Rating: 
Summary: A very different French Foreign Legionnaire
Review: Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a drug-addicted street urchin who commits murder during a robbery attempt. She is convicted, imprisoned, and executed by lethal injection. Nikita awakens in a Government facility, learns that her family attended her burial, and learns that she has a choice -- become a (disposable) Government agent/assassin or die. Nikita reluctantly chooses life. Nikita is trained in weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and charm. Nikita accepts all of her training with apathy and disdain, but Nikita survives her training and becomes a Government agent/assassin. And Nikita's missions continuously tear her life apart ...French director Luc Besson's film "La Femme Nikita" is the basis for the American remake "Point of No Return" starring Bridget Fonda, and also for the "La Femme Nikita" television series. Luc Besson's version is *superior*. Anne Parillaud grows throughout her transformation from hostile street urchin to reluctant Government agent/assassin, combining toughness with *fragile femininity*. Jean-Hugues Anglade plays Nikita's friend Marco who loves and emotionally supports his woman of mystery. Jean Reno ("The Professional") plays 'The Cleaner', the assassin who arrives when one of Nikita's missions goes horribly wrong. Eric Serra's wonderful jazz score, the European setting, the flowing French dialogue, and Anne Parillaud's tough but fragile femininity combine to make "La Femme Nikita" a memorable film.
Rating:
Summary: sensitive and dangerous
Review: Sensitive, sophisticated, violent, and exquisite are some of the adjectives that could best describe this tour de force movie by Luc Besson. Unlike most action movies which depend on high body counts and explosives, this movie moves carefully forward as Nikita is transformed from a drug using criminial to a controlled killer. Besides the story, I especially enjoyed the view of french culture. Parisian restaurants, apartments, and gritty streets are beautifully filmed by Besson. Most importantly, the movie contains a female lead character which contrasts Hollywood's obsession with testosterone filled actors who can never enunciate their words. Nikita is played brilliantly. In fact, Nikita hardly speaks throughout the film, yet the viewer can still observe her true character. In my opinion that is an example of brilliant film making. Do yourself a favor and buy this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Nikita
Review: After a bloody shootout at a pharmacy where all of her gang memeber friends are killed, Nikita (Parillaud), high on drugs, kills a policeman in cold blood and is captured and judged for the murder. However, instead of the gas chamber, she gets recruited to a top secret government agency to be trained as an agent. At first, she's confused with the situation, but soon enough she's back to normal, not caring for anything around her and acting like the social misfit she is. All the while there's Bob (Karyo), the agent assigned to her case. He treats Nikita like he couldn't care less for her, yet finds her rather amusing and interesting. Even when his superior tells him that she'll never make it, he insists that she has the stuff to be a good agent. After a while, Nikita comes around and accepts her fate. She continues her training up to the point that three years pass. She's now ready to go back to the real world and Bob chooses her birthday to take her out to a restaurant on what turns out to be more of a mission than a date. Once outside, Nikita meets Marco (Anglade), who works as a cashier at a supermarket. They fall in love and move together, but their happiness is continuosly interrupted by Bob and the missions he sends Nikita on. Will Nikita be able to balance her double life? Will Marco figure the whole thing out? Besson threads an interesting story using well developed characters (the movie revolves around these three characters basically) and interesting set ups for Nikita's missions. The action scenes are well crafted and the acting is really good. There's a brief appearance by Jean Reno (The Crimson Rivers, León) as another hit man. This film was the basis for the Peta Wilson TV series and also for an American remake starring Bridget Fonda.
