I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Anne Parillaud stars in the title role, a dangerous street punk who shoots a cop during a botched pharmacy robbery. She ends up saved from her execution by a typically shadowy government organization, because a character named Bob (Tcheky Karyo) has seen potential in her. She's groomed to be an assassin, and eventually adapts to this new life of hers. Adding to her newfound happiness is a romance with a nice guy supermarket cashier, Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade)."La Femme Nikita" may surprise you if you're seeing it for the first time. Having spawned an American remake ("Point of No Return") and a cable TV series, one might think it were wall to wall action. But it's not. It's actually got quite a bit of humanity, working as a straight drama (for the most part) with interludes of intrigue. It benefits from engaging characters; as Nikita blossoms, the character becomes more and more appealing. Anglade is a likable, worthy love interest, adding to the good vibes.That doesn't mean, however, that there's no action at all. One set piece in a restaurant will capture the viewers' attention, as things go from bad to worse and Nikita gets caught in a shootout. There is some potent violence to enjoy, and giving the proceedings a real shot in the arm is the late-in- the-game appearance of ever-cool Jean Reno, who plays an unhinged "cleaner" named Victor.The sexy Parillaud is convincing every step of the way. The excellent Karyo does a compelling job as this unlikely new sort of "father figure" in her life. Film legend Jeanne Moreau adds a great touch of class as Amande, who coaches Nikita on how to bring out her femininity.The breakthrough film for its writer / director, Luc Besson, "Nikita" might be too slow and quiet for some tastes, but it does have style. Besson would later re-team with Reno for his American debut, "Leon the Professional".Seven out of 10.

When the film opens, Nikita is a frail young woman who's literally dragged to a robbery, everyone is excited, but she seems absent, hanging on the miserable hope to get her fix. When everything goes wrong (and that's an understatement) she is sitting on the ground, passively watching cops and punks kill and being killed. At that point, she seems like a victim but then she cold-bloodily shoots a cop who actually cared for her, then even for us, she's beyond any kind of redemption. Things go rather quickly: she's arrested, put on trial and sentenced for perpetuity.But there's something in Anne Parillaud's performance (that won the French Oscar for Best Actress, the only award the film received) that turns Nikita into a genuinely enigmatic personality, we don't like her, there's not much question that she's a bad woman, but she's also a weird, infantile, grotesque, rude and excessively unpredictable person. The film doesn't suggest that she's victim of herself, but simply that there's a sort of vacuum in her life, her education or her mind that let criminal impulses fill it, she's bad but in an accidental sort of way. The film then ventures in "realistic fantasy" when she's put to sleep by injection and wakes up in a secret government organization specialized in recruiting new profiles for assignments to kill. What did they see in Nikita, we never know but the man in charge of her 'reeducation' is Bob, played by the great Tcheky Karyo and he's convinced that the girl has potential.Luc Besson knows his craft, he expected that the whole first act would consist on showing the evolution of Nikita from that sorry-excuse-for-a-woman to a professional female killer, meaning in subtext, that she'll have to become a woman as well, it's a rebirth, a metamorphosis she'll owe to her new job, and what an irony that killing people will be the counterpart to being alive. This paradox will shape the second personality of Nikita, who'll never stop to be a tortured woman but in a different way, she's just starting to enjoy life but the catch of her redemption consists on cold-blooded murders. But Besson knows our disbelief won't be suspended for long if the change isn't believable, we could believe his Leon was such a pro because we didn't see his back-story or his training, for Nikita, the film will have to become a character-study, and I guess this is why Besson started with an action sequence and some unexpected outburst during the training part.Nikita's unpredictability is the key to her appeal as an original character, until we know it's time to get over it, but it allows Besson to find the right balance between action and drama, and some moments like the interactions with Jeanne Moreau, teaching her how to smile, how to be a woman, is one of these emotional reliefs the story asks for. And it turns out that, because her life is still at stakes, because she's supposed to be dead and she's easily disposable, she becomes a real woman, feminine, pretty and gentle. And then, something interesting happens, there's a transfer from Nikita to the script in the unpredictability department, Nikita remains the same woman, vulnerable and melancholic and the excitement, the thrills come from Besson's hard-edged script. Yes, he is an expert of cinema "du look" as they say in France, and yes, he was one of these new talents with vision but he doesn't get enough credit for his screen writing. Her relationship with Pygmalion Bob is one of the aspects that elevate the film.I will not reveal all the film but there's just one scene that works on a perfect tertiary tempo, and it's just fascinating. Nikita is invited to a restaurant with Bob to celebrate her 'graduation', her gift is wrapped in a box, she opens it and her smile vanishes: it's a gun. She must kill someone. First surprise. She has three minutes to do it after Bob leaves, no time to think. Second surprise. She's suppose to get off from a little window located in men's toilets, when she gets there, it's walled. Third surprise. Each time, we see nothing coming, we're literally put in her high-heel shoes and try to figure out how she'll get from that situation. The action sequences that go after are spectacular but traditional, yet it works because Besson makes his action sequences as a dressing, not as a meal, the film is a terrific thriller because of the set-ups rather than the outcomes, the anticipation rather than the action especially since Nikita isn't exactly the Leon-professional type, the film almost works on a Hitchcockian level.And it could have worked alone with Nikita, Bob and the missions, but Besson adds a third dimension, a romance. Nikita falls in love with a gentle and smiling cashier played by Jean-Hugues Anglade, he's obviously not expecting such a beauty to approach him, but she does. Maybe because she's like him, she feels like an outcast, and she could tell he would love her, the organization reeducated her, but there was still a little void in her heart, and I just love how the film never tries to create artificial obstacles in their love, it's pure, passionate love, and it will overlap with the killing missions in the most creative and again, unexpected ways. That's exactly what I love about the film, it provides unexpected moments of thrills and emotions without being too original, it's a good thriller, romance and character-study.And trust Besson to always find a way to surprise you, every mission is memorable in a climactic or anti-climactic way, and just when it gets too routinely, he introduces one of this great supporting characters, Victor the Cleaner, played by Jean Reno, perhaps foreshadowing his performance as Léon. Victor is here for ten minutes but he makes the show but that's another story.

