WOMEN WHO KICK ASS - MILLA JOVOVICH

For my second selection in my ongoing new series of actresses who specialize in roles where they get to show their male counterparts that they can be just as hardcore as them, I choose Milla Jovovich. After kicking ass in five, so far, Resident Evil films, Milla definitely deserves to be in the conversation. But let's wind the clock back a bit to see where this beauty from the Ukraine got her start. After appearing in a lot of small parts in the late 80's and early 90's, I first took notice of her in the high school slacker movie Dazed and Confused as the quiet stoner Michelle. No action to speak of but this film would be a stepping stone for her next role. The 1997 sci-fi starrer The Fifth Element, directed by Luc Besson and starring Bruce Willis. Milla was cast as Leeloo, the fifth element, that is Earth's only hope against an impending evil. The fact that she is child like kind of throws you off as she quickly learns kung fu to become a lethal weapon. Milla would wind up marrying Besson after wrapping this film but it lasted only two years. Their pairing did produce one hell of a joy ride of a movie.

As Leeloo...getting the drop on someone

They would return for The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in 1999 before their union dissolved and it was another showcase for Milla to flex her action muscles with scenes of sword fighting, and horse riding. 

Ready to kill some zombies

But it wasn't until the first Resident Evil bowed in 2002 that Milla's action credentials were solidified. As Alice, the heroine, she gets to kick much ass. Not so much in her initial offering but as the sequels came, she became more and more stronger and efficient at taking out zombies. The first Evil racked up $100 million worldwide at the box-office so a sequel was quickly green lit. For the sequel Alice was imbued with super strength and agility as she was given the T-rex virus and her body bonded with it but did not turn her into a raving zombie. She became a one woman wrecking crew. There have been a total of five Resident Evil movies now, counting the recently released Retribution, which saw the theatrical grosses swell to $230 million worldwide. Safe bet there will be a sixth movie with Milla returning once again.

Definitely armed for battle

Oh and in between killing zombies Milla got to engage in some derring do as Milady de Winter in the 2011 Three Musketeers remake. She was by far the best thing in this insipid film. Milla Jovovich..a woman who can kick ass!

 After five movies, Alice knows the drill

Happy Birthday MILLA JOVOVICH!

The stunning Ukrainian actress Milla has her birthday today and turns 36. The star of the Resident Evil film series along with The Fifth Element, Zoolander, Chaplin, Dazed & Confused and the latest version of The Three Musketeers. Happy Birthday Milla!

31 Days of Horror - Day 16 (RESIDENT EVIL Film Series)

RESIDENT EVIL (2002) A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident. Milla Jovovich headlines the first Resident Evil as Alice, an employee of The Umbrella Corporation, the company that made the T-rex virus, which causes mutation in humans. The first in the series is ok, but not the best. Milla is awesome though. C+



RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (2004) Much better film and my favorite of the series. Milla kicks ass the whole movie and gets help from the equally bad ass detective Jill Valentine (played awesomely by Sienna Guillory). This is like a comic book come to life with action galore. B

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (2007) Disappointing to say the least. The third chapter in this series just never clicks for me. Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, the only person to survive the virus that infected most of the human population.


In addition to her awesome fighting skills, she now has telekenetic abilities. In this one, she is traveling through the Nevada desert, hiding out from the Umbrella Corporation and teams up with some survivors including returnees Mike Epps and Oded Fehr, Newcomer to the series Ali Larter plays leader Claire Redfield. To me there was not a lot of action especially compared to the last film. And Milla who can kick ass with the best of them, seemed bored throughout. Larter was game as Claire but I missed Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine. They never even mentioned her in this one. There is one cool action scene about midway through involving super fast zombies attacking Alice and company, but that is about it. If you have seen the first two, then you need to see this one just to get some answers. But be warned, the ending leaves the door open for a fourth one. Hopefully to make up for this one. C

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (2010) Improves on the third film in every way. Alice (once again played by Milla) is on the search for more survivors and ends up helping a ragtag band of people in decimated Los Angeles. Ali Larter returns as Claire Redfield and the action is amped up quite a bit. And the 3D effects are awesome. B

