Rating: 
Summary: Watch it in French!
Review: This is my favorite movie. The DVD version is fantastic, excellent quality, widescreen. I watch it on my Panasonic L50 portable with the small screen no problem. You have to watch the movie in the original french language with english subs. DO NOT ENABLE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AUDIO EVER! The english audio is so poorly done it's laughable.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie worst quality
Review: I'm a huge fan of Luc Besson. From the "Last Battle" days. On top of that, Eric Serra is one of the best contemporary film musician. So? I always wanted to have this movie as finest DVD format. I just can't believe how terribly some DVD's can go in terms of the picture quality. This one has the lowest video quality that I ever saw on DVD medium. Well, except a few from Central Park Media or Chinatown bootlegs maybe. No extra stuff I can understand since it is old one already. However, why buy DVD not for the better picture first of all? On a computer monitor, it's even worse. It reaches a rediculous level. It says "Wide Screen", but in fact this one has "Short Screen". Somebody should do something about it. There are too many wrong Wide Screen movies. Now I don't believe the specs anymore. By the way, no choice of full screen either. Can you believe it? You have to. The "bitrate" is lowest one I found so far. No wonder why the picture is so poor. I can make this quality of Disc with a decent digital camcorder these days. Sort of. I'll give the film itself 10 stars on 5 scale, but for the DVD disc 1 star is too many already. This is one of the VHS quality DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Montokboy
Review: To call La Femme Nikita simply a stylish and violent film is only touching the surface. I believe this film to be Luc Besson's best film and Fifth Element his worst. La Femme Nikita treads into a darker side of humanity with great maturity and style. It contains violence that is well placed and essential to the story. This film is also a love story in two senses. Anne Parillaud starts out as a junkie but is transformed into someone with confidence and gains respect and love for herself. The end scene where she confesses who she is to her lover and tells him that they cannot be together because of circumstances really captures the pain of heartbreak. Beware of the cheap american pseudocopies of this film. Point Of No Return, and the even worse TV spin-off for Xena Warrior Princess fans. I highly recommend the ORIGINAL La Femme Nikita, for its sophisticated and mature storytelling and it's cinematography.
Rating: 
Summary: The Original Femme...And by far the best.
Review: Luc Besson may have gone on to bigger budgets with movies like The Professional and The Fifth Element, but he hasn't gotten any better. Actually, La Femme Nikita (don't let my Leon DVD hear this) may be his best movie to date.The story revolves around a 19 year old heroin addict named Nikita who kills a cop in a drug induced haze, during a violent shootout with her gang. She is sent to jail for life but commits suicide, but does she? Nope, it is one of the state sponsored suicides and she is "reborn" in a government program, which forcibly "recruits" criminals with potential (I guess) and trains them to be government spies. At first Nikita, ever the anarchist, refuses and tries to commit suicide after a failed attempt, but after a while, becomes a reluctant participant in this government scheme. After a spectacular initiation, she is released, to be contacted in 6 months. She is given a new life and a new identity, but the thing that is her savior and the scorn to the government is that she falls in love with a puppy dog grocery clerk. The harsh reality of her double life begins to seep into each other, poisoning both sides of her life and at the end she has to make a choice, whether to continue living like this, or throw it all away and make a clean break...from both her fiancee and her underground life... It is a premise that has been copied over and over again, the robotic superwoman finding life and redemption in the form of love. It has even been copied (literally) through the American remake "Point of no return" (a shallow comparison of this movie) and the series "La Femme Nikita". None of the female leads come close to Anne Parillaud who pull a monsterous performance, providing complexity to what could be considered a 2D character. Nikita is very vulnerable, loveable, dispiseable and hardened at the same time. She is given true life by Parillaud in the performance of her career and the movie is rewarded with a blindingly good performance. Luc Besson takes the lessons he learns here and applies them to future movies, but this one is the original. Every character from "Uncle" Bob, who is desperately in love with her, yet has to remain at a professional distance from her to Marco who is the very understanding boyfriend slowly trying to peel the wall between him and Nikita are developed to their full potential. Other excellent secondary characters are Amande (legend Jeanne Moreau), who teaches Nikita to use her sexuality as a deadly weapons and Jean Reno, who makes a pre-Leon appearance as the "cleaner" Victor (Besson often believed that Victor was the colder, more vicious French cousin of Leon). If you want to see a movie that will move you as well as excite you, the I highly recommend PURCHASING this movie. If not, you will pay Blockbuster for 3~4 rentals because you will love this movie so much.....Rating: B+
Rating:
Summary: Action-packed European style
Review: This effort followed French director Luc Besson's prior thrillers Diva and Subway, but what set this one apart is the graphic violence -- this is pure action, whileas at least Subway also was part comedy. Anne Parillaud (Innocent Blood) here plays a drug-addicted care-for-nothing gang member who takes part in a bloody robbery, but in stead of execution, she gets a second chance at life (thanks to a detective (Tcheky Karyo) that sees in her something others don't...) provided she does some "special work" for the government (work that in fact means committing the same crime she was sentenced for, but now doing it for the state and thus it being within the law...). The most outstanding character is, as usual in most movies he's in, Jean Reno as The Cleaner -- a relentless conscience-free government killer who comes to her aid when a case misfires. If you like Quentin Tarrantino's Reservoir Dogs, Tony Scott's True Romance -- or Luc's more well-known in the U.S. The Professional (original title Léon), you will probably not take too much offense to the violence here -- though it is beautifully choreographed, it is not glorified Hollywood style. And in the end, true love always wins... Footnote: This is IMHO best experienced with the original French audio and English subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: awesome movie
Review: This is a great movie! Far better than the tv series or the re-make 'Point of No Return' with Bridget Fonda. In it, Nikita goes from a drugged out, cop killing monster, to a stylish, beautiful, assassin. She is sentenced to death after shooting a cop in the face during a robbery and instead of actually being killed (her death is faked) the government sets out to rehabilitate her and turn her into an assassin. The acting is great (especially from the lead actress) and the story is very involving. The action is (in true Luc Besson fashion) very stylish. But, there is much more to it than just action. In my opinion this movie goes hand in hand with the equally exceptional 'The Professional', which I also strongly suggest you rent or buy (but you might as well wait now until the uncut version comes out on dvd). Definately don't miss this one, and please don't be put off by the subtitles (it's better than some two-bit job of dubbing).