Rating:
Summary: A great movie - and don't get the dubbed version
Review: Some of the greatest French movies have been remade for US audiences and no one knows about it: Trois hommes et un couffin/Three men and a baby, The Talented Mr Ripley/Plein Soleil (With Alain Delon - where do you think Matt Damon got his pointers?), Le Retour de Martin Guerre/Sommersby... among others. La Femme Nikita is yet another that is way above its American counterpart, The Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda, and deserves its own spot in your movie collection. The TV series doesn't count. Nikita was written and directed by an (at the time) up and coming Frenchman by the name of Luc Besson (Subway, The Professional, the Fifth Element...) who has fantastic mind for action, eye for cinematography and sense for musical scores (Nikita has some great industrial sounds which you can also find in the Fifth Element). Released in 1991, this film pre-dates the canonized litany of films like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. More importantly, and as some reviewers have noted, Nikita combines thrilling action and tension (without expensive FX) with a very touching sense of humanity. Here you have this junkie social reject turned into a well behaved, proper, yet deadly government agent. It's interesting how the government selected someone about to go to jail rather than picking from a horde of eager, patriotic young recruits that would beg to do the job. Their fault is that they assume that this reject is just effectively a machine and has no redeeming human qualities. As the film progresses, you see that Nikita yearns for intimacy and love - it's what makes her vulnerable and it's also probably what makes her so good. Anne Parrillaut plays an excellent Nikita - crazy, kind, warm, insane, feminine, athletic, anarchistic and maternal. Quite a walking contradiction.... yes. Joining Parrillaut are great performances by Jean Reno (The Professional, Ronin, Le Grand Bleu) as Le Nettoyeur (the cleaner) and Marc Duret as her instructor and mentor. Jeanne Morreau also brings a very human element to the Some criticize the ending for not been satisfying... Fair enough, it's clearly a "French" ending, but I think it's the right ending. The governments wants her to be an obedient machine, her boyfriend wants her to be a nice little wife and nurse. Neither of those are really who she is and that's the ending is such. As for the language issue... The French or subtitled version is the only way to go. So much of acting is in the speech and delivery that accepting a dubbed version basically says that you think actors are just pretty faces. The great thing about the DVD is that you have the French, Subtitled and English version all in one. Granted, I speak French. But I hate watching American movies dubbed in French just as bad. La Femme Nikita is/has become somewhat of a cult classic in the US (already is in France)and is one of the movies that put Besson on the map. Regardless of that, it stands on its own as a great movie. Highly recommended....
Rating: 
Summary: A great movie--smart and sexy!
Review: This is yet another wonderful Luc Besson film. I only wish I hadn't seen "Point of No Return" before seeing Nikita--the American version was not very good and took away from my viewing experience of "La Femme Nikita". The only reason I gave the DVD version 4 stars instead of 5 lies in the English subtitles. The translation is very odd, and I would recommend that non-French speakers watch the English dubbed version instead of the French with English subtitles. Otherwise, a truly great film with three wonderful lead actors. The brief appearance of Jean Reno as Victor is priceless.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting Action
Review: Director Luc Besson gets it. Besson, a Frenchman no less, understands what separates a juvenile, mindless action movie from a truly smart, devilishly suspensful cinema experience. Using a clever hybrid of European sensuality and sophistication, along with American notions of wild gunplay and bloodshed, Besson weaves an absorbing tale of murder and betrayal. His characters are chilling and relatively simple, while the world they inhabit is explicitly cosmopolitan in its cross Atlantic treachery. Besson sees the tools this setting offers and pushes them to the figurative hilt. The intriguing story centers around Nikita, a lithe and skillful street urchin played by the violently harried Anne Parillaud. An urban nomad, Nikita is picked up by the mysterious Rico, a role assumed by the ashen faced operator Marc Duret. Rico's motives are unclear at first, but it soon becomes clear that he is not some agent of charity, he is dedicated to molding Nikitas mind in a certain, deadly way. Using her own isolation and his own psychological tricks, Rico, with the help of others in the "group", Rico begins to train Nikita in the arts of death and stealthy assassination. Benefitting a shadowy branch of the French government, Nikita will become an undercover killing machine, moving in and out of various international locales and dispatching her targets ruthlessly. Along the way, Rico must break her spirit, an extremely difficult task, and then rebuild her, teaching her the suave arts of high society and the brute tactics of international murder. Although Nikita resists, she soon gains a reliance on her new teachers, especially Rico, who has a feeling about her. His support is rewarded as Nikita takes to the field for the first