La Femme Nikita (Special Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alain Lathière, Anne Parillaud, Laura Chéron, Marc Duret, Patrick FontanaDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of La Femme Nikita (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Good enough for Government work
Summary: 5 Stars
Sacre Bleu! So Society made her!---young, jaded, drug-crazed, punkish Nikita, set her wandering addled to run amok on the streets of Paris, and yet was horrified---astounded, I tell you, Mon Dieu!---that as the Piece de Resistance of a particularly bloody little performance of street theater and robbery, she would smirk, giggle, and send a 9MM shell through the brains of a French police officer.
So what could Society do? They made her---and then they made her a really damned good Killer!
That boils it all down to the guts and gore and bones of Luc Besson's supremely entertaining, absurdly confident little concoction of rage, high style, and wildly brutal wetworks, served up with a bouncy little techno score and Besson's trademark cynical grimness and operatic direction.
Locked down in the concrete and steel bowels of the French Deuxieme Bureau, burrowed well into the guts of that part of Ze Gay Paree tourists won't find on their maps, grouchy old Uncle Bob (Tcheky Karyo in a seamless, perfect role, looking as though he chews drill bits for breakfast and shaves with a dull axe) presents our waify little cop-killa with a Big Choice: get deep-sixed, or join the Civil Service!
Woot! And hours before, she didn't even have a decent resume!
So Nikita gets what you might call a Super-Duper Extreme Makeover, and hits the streets in service to God & Country: travelling to strange and fascinating places, meeting all sorts of people, and whacking them with extreme prejudice.
The delicious irony is that our little proto-punk plumb becomes more human as the bloodthirstiness of her state-sanctioned depravities become more monstrous. Like---"I've been on the job for a few weeks, and it's all double, double, toil and trouble. When can I retire?" Hey, don't hate her, she's only French: Gallic work-ethic and all.
Truly, who can blame her?---it's France, where the workaholics put in their 30-hour workweeks and flee for the countryside for months on end. Hell, the poor girl is expected to be on call 24/7, taking phone calls from middle management in the middle of the night, and, Zut Alors!---whacking people, of all things. Talk about a hostile work environment!
All of this comes together brilliantly in Besson's film, which fairly pulses with a steady, nasty menace: Karyo puts up with Nikita's insolence, but you can tell he's on a pretty short leash. The puppy is cute, no doubt, but if it doesn't learn to heel quickly, he'll twist its head off and go puppy-hunting.
Besson is at his best; the direction is paced but still freakishly kinetic: the world of nihilistic destruction lurking just beneath all the Gucci and Prada and Givenchy is a tasty little bloody nugget---I'll pay to visit.
The acting is just fine: scrumptious Anne Parillaud and the hulking Karyo serve as fine foils poised for a duel, one becoming a human being even as she carries out monstrosities, the other becoming more freakish even as he fumbles at a sane relationship. An Indonesian diplomat gets literally flushed down a drain. Jean Reno (The Cleaner, oh who can forget the glorious Cleaner!) comes calling, big traveling bags bulging with killing tools and plenty of high-powered corrosive acid.
All of this is in service to a Great Moral: there is no Criminal walking the Earth that can't be made a better Killer with a government paycheck and shiny new Embassy plates.
Anyway: in France, Crime may not pay---but High Crime comes with full benefits and a generous pension. This is the good stuff, folks: bon appetit.
JSG
Summary of La Femme Nikita (Special Edition)
French director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) broke the commercial taboo against female-driven action movies with this seminal, seductively slick film about a violent street punk (Anne Parillaud) trained to become a smooth, stylish assassin. Though it amounts, in the end, to little more than disposable pop, the film has a cohesiveness in style and tone--akin to the early James Bond films--that gives it a sense of integrity. Parillaud is compelling both as a wild child and chic-but-lethal pro (trained in good manners by none other than Jeanne Moreau). Tchéky Karyo is also good as the cop mentor who develops feelings for her. --Tom KeoghSimilar DVD Movies
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