Rating:
Summary: Accept no substitutes
Review: This, the French La Femme Nikita, directed by Luc Besson, is one of the strangest, most bizarre, yet psychologically truest movies ever made. The story on the surface is absurd and something you'd expect from a grade "B" international intrigue thriller. Anne Parillaud plays Nikita, a bitter, drug-dependent, unsocialized child of the streets who is faster than a kung fu fighter and packs more punch than a Mike Tyson bite. She's killed some people and is given a choice between death and becoming an assassin for the French government. This premise should lead to the usual action/adventure yarn, with lots of fists flying, guns going off, people jumping off of buildings, roaring through the streets in souped up vehicles, spraying bullets, etc., as blood flows and bones shatter. And something like that does happen. However there is a second level in which Nitika becomes the embodiment of something beyond an action adventure heroine. She is coerced and managed by society. Her individuality is beaten out of her so that she can be molded into what the society demands. She comes out of her "training" with her individuality compromised, her free and natural spirit cowed, but undefeated and alive, and she sets out to do what she has been taught to do. And then she falls in love. And she notices, somewhere along the way, amid the murder and the mayhem, that there is something better than and more important than, and closer to her soul in this world than killing and being killed. She finds that she prefers love to hate, tenderness to brutality. She sees herself and who she is for the first time, but it is too late. She cannot escape. Or can she? Parillaud brings a wild animal persona tinged with beauty and unself-conscious grace to the role of Nikita. Marc Duret plays Rico, the tender man she loves, and Tchéky Karyo is her mentor, Bob, whom she also loves. Jeanne Moreau, the legend, has a small part as Amande, who teaches Nikita lipstick application and how to be attractive. Now compare this to the US remake called Point of No Return (1993), starring Bridget Fonda. (Please, do not even consider the vapid TV Nikita.) What's the difference? Well, Fonda's flashier, I suppose, but nowhere is there anything like the psychological depth and raw animal magnetism found in the original. The Fonda vehicle is simply a one-dimensional action flick stylishly done in a predictable manner. Besson's Nikita is a work of art that explores the human predicament and even suggests something close to salvation. As always with a French film, get the subtitled version. The dubbing is always atrocious, and anyway there's really not that much dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: Not Just Another Action Film
Review: If you saw "Point of No Return" with Bridget Fonda, you owe it to yourself to see this film, "La Femme Nikita." While the two films are superficially very similar, the original "La Femme Nikita" has depth that the remake completely lacks. Anne Parillaud's performance is so powerful she wouldn't have to speak a single line to convince us of the totality of her metamorphosis from a punkish, thoughtless killer, to a complex, yet sensitive and caring woman. More than anything else, this movie is a social commentary against the DEATH PENALTY. When Nikita (Anne Parillaud) recklessly pulls the trigger, ending the life of a policeman who is asking for mercy, I was demanding she be put to death. But almost immediately afterwards, Parillaud had me feeling sorry for HER! My feelings flopped back and forth throughout, but each time a little less back and a little more forward. Given a chance, an education, self-esteem, and her femininity, Nikita becomes a new and decent person; a world apart from the life she knew as a drugged-out punk. Don't miss this film! Anne Parillaud turns in an excellent performance that will have you on the verge of tears, if not wiping them away.
Rating:
Summary: Top notch: action, with a heart
Review: La Femme Nikita is a wonderfully innovative film: highly stylized, punkishly sexy, edgy-Euro-cool, hard and soft in all the right new places. The lead character, Nikita, is a true one-of-a-kind: a stubbornly independent street kid turned pro killer ... but with a heart. Despite its action edge, this film has a rare ability to connect with a wide audience. Romantics and philosophers will enjoy Nikita's rebellious longing for a love of her own, a normal life, and a way out of the killing profession. Action lovers, on the other hand, will be thrilled by some of the most exciting, best executed, close-quarter-battle action sequences ever filmed. Indeed, director Luc Besson has a wonderful, realistic flair for special operations themes; he would be the ideal choice to film a Navy SEAL or S.A.S. blockbuster.
Rating:
Summary: On my "Top 10 List"
Review: Don't be turned away by this film's French sub-titles. "La Femme Nikita" is a movie experience I must enjoy at least once a month to sate my need for excellent film-making. This movie is so much more than just a "female junkie" turned "female femme fatale" forced to work for a French underground intelligence agency. Anne Parillaud, who I believe won the French version of America's Oscar for her performance as Nikita, portrays her character with the all the strong, fearless yet vulnerable abilities required to survive the life she is forced to live. Anyone who enjoys an intellectual action story (they do exist!), a superb cast, including the incomparable Jeanne Moreau, should not miss this film.
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