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90The making of the film is so slick, the acting so exceptional, that we find ourselves trapped - caring about what happens to the three principals. [6 May 1991, p.26]
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88Surprisingly touching.
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80One of the most cinematic movies to come along in a while, with sparse dialogue, top-notch action and plenty of visual razzamatazz.
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75Besson is an accomplished technician, and his choice of shots-with an emphasis on bizarre, low angles, darting camera movements and large, abstract color fields-is consistently entertaining if not particularly expressive. [3 Apr 1991, Tempo, p.3]
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It's like "The Terminator" as reimagined by the editors of French Vogue.
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70Ludicrous. Its logic flies out the window like a rocket. It's unbelievable and ridiculous... But fascinating it is.
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Obviously, there's something going on here but I'm not convinced Besson knows what it is.
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63Always stylish and occasionally thrilling and never thoughtful.
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60A supremely slick piece of entertainment where style triumphs over substance.
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60Like the movies its modeled after, it's shallow, frequently silly. But there's something about the mix--maybe something about Parillaud as the screechy, dangerous Nikita--that may make the movie a powerful engine of wish-fulfillment. [12 Apr 1991, Calendar, p.F-10]
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60The film, like Nikita herself, becomes more conventionally sleek and less interestingly bizarre as it moves along.
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50Disappointing. [6 Mar 1991, Life, p.9D]
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40Parillaud is expressive but rather mundane. She's best at playing sullen, but there are so many French actresses who specialize in this particular talent -- the French have mastered the apathetic pout -- that she seems generic.
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25The picture, for all its slickness and style, is empty, empty-headed and emotionally false… [It] has no more depth than "Pretty Woman" and occupies the same moral landscape. [5 Apr 1991, Daily Datebook, p.E11]
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20[Parillaud] remains a totally uninteresting figment of Besson's blinkered movieland imagination, especially when she's in the company of Karyo and Anglade, who provide balance to her overacting.
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10The talentless but irrepressibly trendy Luc Besson ("Subway," "The Big Blue") dreamed up this idiotic story that seems vaguely inspired by Kubrick's (not Anthony Burgess's) "A Clockwork Orange."
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 4
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Mixed: 0 out of 4
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Negative: 1 out of 4
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9A great movie. You may or may not like it, but I did.