time, and the audience is treated to a ripping good action scene. Nikita assumes a somewhat normal life, striking up a relationship, living a life unknown to her. Of course, as she gallavants around the continent, she is forced to pull off daunting and extreme hits, which are portrayed lovingly by Besson. The strange connection between Nikita and Rico begin to strain as Nikita feels the emotional considerable stress of living two lives at once. Her position becomes more untenable as she becomes wrapped up into a violent spiral of severely unethical murder, including the murderously adriot personage of Jean Reno, who wields his 9mm like some kind of quasi-mythical broadsword. His extreme mission and its repercussions soon toss Nikita into a very dangerous position, and theres only one way out. You guessed it, shooting. La Femme Nikita is one of those movies that just never stops impressing the viewer with its sheer audacity. The spirit it conveys, one of shady slaughter and grand stage is just mesmerizing, and the simple but layered characters bring their own murderious tint to the whole spectacle. A great example of what a smart action movie can be.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot better
Review: The "Nikita" hardcore can celebrate MGM's rerelease of the French action film, a single-disc affair that should erase memories of the studio's botched first DVD, from three years ago. The initial "La Femme Nikita" DVD failed director Besson miserably, with visuals just a step up from the VHS. The new special edition looks a lot better, although some digital artifacts remain. Flesh tones seem true and the handsome French interiors get back their luster. Audio wasn't bad on the first disc, and it sounds about the same on the new DVD. The film comes widescreen only (2.35:1), with the 16x9 enhancement. A new 20-minute featurette interviews the key actors, but not Besson. The director's music man, Eric Serra, has his say on an interesting 5-minute extra, "The Sound of 'Nikita.' " An easter egg reveals one of Besson's working methods. Ann Parillaud, who played Nikita, looks a lot more relaxed these days. The actress recalls training with weapons and martial arts for a year before filming began. She found karate "violent, painful and scary," but became obsessed with the firearms. Jean Reno, who went on to international stardom, says he played his popular Victor the Cleaner character without reading the script -- Besson had him walk right into the film. The DVD also includes a pointless "interactive map" that explores Nikita's habitats. A goofy trailer and a poster gallery complete the package.
Rating:
Summary: The original is still the best
Review: After years of remakes and cable shows, I see this film today and there is a combined sense of romance and danger that can't be recreated by anyone but Besson. BLACK CAT was decent, POINT OF NO RETURN was sickening and the cable show constantly cheapens and makes light of the character's weaknesses and sexuality. The story, yes. The action, yes. The cinematography, you know it. But the one thing that keeps me coming back for this film is it's aura and Anne's unique and powerful screen presence.
Rating:
Summary: La Femme Nikita is a MASTERPIECE
Review: This film is incredible. If you have seen Point of No Return starring Bridget Fonda, you have seen a Hollywood-ified scene by scene interpretation of this piece of art. The french original has a mood all its own, a very sexy, foreboding and enticing attitude that grabs you by the balls and refuses to let go for over two hours...but you enjoy it so much that it seems like much less.It is a must see for anyone into action, feminist, artistic, creative, stylized,and critical films.
Rating:
Summary: Merde! Special edition fails to correct picture problems
Review: The movie gets five stars, but this new special edition disc gets one. I own the previous MGM release of this movie which was widely known to have many picture and subtitle problems. I loved the movie enough to purchase this new version. With my fingers crossed, I popped the disc in... ...zut alors! The anamorphic widescreen picture quality is still lousy. Grainy, occasionally pixelized. Look at patterns in the background during the movie and the problems are quite evident. For example, in one scene when Nikita is in training and chatting with her trainer Bob in her room, a grill on a piece of furniture on the left side of the screen creates a hugely distracting pattern that always diverts my eye.
But we get some special features with this special edition, right? Only with the most liberal definition of "special." These empty chats and documentaries are considered standard features for most other DVDs, so I'm not sure what we're supposed to think is special. There's even an easter egg, though it's not hidden, so I guess it's just an egg. But since it's just a short set of film clips, not all that exciting, I guess it's a rotten egg. There are a few improvements. The English subtitles are better less distracting to those of you who speak French. The 5.1 soundtrack is still solid, though not noticeably better than the one on the original MGM disc. I'm not sure if it was remixed. If you don't own a copy of this movie, by all means buy the special edition. If you own the previous version, learn from my mistake and either keep you original version or sell it and buy a used copy of the special edition. Or lobby MGM for a real "special" edition.
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