Nom de code: Nina

This movie is also called The Assassin. I have never seen the original, Nikita, from Luc Besson, but I was looking for it, instead I stumbled on this film in the rental store and it turned out to be a remake. I thought, with Bridget Fonda as a gunslinging babe, plus Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel in the supporting cast, and in the director's chair John Badham, of Wargames, Bird on a Wire and The Hard Way fame, what can go wrong? Everything!

The camerawork is plain mediocre and not any action scene seems to have any choreography, the whole movie lacks style and elegance while it should have those above everything else. I think, if it would have been a good movie, every scene would have been either very thrilling and exciting to watch or involving. The scene with the arrest in the beginning and the training scenes could have been so much better with a little imagination. The same for the other "action" scenes. The whole movie is very uninspired and a huge waste of talent. For those who like the chix-with-guns genre, which still seems a bit underused, I recommend The Long Kiss Goodnight with Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson which is far superior and has a better plot to boot. Or if you want to see a really good film with Bridget Fonda go watch A Simple Plan.

I give this film 4 out of 10 because it had so much more potential. Were it a B-movie I had been more forgiving, but it wasn't. It was, however, executed as badly as a B-movie.

The English version of the French movie La Femme Nikita. I think it is quite well done, and I enjoyed it.

A druggie girl kills a cop and is sentenced to death. She is given the "opportunity" to live, if she does what they say, and becomes an assassin. To the rest of the world she died.

She is determined, and she doesn't play well with others, but if she doesn't start playing their game, she really will be in her grave.. I'm not giving away any more.

But I would recommend it, it's worth seeing. Especially if you like Bridget Fonda, who kicks arse in this movie.

I thought this flick was good, and I'm SO glad that the film didn't resort to the typical Hollywood ending that other American remakes do (though it differed just a bit from the original "Nikita").

Admittedly, I'm biased in that I'm getting to be a big Bridget Fonda fan. And I agree with another reviewer that Fonda played a more likable character than the one in the French original.

Plus, the DVD's sound is great, though the picture is grainy.

All in all, a good film that doesn't deserve all the mudslinging it has gotten.

You can't truly appreciate how good La Femme Nikita was until you have seen Point of no Return. Bridget Fonda stars as Maggie, the drug addict who is sentenced to death after killing a cop but is given a second chance if she will train to be a secret agent. The film is pretty much remade scene for scene from Nikita with a few small changes here and there except this time all of the original's artistic integrity is sacrificed for mindless action sequences and unneeded sex scenes. Fonda is good as a female action lad but fails to capture the inner struggle Nikita faced from having to live a double life. Also the burning sexual tension from the original is now reduced to nothing more than petty conflict between Maggie and her boyfriend. Bob from the original film was played with a stern sense of hope, you knew he was there for nothing more than to train these people but you could tell in his actions that he did care. Here Gabriel Byrne does not seem tough and uncaring making any feelings he could have had for Maggie seem rather meaningless. Even the line "I will never kiss you again"seems rather out of context, Not only that but most of the other more important scenes from Nikita mean next to nothing, for instance when Nikita pulled the gun out of the bath tub while crying, symbolizing the toil of having to secretly live as someone else. Harvey Keitel is a good actor but is given a thankless role here as Victor the cleaner, coming nowhere close to Jean Reno's dramatic intensity and dark sense of humour. Probably the most disappointing aspect of the film is that there are no cameos from original cast members or no homage paid to Luc Besson's artistic masterpiece, it is just a remake made to suit the modern masses. The ending of the film is basically the same except made a little more accessible but also losses the sense of tragedy, lessening the overall impact of the film in general. The only reason I could see people enjoying this film is if they have not seen La Femme Nikita or those who found the original hard to follow due to the subtitles. Other than that there was really no need for this film to be made or for people to watch it.

An excellent example of Hollywood's ability to ruin a good movie concept. The original version ('La Femme Nikita') was far more gritty and realistic. The main character is offered a choice between death, or the life of an assassin. As such, she spends most of the film trying to find a way out of her situation. Unfortunately the overuse of high-tech props, sets and special effects have made the entire experience so sanitised that by the end of the film I found myself wishing that a corrupt government would come and kidnap me.