Red Riding Hood – which is actually about a girl in search of a boy), or spin-offs from stories which have already proven successful (e.g. Sex In The City 2), or new romantic comedy films which, by requirements of their plots, are about women finding men, and are therefore about men, even though they star women.
2. I think there would be a public outrage if Warner Brothers (and other big Hollywood players) inverted what they were doing, and started making this many films about women, with the odd token man.
3. In film it’s easy to miss how few new stories are produced about women (women in their own right, not about women’s existence in relation to men) because there exists a fairly high proportion of romantic comedies which at first glance seems to even the balance somewhat. We also see women in films which are not romantic comedies. In non-rom coms, women most often appear as somebody’s mother/love interest/wife/victim. So the problem is not the lack of women in films, because they are there – the problem is lack of stories about women, for women.
I do hope Geena Davis is right. I hope movie producers realise that women would be more keen on going to the cinema if only they were producing films about us. There’s a very good reason why my husband is usually more keen on going to the movies than I am. The movies are made for him.
However, I doubt this imbalance will improve in the short term because film makers are relying more and more upon revenue outside box office revenue e.g. computer game spinoffs. My hunch is that women buy far fewer computer games than men.
I hope I’m wrong.
BTW, Hollywood knows Hollywood movies fucking suck. From Jezebel. And here he is again.
Related: Women’s Stories And The Oscars from Feminist Frequency, in which we learn exactly how many woman centred movies win this big award.
