I can't recall whether I last saw this in the cinema or on video but I do recall liking it a lot and even had a poster on my wall. Coming to it again almost 30 years later I am not quite as impressed. It stuck me as overlong and I found it a bit uneven. There were scenes I was supposed to take seriously and then there were ridiculous sequences with cars ploughing through walls and fight-outs in posh restaurant kitchens with automatic weapons. I should have been on a warning with the opening sequence when there is a super hero comic book response by the police to a potential chemist shop robbery. Then, of course, during the period between viewings I have seen television adaptations. The fabulous French Canadian version, La Femme Nikita with the stunning Peta Wilson and the more recent and more similar to this in tone, US Nikita with Maggie Q. The French Canadian version very much takes the theme set out here but builds on it imaginatively and believably. It has to be said that even if this original film does now disappoint it was a great concept and Luc lesson can take much of the credit for that.

Anne Parillaud stars in the title role, a dangerous street punk who shoots a cop during a botched pharmacy robbery. She ends up saved from her execution by a typically shadowy government organization, because a character named Bob (Tcheky Karyo) has seen potential in her. She's groomed to be an assassin, and eventually adapts to this new life of hers. Adding to her newfound happiness is a romance with a nice guy supermarket cashier, Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade)."La Femme Nikita" may surprise you if you're seeing it for the first time. Having spawned an American remake ("Point of No Return") and a cable TV series, one might think it were wall to wall action. But it's not. It's actually got quite a bit of humanity, working as a straight drama (for the most part) with interludes of intrigue. It benefits from engaging characters; as Nikita blossoms, the character becomes more and more appealing. Anglade is a likable, worthy love interest, adding to the good vibes.That doesn't mean, however, that there's no action at all. One set piece in a restaurant will capture the viewers' attention, as things go from bad to worse and Nikita gets caught in a shootout. There is some potent violence to enjoy, and giving the proceedings a real shot in the arm is the late-in- the-game appearance of ever-cool Jean Reno, who plays an unhinged "cleaner" named Victor.The sexy Parillaud is convincing every step of the way. The excellent Karyo does a compelling job as this unlikely new sort of "father figure" in her life. Film legend Jeanne Moreau adds a great touch of class as Amande, who coaches Nikita on how to bring out her femininity.The breakthrough film for its writer / director, Luc Besson, "Nikita" might be too slow and quiet for some tastes, but it does have style. Besson would later re-team with Reno for his American debut, "Leon the Professional".Seven out of 10.

Upon cinematic release, being fascinated with Bridget Fonda, I watched 'Point of No Return', which I enjoyed but had no idea it was based on Besson's film. Badham's work was okay in my books, but nothing spectacular. Over the years I had loved those films of his I had seen ('Leon: The Professional', 'The Fifth Element', 'The Family' and 'Lucy'), and decided I wanted to see his earlier classic. I like the fact that Besson always has some hand in the writing, and the exquisite and graceful small part he wrote for acting legend Jeanne Moreau, virtually a microcosm of everything splendid she had ever brought to the screen. Besson has a very good feel for the genres his films represent--he plays to his strengths, and is not afraid to stick to his guns (for example, I'm glad he chose the ending that he did). The two significant extras on my DVD, remarking on the making of the film, and the sound selections by scorer Eric Serra, were both informative and entertaining, and added significant value. I highly recommend the experience to those who only think of 'The Fifth Element' when they think of Luc's work--you're in for a real treat...

It 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.