Leon
1994
A murder on the streets of New York leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse while an orphaned twelve-year-old girl becomes caught in the middle... Read more
| Starring | Gary Oldman, Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Peter Appel |
|---|---|
| Director | Luc Besson |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller |
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Leon
A murder on the streets of New York leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse while an orphaned twelve-year-old girl becomes caught in the middle...
| Starring | Gary Oldman, Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Peter Appel, Danny Aiello |
|---|---|
| Director | Luc Besson |
| Studio | OPTIMUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 49 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 13 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 must-see movies, Ezio's Top 10 |
| Genres | Action/Adventure, Thriller |
| Language | English |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Freek, Icelandic |
| Released | DVD: not available Blu-ray: 14 Sep 2009 Production year: 1994 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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French director Luc Besson followed his international hit Nikita with his first American-set movie, Leon, a haunting and compulsive thriller that explores the relationship between the emotionally stunted hitman of the title and his 12-year-old neighbour, Mathilda. The illiterate, milk-drinking, Sicilian loner (Jean Reno) is reluctantly forced to befriend and protect the girl, played by Natalie Portman, after her family is wiped out in a horrific drugs operation led by Gary Oldman, an utterly corrupt DEA agent. Leon ends up teaching Mathilda the tricks of his trade so that she can take revenge on the deranged cop. The two masterly central performances from Reno and Portman intelligently convey how Leon's carefully constructed, reclusive existence falls apart as he lets feelings enter his life for the very first time. But it's the ultra-stylish action scenes and the series of totally breathtaking set pieces, interspersed with a provocative streak of dark humour, that propel Leon into the suspense stratosphere as Besson redefines the action genre. Funny, tragic, brilliant and unmissable.
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Besson's first American movie begins promisingly with a stylish action sequence, but goes off the rails. Hitman Leon... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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108 out of 118 people found this review helpful
Brilliant
A film about an elderly hitman who takes a 12 year old orphan girl under his wing, sparking an ambiguous relationship in which the pair co-habit and, among other things, play 'dress-up' - in today's climate, Daily Mail readers would probably have raised an uproar. However, despite the deliberately blurred boundaries which exist between the central couple, this film is exceptionally touching, and both lead performances are incredibly moving and sympathetic.
As the eponymous Leon, Jean Reno convinces as both a fumbling man-child with no social skills, and a clinically effective hitman, performing jobs with a lethal detachment. Luc Besson handles the mix between action and burgeoning relationship with great skill, and the final third of the film has an unforgettable emotional punch. -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
More about love than death
A hit-mans carefully-ordered world is thrown into chaos when he teams up with a 12-year-old girl whose family has been executed by rouge drug cops.
On the surface, this is an above-average shoot 'em up thriller. But what gives Leon five stars is the touching, quirky relationship at its heart.
Jean Reno manages to give his hit-man real sympathy. Yes, he's a cold-blooded killer. But he also drinks milk, loves his plants and goes soppy at Gene Kelly films.
We see his agonising indecision at whether he should let the girl into his life, his faltering attempts at being some kind of surrogate father and the final blossoming of filial love (with the merest hint of paedophilia but not enough to make you want to call the police).
At the same time, there are more corpses than you can shake a stick at and a mounting tension as Leon and his newly-found daughter get closer to her family's killer.
More about love than death, Leon is a must-see. -
News and features
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Rep denies Stewart's jealousy over Pattinson/Fox snaps
- 23 Aug 2009
Robert Pattinson has refuted reports his co-star Kristen Stewart was left fuming after pictures of the Twilight hunk posing with stunning Megan Fox were published in the tabloid press. The British actor has been at the centre of speculation he is dating his co-star in real life, after snaps of the pair supposedly kissing at a Kings of Leon gig in Canada were printed last week (15Aug09). The speculation was heightened further when fellow Twilight actor Peter Facinelli's wife Jennie Garth told... Read more
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Leon - BLU-RAY Version
French director Luc Besson tackles his first American movie in this unusual tale of Leon (Jean Reno), a stoic assassin who develops a reluctant relationship with an orphaned 12-year-old girl (Natalie Portman, in an excellent debut performance). When a corrupt DEA official (Gary Oldman) murders the ...
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