Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I must confess... my low rating of this has to do with a similar plot (pre-teen girl who's life is in danger taken under the wing of a professional assassin) being much better utilised in Leon, with far more suspense and gripping action. It also had the added bonus of a young Natalie Portman, rather than the whiny brat who constantly lands everyone in trouble here. Add to that the main shootout being a poorly edited, shot-in-green-light farce, and a villainess who, if she chewed any more carpet, would have a completely bare house, and you can see we have real problems here.Still, it's not all bad. Jean-Marc Barr compellingly plays the ice-cool hired killer, and Asia Argento makes for a sexy yet intelligent officer. We get to see quite a few scenic highlights of Europe, and the plot moves along with just the right speed to stop boredom setting in. It's just the feeling of deja vu is constant from the first shot... And I guarantee you've seen it done better. I know I keep bringing this point up in my reviews, but if the boot fits... 5/10.

I heard about this film and thought 'meh, sounds like a corny action b-film', expecting something along the lines of XXX. But was taken by delightful surprise after seeing it one night on the Movie Network. Olivier Megaton does a very good job filming this movie, with points for action sequences and style. There are no corny one line phrases you see in typical 0ver-rated action films, and it provides a good selection of characters. The action scenes are beautifully filmed, preferably the gun battle in the hotel and the when the film climaxes at Alice's father's place near the end. The rotating camera around Alice as she kills her mother was a pretty damn cool idea. Acting itself was decent, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about. Good mix of characters and satisfactory storyline. 7.5-8/10

This bloody yet stylish European action thriller is well filmed and ambiguous enough to allow your imagination space for thought. Olivier Megaton direction is thoughtful and holds this interesting picture together. Jean-Marc Barr is good as the trained assassin who becomes the girl's protector. His acting inspires confidence and credibility to become Alice's (the girls) savior. Asia Argento who plays Anita a cynical Police Inspector who also needs to protect Alice. This seems to be at the core of this movie. Both Anita (Argento) and Hugo (Barr) need to protect this girl for personal reasons. Although the film does not elaborate on Anita's past you can sense her empathy seeing Alice as the girl within herself. Hugo on the other hand is a loner and has become jaded by his past experiences and through Alice he finds a reason to once again believe in his own goodness. - PCL

The book is good. Written by a French author living in Canada, it mixes the innocence of childhood with the atrocity of warfare. The first is personified by a young girl trying to escape the authority of her quite unrecommendable mother; the second by a mercenary who just came back from Bosnia, where he experienced killings and genocide. The story is about him finding back traces of innocence by helping her to escape, to survive, and therefore to grow up. It is full of complexity in the characters and of permanent tension in the plot. It is the basis for an excellent movie.Alas, ladies and gentlemen, here comes the first part of the spoiler: this isn't an adaptation from this book, or at least it goes so far from the book's purpose that it's unbearable. First, it is untruthful. Second, and more important, the freedom it takes towards the book doesn't make it better, on the contrary: the bad guys look strangely unprepared, the girl's mother isn't a powerful woman at all and looks completely unable to rationalize the gang she's supposed to lead.More important, the girl becomes almost a secondary character, when she was at the core of the plot in the book - along with her father, the only convincing character in the film. Jean-Marc Barr doesn't show what he's able to do, and most actors (especially Asia Argento) empoverish their characters by forgetting they are excellent actors. The multiplicity of languages isn't rendered. And the final scene where Hugo refuses to stay with Anita, symbolizing his complete comeback to innocence and childhood, is turned into a strange enrollment of the girl into the pro-weapons lobby...In short, this story deserves another film, with the same budget, the same technical crew (action scenes and visual effects are great, especially for a French movie!), and more or less the same actors. But a different choice should be made in what to keep from the book...