Rating: 
Summary: This is almost like a new movie.
Review: I admit, I am a Professional junkie. I got a copy of the bootleg VHS tape from a Japanese Laser and have worn it out. Not only was the US version good, the "version Integrale" Full Version of the movie is even better. The movie was cut to appease the MPAA not because it is brutal, or because it showed blood, because it showed Natalie Portman:1. Drinking Champaign 2. Going on hits (she does not kill anyone) 3. Foolishly trying to seduce Leon. 4. Sleeping in the same bed with Leon (fully clothed). Silliness aside, this is a SERIOUS movie. About a "cleaner" played by Jean Reno (from a character concept taken from "La Femme Nikita) who is in bondage from a local mob guy. He goes on all the dangerous hits and this has detached Leon from normal society. He also has the guilt of his ex-girlfriend on his shoulders. The introduction of Mathilda to his life uproots and disturbs him. However, it also forces Leon to become human again. It is facinating to see him regain his humanity. When the DEA kills the family next door, Mathilda is rescued by Leon and becomes partners. Natalie Portman makes her screen debut and it is a powerhouse. She takes a real risk playing the street tough Mathilda because she is a bad@ss, yet on the verge of becoming a sexual woman. Many youths would have screwed up this role majorly, but Portman handles it like a 10 year veteran (she was only 12-13 when doing this movie, reminding me of another youth who took a risk in a movie when she was that age...Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver). Gary Oldman is the over the top DEA Agent, Stansfield. He takes this role with real relish. While this movie looks and feels French, that is not a problem. It is a cool movie, and the relationship between the detached simpleton Leon and Mathilda is magnetic. I felt real sorry when Leon lets Mathilda go to save her life at the end of the movie. I recommend this movie to action movie lovers and even those who have to watch movies with this person...Rating A-
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Masterpiece
Review: This movie is wonderful. It's about a lone hitman-for-hire who saves a girl from a corrupt DEA agent who killed her family. The story goes on and the ending is simply superb. Jean Reno and Natalie Portman play their parts perfectly. There is an editor's cut version of this film for sale on the Internet elsewhere (forgot the URL) which is said to have 20 more minutes, which mostly teaches the viewers about the characters themselves. Director Luc Besson said personally he liked the original version (the one on sale here) better. In conclusion, go buy the movie. This is a film that should be on every home's shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Little Orphan Annie Get Your Gun
Review: Is it a pretentious action flick or a violent family drama? This is a frustrating film. Everything I like about it is undone by something I dislike even more. Suddenly orphaned, a young girl is taken in by a professional hitman, who grudgingly instructs her in the "craft" of killing. The killer-with-a-heart-of-gold owns seemingly nothing, expect high-tech fetish weapons, and a closetful of stage costumes that make for the most preposterous scene in the movie. Other treats include the orphan taking potshots at pedestrians from the roof under the loving eye of her surrogate daddy; utterly predictable shoot outs with the police (gee, wonder if they'll make it to safety before the slo-mo grenade blows up); and, no kidding, the WORST performance I've seen in a major movie by a credible actor. The leads nicely underplay their roles, since playing them straight would reduce this movie to farce. Unfortunately, as if to compensate for the leads' restraint, Oldman bizarrely overacts, screaming and gesturing like a rabid dog. I watched in disbelief. I thought Costner's Robin Hood was the worst ever, but Oldman takes the prize.
Rating:
Summary: When you need the job done right...hire the professional
Review: Luc Besson did a great job with this film as he written and directed it himself. I think this is his best film yet and Jay Reno plays the perfect role as the italian hit man. The film is very entertaining and the action was excellent. I think the best part was the swat raid on Leon's place. The action gets intense and it's realistic and not like one guy with a pistol taking out everyone with fully-autos in which they all shoot and still can't hit him. Words can't really describe the movie as you need to watch it yourself to see how it is. Its rarely that i'll give a movie such a high rating but with the good acting, great action and excellent story line you can't go wrong with this film.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific tale of hope
Review: Leon is a lonely hitman from another country. Portman is a lonely girl from a derangged family. This movie is so heart breaking at the end. Jean Reno, gives a great performance and the young Natalie Portman fits the role amazingly. This is Titanic 1000 times more dramatic.
