This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
... View MoreThe plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
... View MoreThis is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
... View MoreThis is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
... View MoreI think I probably watched this film at the wrong time. I first saw the American-language remake 'Assassin' back in the early nineties and have only just got round to watching the film it was based on, 'Nikita' (or 'La Femme Nikita' to be precise). Therefore, it's hard to accept that the French version is the original source material and not the remake. Both stay pretty much on the same story-telling path, telling the tale of a down-and-out, drug-addled young woman, killing a police officer in a burglary gone wrong, but eluding the death penalty in favour of working for a secret government agency to 'off' those who need disappearing. Yes, the plot is possibly a little far-fetched, but, if you can suspend your disbelief long enough, you'll find that it's well worth it.What you get is the story of a tortured soul who's trying to make a fresh start of her life and yet keeps finding herself dragged back into the covert ways of the spy agency to do their dirty work. You will definitely feel for the lead and the writing is pretty solid for her and all those she encounters. It's one of those rare films where there isn't a discernible 'baddie' to take on. The 'bad-guy' (if it can be considered so) is the situation she's found herself in and her attempts to - once again - change her life for the better and truly escape the shackles she's found herself in - whether a slave to drug abuse or the government's whims.I think the best thing about Nikita is its realism (yes, I know I've already said you have to suspend your disbelief to appreciate it, but hear me out...) - in many modern films where the lead is a female action hero who spends her time beating up dozens of burly men who stand in her way, you feel that - although cool to look at - it may not happen that way in real life. However, in Nikita she never uses her physical strength to overpower and take-down her targets. Instead, she uses her wits and deadeye with a sniper's rifle to get the dirty job done (and get home in time for tea with her new fella).I'm glad I've watched the original. It's a decent film which blends action with genuine emotion for the characters, plus it's worth noting that it was good enough to inspire whoever greenlit its American remake NOT to change it so much that it's barely recognisable and remained true to what made it great in the first place.
... View MoreOne of the better French films you'll see. Not that this says much, as most French movies are pretentious crap. Nikita, on the other hand, is far from that...A woman in a criminal gang is captured after killing a policeman during a botched robbery. She is sentenced to life in prison but while in prison she is approached by a government agent who intends to make her a secret agent. She reluctantly goes along with the idea...Interesting, engaging espionage drama with some great action scenes. Plot is good and the story follows well. The set up is also well done, and quite funny at times. Quite gritty too. Has all the traits of a good drama.So good, Hollywood remade Nikita as Point of No Return / The Assassin in 1993, with Bridget Fonda in the lead role. It was also made into a Canadian TV series, La Femme Nikita. The series lasted from 1997 to 2001 and starred Peta Wilson in the lead role.
... View MoreIt doesn't matter how good the acts are, it doesn't matter how good the production is... If the screenplay is faulty, everything is at fault. La Femme Nikita had every single potential element to be a classic and even cult movie but the screenplay failed the whole thing from the very beginning. Why the French secret service recruited Nikita in first place? A junkie (Dark grey almost rotten teeth) murderer of a policeman who proved to be completely insane as they could not even let her in common ward in fear of her causing harm to other inmates, basically a sick persona who belonged to mental hospital rather than a prison. Granted that they wanted a killer walking dead to do their dirty and most dangerous job (I'll emphasis on this subject later) but the killer ghost is not supposed to be the crazy untamed animal as Nikita was. The whole Idea was a child's dream, a very big defect in screenplay from the very start. As the movie continues, we see no development in Nikita's training as an assassin. First she does not cooperate and then all the sudden she decides to cooperate because she realizes that she has only 2 weeks to prove herself worthy but we would not see what happened in next 2 weeks and in reality nothing can happen in 2 weeks but anyways, couple of vague scenes follows and then we see her at her 23rd birthday, 3 years passed and we saw nothing of her training and her character development from that early wild animal to a classy lady assassin. It appears that there is a romance going on between her and Rico but that's just a guess from the following acts so I wonder what's the point of making a rated R movies if it's supposed to appear like a PG-13? Another gross failure. Now let's see how is she doing as an assassin/secret agent. I hoped to see something extraordinary to compensate for the previous failures but no! nothing. Her first job is to deliver a bugged plate to a room in a hotel. Her second assignment is to shoot a lady with sniper rifle. Really? did they go through all that to recruit her to do these kind of jobs? and then comes the embassy mission. Again a gross failure in development of the story. 6 months to plan for a very simple mission made complicated. The whole idea of kidnapping the senior diplomat and impersonating someone else as him was one big joke aside from the fact that it doesn't make sense for the secret service to plan 6 months on a mission as basic as that. Anyways, that mission was supposed to be the climax of the movie but still the question remains. Didn't they have normal decent agents to do this job? and at the end she leaves/escapes. leaving her fiancé behind and of course a final confrontation between to lovers/supposed to be rivals and that's it. Actions never justified the causes. The whole thing became a big joke. I would say there was entertainment value in the movie to some extent but it was a cheesy B movie at its best.
... View MoreLong before there were all of the "edgy, dangerous, and sexy" women we now see in action films every day, there was Anne Parillaud. In the over two decades since this seminal film was produced, unfortunately, they have never produced another actress quite like her. When I first viewed this movie, I was totally unprepared for what I was going to see, a virtual force of nature in a slim female figure. As a working actor myself, there are certain things that make a great actor, or a great performance. Part of this magic involves someone who not only fully understands the character, but brings the creative energy and intelligence to the role, fearlessly and without self-consciousness. Parillaud was like watching a master class in the art of acting... she embodied all of these essential qualities, and more. But with all the many good young actors today, NONE could have played the part with such a fully realized landscape of every human emotion imaginable—from drug-induced psychosis, to unfettered youthful rebellion, to total surrender and adulthood, then ultimately morphing to a beautiful compromise of each. Rather than recount all the story points of this movie, I only wish the reader to simply pick up a copy of this film, and watch the original "Nikita" do her thing. I can only describe her fabulous performance as, "Feral." WATCH IT.
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