Nonureva Really Surprised!

GazerRise Fantastic!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

SnoopyStyle Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda) gets the death penalty for killing a cop during a botched drug store robbery. Her death sentence is faked and Bob (Gabriel Byrne) recruits her as a secret government espionage agent. Amanda (Anne Bancroft) helps train her. She is surprised getting an assassination assignment during a fancy dinner where she jumps down a laundry chute. She is given a new identity and an apartment near Venice Beach in L.A. She starts dating J.P. (Dermot Mulroney).This is a remake of Luc Besson's "la femme Nikita" (1990). It is essentially a repeat of the original. The sameness does take away much of the suspense. The tension is simply gone. Bridget Fonda is a functional actress. This may not be her style of movie. She has an easy going personality that doesn't always work with this complicated character. She struggles to get the dark damage of the role. It's a competent thriller and may be better for people who didn't see Besson's film.

statuskuo I got a chance to re-visit this movie on blu-ray years of having watched it on film, then VHS, I can honestly say...what a rebirth.The set-up is almost a shot-by-shot remake...but BOY does John Badham do it right. I LOVE the look of this movie. This is the reason you shoot movie on film. And why it should also be shot in anamorphic. The transfer is crisp and clean and sharp as a tack. The black is true black. Digital black is AWFUL. The color and contrast is superb to anything the Alexa, Red, or Canon can accomplish. This is a fact. If you can't see it, you're blind.As for the content, it's not terrible re-do for America. The one thing that the original brought to it more succinctly is the clandestine international flair. This seemed a bit...odd. Sure there are covert operators here doing dirty deeds. But it's hard to believe Gabriel Byrne being one of them. Bridget Fonda does a decent job. She plays the tomboy well, however, the sleek sophisticate...not so much. At the time, she was perfect. By the trivia, it seems Halle Berry may've been too young, but a Jodie Foster would've made it much more intellectual.Was there a reason for the remake? Probably not. I recall having watched "Nikita" first, outraged they'd remake it. As I've gotten older, this version is fine.

elshikh4 This movie has only 2 excellent factors.Firstly, (Bridget Fonda)'s performance as Nina. Portraying fear, innocence, alienation, and violence was her glorious talent here. Actually, in some places, she was more serious than the movie itself. This undoubtedly is going to be in her top 5 works ever. True (Anne Bancroft) and (Dermot Mulroney) played their roles beautifully; (Bancroft) as old and a bit conscienceless version of Nina, and (Mulroney) as the carefree young man who becomes careworn after loving a grisly mystery. Though, I see that no one could compete with (Fonda), or reach the "excellent" rank she mounted.Secondly, (Hans Zimmer)'s music. It tells the story in indelible effectiveness, being hair-raising, sentimental and painful. I loved in specific the fiery track of the restaurant's chase, and the blue yet optimistic one of the very end.Sorrowfully, the ordinary factors include the rest of the movie ! The sets were poor; I quite hated (Anne Bancroft)'s class of a room. I discovered that (Fonda)'s black dress, that she wore in her first task, is stolen, not remade!, from the same sequence in Nikita (1990); the original French movie that this one is based on (now how uncreative !!). (John Badham)'s direction is so average. It has an executive character all along. As an action, it's deprived of anything special. And as emotional it's just good. (Badham)'s only merit, I think, was leading the performances soundly. Some points bugged me very. Concerning the restaurant's assassination; how in god's name carrying out a murder, by a governmental "secret" agent, without any disguise whatsoever, and in front of all the restaurant's customers, waiters and cooks ? Let alone any cameras as well ?! Then, the through-the-window assassination was done absurdly; that gun was so near to the extent of being seen by anyone, plus it was easy to know the source of the bullet ! And the matter of kidnapping the blond mistress, in front of all of her bodyguards, was more and more absurd. Why not gassing all of them since the start ? Add to that unwarranted points like seeing (Gabriel Byrne) kissing the heroine, or (Miguel Ferrer) throwing a joke. However, nothing was worse than the ending; I don't know a logical reason for it but a desperate intention of making a sequel ! (Point of No Return) couldn't be into the point unless in terms of performance and music. Hence, it ends up as average, despite (Fonda)'s cleverness while even blinking, and (Zimmer)'s music which can make the stone cry. Well, many average factors with a few excellent ones make average work. And the example is clear; this work !

Steve This film is possibly the worst remake ever made.Luc Besson's Nikita was a brilliant action flick with an outstanding script, first class acting and amazing direction. (as a side-note Nikitas first 10 minutes contain the best "cyberpunk" atmosphere this side of Blade Runner).In spite of the fact that this remake follows the original almost scene by scene, it still manages to do everything wrong. That almost merits some sort of award.First of all we never actually see that the heroine is guilty, the cop-killing isn't shown and the door is certainly open to assume she was falsely accused. And this of course misses the entire point of the whole script. In the original Nikita was a true bad-girl, addict, cop-killer at the society's absolute bottom. That is the frigging premise for the whole story! But I guess in Hollywood all heroes have to be snow white and pure, or at least allow that interpretation.But the rest is just as bad. The direction doesn't even play in the same league as Besson's original. The acting is flat and shallow without the humanity that propels Nikita. Besson's masterpiece becomes something pointless and ordinary. That's a crime.See the original movie, it is well worth it. Don't see this one.