Rating:
Summary: Leon just got better
Review: I've always loved this movie (as well as most movies by Luc Besson) since I saw it back in '93. And then in '97 I got the extended version, and it just got better! Some of the extra scenes are very good, but the one most memorable scene between Mathilda (Portman) and Leon (Reno)... you'll know which one when you've seen it... really makes this version well worth the price, even if you already had the original one.
Rating:
Summary: The complete version at last!
Review: If you are a true fan of the brilliant version of The Professional which was released in 1994, you MUST see this version. This new DVD release is a studio-issued "integral" version of the film as the director originally intended. Bootleg copies of this version have been floating around the internet for years, based on a version released in the Far East. This version restores many scenes which were cut out of the original American theatrical release as they were of a violent and/or pedo-sexual nature and were deemed too "disturbing" for American audiences (Remarkable how "free" the USA truly is not). This new DVD release restores somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 minutes of the film: A scene in which Natalie Portman's character puts a pistol in her mouth, a couple of scenes in which she and Leon "clean", a scene in which Portman drinks alcohol at a restaurant, and others. The viewer also gets additional information on Leon's background in Italy. I was lucky enough to view this new version at a private screening (at SONY) related to the production of the new DVD. All of the final details of this issue were not yet resolved. But I recall seeing something about a director's commentary track.
Rating:
Summary: A Factual Fiction
Review: Luc Besson went all out on this one. The Professional (a.k.a Leon) is about a trained killer (Jean Reno)who accomodates an orphaned 12-year-old girl after her family is shot down due to a drug raid. Natalie Portman plays Mathilda, the little girl caught in the middle of a feud between corrupt D.E.A. officer, Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) and her father's inability to stash Stansfield's stocks of dope. The whole story explodes into an all out brawl as Leon takes time to train Mathilda as a hitman or "cleaner" , and Mathilda takes it upon herself to waltz into Oldman's office and "clean" him up as revenge for the death of her 4-year-old brother. This vivid artwork by director Luc Besson portrays how love can endure anything in a city filled with shady dealings (namely, New York). Mathilda was never shown the love Leon showed her, and she felt at peace with him. Leon had disastrous passed relationships with women and somehow thought he could right the wrong and still love again. Besson supports the idea that age doesn't matter and companionship can endure many hardships. There are non-stop thrill rides all the way with this one with a strong moral structure holding the whole film together. A definite masterpiece. I recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: The Cleaner, gone solo
Review: The Professional feels like the calculated result of a film studio's marketing decision. In Luc Besson's previous film, La Femme Nikita, actor Jean Reno had played a mysterious, charismatic hitman/terminator. This force of nature, known as The Cleaner, had made a strong impact on American viewers. Clearly, the Cleaner deserved a film of his own. He gets his Hollywood vehicle in The Professional, a promising but ultimately flawed American debut by LFN's director Luc Besson. What had given The Cleaner's role so much punch in LFN, was his tightly executed role within his employer organization, and within the story's much broader context. But in The Professional, the focus on Jean Reno is claustrophobic. It's as if The Cleaner had been fired from his job and gone solo, to live and kill alone from a dingy, anonymous tenement on the wrong side of town. Given this premise, Jean Reno inevitably has to carry too much of the film's burden by himself -- character, plot, technique, and all the emotional themes: love, hate, selfishness, selflessness, violence, redemption ... At the end of the day, we're taught that The Professional is at his best against other professionally trained gunmen like himself, but he is completely out of his depth against the gentle force of platonic love and the deadly venom of drug-induced madness. Those unfamiliar extremes create an ever-widening emotional wedge in The Professional's tightly controlled world, ultimately bringing about the inevitable, violent denouement. While Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman do an OK job of portraying those two extremes, their characters are scripted in tones too disjointed to credibly counterbalance the dry, gray, lifeless world of The Professional.
Rating:
Summary: Americanized Besson, But Still Delivers!
Review: Luc Besson is known for his stylish action films that also have dramatic depth. He does manage to create some exciting action-packed sequences, and does create a credible relationship between Portman and Reno, but he ultimately leans to the mushy sentimentality that he avoided in his earlier films. Jean Reno is great as the lovable milk-drinking hitman. Natalie Portman gives an astonishing performance that may well be her best. The film has surprising sexual undercurrents, the 'lolita' kind. Gary Oldman is way over the top but he does create a fun merciless character. A worthy effort, but could of been better. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 7!
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