Nikita is a drugged-out teen, sentenced to a hefty jail term after murdering a police officer. She is given a simple choice - work for the government as an assassin or be killed. After years of training, she leaves the academy as a smarter, more controlled and more beautiful woman, albeit a woman with very little experience in the world. (There is a great scene where Nikita prowls the aisles of a supermarket, overwhelmed by the choices, finally solving the problem by following another woman around and buying whatever she buys!) From here, the film follows Nikita as she starts a new life and subsequently carries out her missions as ordered while struggling to maintain her two identities.

This film was the basis for The Assassin with Bridget Fonda as well as La Femme Nikita, an appalling TV series screened in late 1998 [Not that bad! - Ed]. The Assassin is in fact a carbon copy of Nikita, but lacks the style and passion of the original French version. The script of Nikita could have been improved slightly, with the end of the film in particular needing a little attention. It isn't Besson's best work, but Nikita has some great action scenes, and is far superior to the American replication. Finally, Jean Reno (a Luc Besson regular) is fantastic as "the cleaner".

The Professional opens with a swift and ruthlessly executed "hit", in which Leon (Reno) effortlessly gets into a heavily guarded drug lord's penthouse suite. Leon's been paid just to scare the boss, and the fact that all of the druggie's guards are killed in order to get to him is irrelevant. Thus we are introduced to the expert skill and style of the professional.

Enter Mathilda (Portman), a 12-year-old daughter of a loser who's been siphoning off drugs from a bent cop (Oldman) and his team. Mathilda happens to be out shopping when the cop turns up for revenge, summarily executing the whole family. She seeks refuge with Leon, her next door neighbour, eventually discovering what he does for a living and, determined to seek revenge for the death of her younger brother, wants to learn his trade and become his assistant. At first Leon refuses, but reluctantly (and strangely) agrees. As the movie progresses, Leon learns how to love and to be a father. After he is forced to rescue her from the heart of the enemy (bent cop's office in DEA headquarters), he seems to incur the wrath of the entire police force and the ensuing battle looks like a war zone.

This is another classic from the trio of director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Nikita, The Big Blue), actor Jean Reno (Godzilla, Mission Impossible, Nikita, The Big Blue) and music writer Eric Serra. The performances are strong and although the action scenes are violent (the movie is rated R for it), it's not all action and violence, and we learn a bit about Leon and his lonely existence. He does have some morals, his professional motto being "no women, no children". Director Besson is getting bigger and better, moving from foreign language films to English, then attracting Hollywood's attention and bigger stars (e.g. Oldman and Aiello in this movie).