Rating: ***
Cast: Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, Harvey Keitel
I actually liked this shot-for-shot remake of Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita" (1990), much to the eternal disgust of my friends and fans of the original. Bridget Fonda is a messed up street punk who gets sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer. Her death is faked and she is recruited into a top secret government organization to be trained as an assassin. This is all fine and dandy for a while, but she eventually finds a boyfriend and longs to break free from the life of espionage and killing. Of course, all hell breaks loose, and in a contrived Hollywood happy ending, she finally manages to escape and start her life anew. I thought Bridget Fonda did an excellent job and manages to pull off a great combination of tough and sexy. My main complaint with Anne Parillaud from "La Femme Nikita" was that she was too frail to be tough, and not cute enough to be sexy, so I was never convinced by her performance. (I know I won't make a lot of friends by saying that!) Anyway, overall it's a good solid actioner with some excellent girls 'n' guns moments.