Star of The Month: Milla Jovovich

She was born Milica Natasha Jovovich on December 17, 1975, in Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union (now Kiev, Ukraine). Her Serbian father, Bogdan Jovovich, was a medical doctor in Kiev. There he met her mother Galina Jovovich, a Russian actress. At the age of 5, in 1981, Milla with her parents emigrated from the Soviet Union, moving first to London, UK, then to Sacramento, California, and eventually settled in Los Angeles. There her parents worked as house-cleaners for the household of director Brian De Palma. Her parents separated, and eventually divorced, because her father was arrested and spent several years in prison.




Young Milla Jovovich was brought up by her single mother in Los Angeles. In addition to her native Russian, she also speaks Serbian and English. However, in spite of her cosmopolitan background, Milla was ostracized by some of her classmates, as a kid who emigrated from the Soviet Union amidst the paranoia of the Cold War. Many emotional scars had affected her behavior, but she eventually emerged as a resilient, multi-talented, albeit rebellious and risk-taking girl. She was coached by her actress mother since her childhood, first at home, then studied music, ballet, and acting in Los Angeles. In 1994 she appeared on the cover of 'High Times' in the UK, at the age of 18.

She shot to international fame after she was spotted by the photographer Richard Avedon at the age of 11, and was featured in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements, and on the cover of the Italian fashion magazine 'Lei' which was her first cover shoot. She made her first professional model contract at the age of 12, and soon made it to the cover of 'The Face', 'Vogue', 'Cosmopolitan' and many other magazines. The total number of her magazine covers worldwide was over one hundred by 2004, and keeps counting. In 2004 she made $10.4 million, becoming the highest paid supermodel in the world.

Milla Jovovich was torn between two professions, before she eventually became one of the very few supermodels who also developed a steady and serious film career. In 1988, at age 12, she made her film debut credited as Milla in a supporting role in Two Moon Junction (1988) by writer/director Zalman King. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she played several supporting roles as a teenage actress in film and on television, then starred in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). In 1997 she co-starred opposite Bruce Willis in the sci-if blockbuster The Fifth Element (1997), then she starred as the title character of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). In the early 2000s, Milla had a few years of uncertainty in her acting career due to uneven quality of her films, as well as some hectic events in her private life. However, she managed to overcome her personal crisis. With the leading role as Alice in Resident Evil (2002) and its two sequels, she established herself as a film star, and her success in acting career eventually matched her success as a supermodel.

Outside of her acting and modeling professions, Milla Jovovich released several critically acclaimed musical recordings, making her debut as a singer, songwriter and musician with the 1994 release of 'The Divine Comedy'. She also gave several live performances with her band Plastic Has Memory and was featured on 'Hollywood Goes Wild'. Her vocal recordings appeared on soundtracks of several films. She has been writing music and lyrics to her song-demos, playing her guitar and sampling other sounds from her computer, and allowing free download and remix of her songs from her website.

For many years Milla Jovovich has been maintaining a healthier lifestyle, practicing yoga and meditation, trying to avoid junk food, and cooking for herself. Since she was a little girl, Milla has been writing a private diary, a habit she learned from her mother. She has been keeping a record of many good and bad facts of her life, her travels, her relationships, and all important ideas and events in her career, planning eventually to publish an autobiography. After dissolution of her two previous marriages, Milla Jovovich became engaged to film director Paul W.S. Anderson; their daughter, Ever Anderson, was born on November 3, 2007.



IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov

Hero Worship In October

Halloween is next month and it is one of my favorite months. So expect all things scary on my blog in October. The star of the month will be Milla Jovovich, who just did her 4th Resident Evil movie, and she hasn't lost a step when it comes to killing zombies. Expect reviews and photos of Milla all month long. I will also post a horror movie review a day as part of Monty's Horror-Thon, and hopefully I will some guest bloggers coming by with their input as well. I will also revamp my Top 25 Scream Queens...see who still made the cut and some that may be making their first appearance on the list. So October should be grand here on Hero Worship. Just sit back and enjoy the fright.