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La Femme Nikita

La Femme Nikita

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Five Turnips Award
Review: Ridiculous plot + cartoonish characters = Absolute trash and another waste of time and ressources by Luc Besson, only to prove if necessary that some french movies can be just as idiotic as the worse of Hollywood grade Z exploitation flicks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This ain't your Daddy's secret agent
Review: This French film is an extremely slick spy film. It doesn't have the plot depth of a Bond film and by journey's end; the backbone of the film is the main characters growth. A rebellious street hood, played by Anne Parillaud with a great balance of aggression and innocence, is plucked from existence and forced to become a government weapon. She has no choice but to agree and reluctantly learns the ins and outs of espionage. But, even when she is a top-notch agent, she is plagued by her simple desires for love and freedom. This is a slick adventure with a nice audio/video transfer on the DVD. The subtitles are easy to follow as the action scenes take up the bulk of the film. The film was remade in Hollywood as the undesirable POINT OF NO RETURN starring Bridget Fonda.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Icewoman
Review: Nikita, my kind of gurl. This is a standard setting film, excellent work and she pours in emotion with nerves of steal. Her manager, from Mel Gibson's "The Patriot," is excellent in a supporting role. The plagirism, "Point of No Return" is lazy in comparison. Le Femme Nikita is on my top ten list with The Matrix and others.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great film, bad subs.
Review: I bought this film for help with my French coursework on Luc Besson, and I was not disappointed. This film is amazing, happy, sad, action packed, slow-paced, enthralling and gruesome. They're all in there! The music by Eric Serra is also out of this world. My only gripe is the subtitles. As far as I can tell, they are an exact copy of the dub, and not an accurate translation of the French (confusing and annoying at times). If you don't know any French, then this won't matter to you, but if you do, you may want to watch it without the subs.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great
Review: This is a succesful French film that was remade as an American film with Bridgette Fonda in the lead role.

The French film is starker and grimer and it is more elegant.

The opening of the film shows some hopeless junkies commiting a mindless and violent jukie crime. A press report of the incident is released saying that all of the criminals involved have been killed. However one has not, that being Nikita. She has been taken into custody by the security services. They want to train her as an killer. As she is legally dead they have considerable control over her life.

The film is a sort of My Fair Lady as the hopeless junkie is trained not only in how to use weapons but in make up and deportment. The idea is that she has been chosen because of her looks and sex appeal.

The plot of the moview involves her development as a killer and her attempts to regain some form of normal life.

When it was released the film was fresh and based on an original idea. The film is very French in that the main is gorgous, the dressing is elegant and the film is gripping and well done. A classic of the genre.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 'DIGITAL DELINQUENT DISTRESSED DAMSEL'
Review: That's our Anne - not quite an orphan, but very much submitted to the "hard knock life" until an unfortunate mishap [along the lines of her twin's {Alex} - "Clockwork Orange"] "incident" with the Cat Lady. She accidentally off's a cop during a botched drug-induced punk robbery, ends up in jail, on death row, executed? No, ........not quite yet...!

"Miss" ends up in a sort of Charm School [an ultra covert assination bureau for the misbegotten] - is given two choices, "Shape Up" or it's crematorium time - something like that. Under the expert guidance of her mentors, Heartthrob Tcheky Kayro [not quite a Professor Higgins - he is more concerned about her marksmanship], and Jeanne Moreau as the Charm School Mistress, she buds into rather an exotic bird
AND, along the lines of Eliza's ball in "Fair Lady" makes her spectacular debut at a rather elegant restaurant, complete with what she thinks is a Graduation Gift - and what a Gift!

It's a very contemporary and unsettling climate.

There are numerous tests, twists and turns, she even gains an understandably bemused and befuddled lover, a slightly clueless "guy next door". Yes, there is some redemption to this violent little tale!

It's NOT for the kiddies, too - too violent, especially the brilliant Jean Reno as the "cleaning guy" with a penchant for acid baths.....a moment not to be forgotten, expecially the coup de grace "shot"!

Talented director Luc Besson subsequently brought us "The Professional" also with Reno, and the glowing "Fifth Element" - very worthwhile.

A companion? "Clockwork Orange". Also the USA remake with Bridget Fonda, virtually a shot by shot recreation ....

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Movie / Poor DVD
Review: In the opening scene, the character Nikita utters the simple phrase "J'en veux" several times. Each time, however, the DVD gives a different translation: "Gotta have it", "You have it?" Never does the real translation appear: "I want it." This simple, yet aggravating, translation problem seems to characterize the quality of the DVD as a whole.

Nonetheless, the movie is fantastic. Luc Besson directs a thriller action movie, one which everyone can enjoy. The acting is superb, the special effects are great, and the plot is utterly compelling. This is not a movie to be missed.

While the VHS version has a better translation, the DVD has better picture quality. Which do you prefer? ...We can only hope that a special edition will be released in the near future.

On the plus side, the English voice-overs seem to be much better than those normally included with foreign titles. (I've only watched the opening scene with the dubbed soundtrack, however. I prefer subtitles.)

If you're interested in other foreign action movies, check out Nowhere to Hide. Although this new Korean movie is more artistically oriented than the average American action movie, it is outstanding.

As for La Femme Nikita, the movie is definitely worth 5 stars, but the DVD deserves only 2.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The original...
Review: Nothing to do with the TV serie you might have seen on national TV. This movie is the original story of la feme Nikita wich has been copied but nothing has been close do the quality of the direction of the movie. I ll give it a 5 stars and stop copying french movies and import them the way they are...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie from France
Review: One of the nice things about DVD and foreign films is the subtitle and audio options. The movie is in French, with English subtitles, but that is fully at the viewers discetion now as to how they view it. I had previously owned 2 VHS copies, one in French with subtitles, the other in dubbed in English. Few differences between the two audio wise, and it holds the same for the DVD.
About the film itself, the story and camera work is outstanding. I am not the biggest fan of the main leads, however, they are outstanding in their roles. Many of the shots you will see in the film you will see in other action movies later, such as the bullet from a gun shot that got John Woo so much noise, although I think this was done before Woo used that shot. I could be mistaken, though. Either way and anyhow, this has a great script, a very capable cast, and was filmed better than 99% of the A-list movies available today. This is quite simply a text book example of how a great action movie is made.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprisingly Good
Review: Wow this was a really good movie. I was quite surprised by this somewhat unknown gem of an action-packed thriller. It was a really gripping movie. Lots of action and suspense make it a movie worth watching.


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