I watched this film when it first came out, and then watched it again and again analyzing it ad nauseum... to try and learn a thing or two. Yes, it is that good. I like a few other Luc Besson films, but this one is a notch or two above his other creations.Nikita is a story about a drug addicted woman who becomes a government agent, or rather - an assassin.That part of the story is presented really well, and provides more than enough excitement to support the entire film. But what makes this film so good is everything that happens below the surface: complex relationships, unfinished business, never knowing if she will do this or that... yet, none of it feels forced or contrived. It all makes perfect sense.I read some negative reviews here and was wondering if those people even watched this film: their questions almost feel like they should not be allowed in theaters alone. Carefully watching a film such as this one will go a long way toward enjoying it.Perhaps the only "problem" with La Femme Nikita is that it came out at the time when no one knew who Luc Besson was, and with minimal, if any, promotion armchair film-critics found it to be an easy target for unjustified negativity. Too many people are on a lookout for what seems like an easy target for their vitriol, and this film did not come with any big names attached, so they could not pass on the opportunity.The true greatness of this film is best illustrated by the fact that numerous TV shows and a remake or two were made soon after it came out. You know a film is good when other filmmakers are aching to make it again, and they fail to exceed its high standards.The only other real problem with this film may be its subtitles. Since I speak French, I simply listen, rather than read, but a few times that I took a look at subtitles, I was shocked that they were so far off - it felt almost like someone was trying to change the story with their subtitles! If memory serves me well, the original VHS actually had excellent translation as did the theatrical release; but DVD and Bluray suffer from bad English subtitles (maybe Bluray less so? Don't remember any more).All in all, action packed, brutally honest crime drama (yes, governments DO hire former criminals to be their assassins), with a heart. The single most important point of this film is not action but the main character's arc. Enjoy it and discover it yourself.This is one of the finest examples of what French cinema is capable of. Hollywood cannot even come close.

Upon cinematic release, being fascinated with Bridget Fonda, I watched 'Point of No Return', which I enjoyed but had no idea it was based on Besson's film. Badham's work was okay in my books, but nothing spectacular. Over the years I had loved those films of his I had seen ('Leon: The Professional', 'The Fifth Element', 'The Family' and 'Lucy'), and decided I wanted to see his earlier classic. I like the fact that Besson always has some hand in the writing, and the exquisite and graceful small part he wrote for acting legend Jeanne Moreau, virtually a microcosm of everything splendid she had ever brought to the screen. Besson has a very good feel for the genres his films represent--he plays to his strengths, and is not afraid to stick to his guns (for example, I'm glad he chose the ending that he did). The two significant extras on my DVD, remarking on the making of the film, and the sound selections by scorer Eric Serra, were both informative and entertaining, and added significant value. I highly recommend the experience to those who only think of 'The Fifth Element' when they think of Luc's work--you're in for a real treat...