The New York Times
A slick, calculating mixture of French contemplativeness and American flying glass.
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La Femme Nikita
A convicted felon is given a second chance as a political assassin working for the government in this action thriller from Luc Besson.
When drug-addicted teen Nikita (Anne Parillaud) shoots a cop in a robbery gone wrong, her sentence is death. But behind prison walls, she is given a secret ultimatum: harness her penchant for violence, or face her executioner. After three years of martial arts, weapons and etiquette training, Nikita is reborn as Josephine, a sexy, sophisticated assassin, released back into normal society with instructions to build a cover life for her killer job.
Less1990Rating: MA15+, Strong violence and coarse language117 minsFrance, ItalyFrench, Italian and English with English subtitles
ActionThrillerWorld Cinema
- Director:
- Luc Besson ('The Fifth Element', 'Léon: The Professional', Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets')
- Writer:
- Luc Besson
- Cast:
- Anne ParillaudMarc DuretPatrick FontanaAlain LathièreJean RenoTchéky KaryoJean-Hugues AngladeJeanne MoreauJacques Boudet
La Femme Nikita | Reviews
Rolling Stone
Very Little in this French thriller makes sense, but it's all savagely engrossing because of the performance of Anne Parillaud in the title role. She's a spellbinder.
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Roger Ebert
Begins with the materials of a violent thriller but transcends them with the story of the heroine's transformation.
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Los Angeles Times
This is not French filmmaking at its best; it's a copy of American studio work, with a few bent wisps of feeling drifting in. Yet good mechanics can make half-good machines, and that's what Besson has done here.
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Entertainment Weekly
The movie is the art-house Blue Steel, and it may prove irresistible to women who’ve spent years watching farfetched male action thrillers and — quite understandably — want a few to call their own.
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