What If The Expendables Were a Chick Flick?

Sylvester Stallone shrewdly put together an all-star team of '80s action stars as the main gimmick behind this year's The Expendables (out this week on DVD from Lionsgate), but while it's nice that the movie gave the likes of Dolph Lundgren the chance to be in a film that played in U.S. theaters before going to home video, what about the unsung leading ladies of the Reagan years? Here's hoping some enterprising filmmaker can come up with a way to get these '80s ladies back on the big screen.

Helen Slater: She flew in Supergirl, cut off her hair in The Legend of Billie Jean, kissed Michael J. Fox in The Secret of My Success, and wore crazy outfits with huge shoulder pads in the cult comedy Sticky Fingers. She's remained busy in TV, but come on movie people, this is an icon here.

Molly Ringwald: Gen X-ers watched her grow up on screen, and legions of girls (and gay boys) identified with her onscreen heartbreaks and triumphs. She's the Elizabeth Taylor of the Schoolhouse Rock babies -- and her movie cred goes way past the John Hughes movies. She made her debut playing the daughter of indie legends John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands (in Paul Mazursky's Tempest), for heaven's sake, and she's been directed by Godard. Is ABC Family really the best she can hope for?

Joyce Hyser: If she had a nickel for every time Just One of the Guys played on cable in the 1980s and 1990s, this actress would probably never have to work again. But despite her unforgettable turn as a girl reporter who goes undercover, Tootsie-style, at an all-boys' school, this capable comedienne's stardom has been cult-like at best.

Michelle Meyrink: She could play geeky (Real Genius, Revenge of the Nerds) or sexy (Valley Girl, Joy of Sex) with equal aplomb, yet versatile and promising actress hasn't been seen on the big screen since 1988. Wikipedia says she's a Buddhist living on an island off the coast of Vancouver, but a smart filmmaker should at least attempt to make her an offer her ayatana can't refuse.

Jennifer Runyon: She's probably best known for appearing opposite Bill Murray at the beginning of 1984's Ghostbusters -- she's the girl who doesn't get the electric shocks for not knowing what's on the cards he's holding up -- but Runyon scored a witty leading turn in the underrated slob comedy Up the Creek that same year. And then...not a whole lot, unless you count her role as Cindy in one of the umpteen Brady Bunch reunion TV movies. Like all the women listed here, she's an untapped resource in an industry that gives aging men countless opportunities while their former leading ladies get sent out to pasture...or to television.