MovieFreak.com - La Femme Nikita - Special Edition DVD Review

Rescued from death row by a top-secret agency, Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is slowly transformed from cop-killing junkie into bombshell with a license to kill. But when she begins the deadliest mission of her career-only to fall for a man who knows nothing of her true identity—Nikita discovers that in the dark and ruthless world of espionage, the greatest casualty of all is true love.

There are always a select number of cool foreign films that grace the screens of the United States. In 1990, a French thriller by the name of La Femme Nikita started out and became somewhat of a cult favorite. If you count the US remake and the TV series, La Femme Nikita spawns quite a following and liking. Directed by Luc Besson (Leon: The Professional), the film is an involving, violent thriller starring an unwilling, hard-edged, and emotionally frail heroine. That heroine is played by Anne Parillaud and trained by a respectable government agent (Tcheky Karyo).

For a thriller, La Femme Nikita sure is something else. For one thing, it explores the dilemma of a woman living two different lives; an everyday woman in love and an agent trained in assassination. The focus of the story in Luc Besson’s script is clear and moves at a steady pace. Besson’s script is also full of cool action sequences, but it also includes moments of appropriate drama. Said drama appears in the form of Nikita’s love relationship with a man (sympathetically played by Jean-Hughes Anglade) who doesn’t know her secret identity. Scenes between these two characters are realistic and worth every minute. La Femme Nikita works mainly because of Parillaud, because she turns in an energetic and emotional performance.

Also, Luc Besson’s material allows for excitement and action to blend perfectly, as it usually does (not counting The Messenger, however). Giving the film a cool and erotic vibe is Eric Serra’s vibrant and seductive music score. Making a brief, but memorable appearance late in the film is Jean Reno as Victor the Cleaner (who later goes on to become The Professional). Tcheky Karyo is also very cool to watch as Uncle Bob and Nikita’s mentor.

Overall, La Femme Nikita is an exciting, entertaining, and smart thriller that is definitely worth watching.

MGM presents La Femme Nikita in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. This transfer looks about the same as the movie-only release from 2000. Grain and dirt show up quite often in dark scenes, but it’s not too big of a problem. Colors are clear and vibrant. Color detail looks fine. Dark tones and black levels are somewhat inconsistent. There is also evidence of edge enhancement. Overall, the video presentation is decent, but not a great transfer altogether.

MGM presents La Femme Nikita in French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Dialog scenes are mostly clear and easy to understand. Sound effects are effective, but come mostly from the front speakers. The rear speakers come alive during some the action scenes, but the overall surround usage is limited. Eric Serra’s score is nicely separated around the sound channels. La Femme Nikita sounds good, but not exceptional.

The second audio option is an English 5.1 Dolby Digital dub. Audio quality is about the same. The dialogue here is much more natural than the English subtitles for the French language track. However, some of the dialogue is not easy to understand, perhaps because the dub is more than a decade old. The problem with the subtitles is that they are based on the translation from the French version. The dialogue for the English dub is different from the subtitles to match the mouth movements. Why MGM didn’t update the subtitles to match the English version is beyond me, and frankly, this is disappointing.

"The Sound Of Nikita" (~5 mins) – This featurette concerns the score of the film composed by Eric Serra. I like his film scores and this featurette is decent at best. There are new interviews with Anne Parillaud and Tcheky Karyo, which makes for a nice impression, but overall doesn’t reveal anything new.

"Revealed: The Making of La Femme Nikita (~20 mins) – This is the best featurette of all three. Aside from running longer than the others, this making-of features all-new interviews with the cast, mainly Parillaud and Karyo again, plus Jean-Hughes Anglade, Jean Reno, and director of photography Thierry Arbogast. The documentary deals with the film’s conception, casting, production and release. Sadly, there is no behind-the-scenes footage, only a few photos are presented. It’s a nice, semi-comprehensive look at the making of La Femme Nikita, but Luc Besson is nowhere to be found.

Programming Nikita: Interactive Map – This featurette doesn’t make sense at all. You can select from three links, "Vanity Room," "Bedroom" and “Training Room.” Each one contains interviews and 30-second clips of the film. There is no value and calling this a special feature is a joke.

Rounding out the extras is a Poster Gallery (there are only two!), an Easter Egg (a 30-second clip about what Luc Besson likes to do between takes) and the film’s Theatrical Trailer, plus bonus trailers for Platoon, The Terminator and Die Another Day. I really expected something more from this special edition. Where’s the meat or value of the extras? More importantly, where is Luc Besson? The only worthy extra is the making-of documentary, while the poster gallery and the interactive map are a total joke. There’s not enough supplemental material on this disc to call this a special edition.

You can select to view the film with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. The DVD’s menus are not animated. The 117-minute feature is organized into thirty-two chapters.

La Femme Nikita is an exciting, entertaining, and smart thriller that is definitely worth watching. For this new DVD release, MGM offers about the same decent quality in both video and audio presentations. The special edition label is quite misleading, because there is only one worthy supplemental feature, and it doesn’t even feature Mr. Besson. If you own the previous La Femme Nikita DVD, spending $19.99 retail for this lackluster special edition is hardly worth it. As a result, this DVD comes recommended only with considerable reservations.

THE MOVIE	8
THE VIDEO	7
THE AUDIO	7
THE EXTRAS	4
OVERALL (not an average)	6