The Professional | Jean Reno, Gary Oldman | my favorite movie of all time

The Professional | Jean Reno, Gary Oldman | Love it

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The Professional

	The Professional Jean Reno, Gary Oldman Sony Pictures, 1998 average customer review:based on 437 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. --Tom Keogh

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my favorite movie of all time

i do not know why but this movie has been my favorite since the first time i watched it. i was 10, i just do not get bored of it. i probably watched it over 20 times. I love Jean Reno and Natalie Portman, i would watch any movie either of them is in. I love V for Vendetta as well but no matter how many movies i watched i never could say that this movie is better than Leon - The Professional.

If you havent seen it you should!!!!!!!!!!!

Love it

This movie is great. It is so well done and so well acted. A break out role for everyone in it.

LEON!!

I had wanted this movie for a long time! Especially when I heard of the deleted scenes. The price was awesome for it and I think it's considered a classic, now. Superb actors in 1 movie, including one of my favs, Gary Oldman. yum!! Grab it!!

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Besson's best film

After her drug-dealer father and family are murdered, 12 year-old Matilda (Natalie Portman) is effectively adopted by Leon (Jean Reno), the nice man in the apartment next door who just happens to be a hit-man. Leon then proceeds to teach Matilda his trade so that she can exact revenge on her family's killers.

"Leon" is one of the most unusual films that I have ever seen and also one of the best. Without a doubt, it is the best of Luc Besson's films. In a video store, this film would probably be placed in the action section, but although it contains a number of (very violent) action scenes, I don't really see this film as being an action film in the same sense that something like "Die Hard" is. It is more a study of the relationship between Leon and Matilda, and a very good one at that. Leon and Matilda are two extremely damaged people who manage to find love (albeit platonic love) with each other. The fact that they find this love through activities that most people would consider to be less than desirable just adds to this film's charm. It is also a study of innocence, contrasting Leon's child-like nature (the look on Reno's face as he watches a Gene Kelly movie is priceless) with that of an actual child.

Everything about this film is excellent. From Besson's script and directing to Reno, Portman and Gary Oldman as the film's three leads. Although made in English with mostly American actors (except for Reno, who, bizarrely, plays an Italian) and targeted at the American/International market, this is, in fact, a French film and is stylistically more European than American, and in my opinion, is all the better for it. I just saw this film for the second time last night and I already want to re-watch it. I cannot recommend this film enough.

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Worth it, but only for Oldman

I saw this for the first time On Demand last summer, and it was pretty good, but I was hooked on Oldman's character Stansfield. Lately we have been casting around for movies to watch, and my husband had never seen this, so I ordered it and we watched it last night. This version has scenes I don't remember from the summer, so I assume it's somewhat of a director's cut.

The thing is, while Reno is good (and his character is good), it's not enough to carry the movie. Now, everyone talks about how fabulous Portman was in this movie. And when I saw it on TV, I did think she was good, although I felt the character of Mathilda was too one-dimensional. I wasn't emotionally invested in her character, so I didn't really care much about her part of the story. She was just a whiny manipulative kid.

And in this particular version there's even more to dislike. The extra footage is all Leon and Mathilda. There's just too much screen time involving only them. These two characters aren't enough to carry that much screen time. I found myself embarrassed for having recommended it.

Luckily, that last shootout scene is so amusingly done (and the conflict ends so satisfyingly) that it was worth it in the end, but without Oldman's quirky performance I would never have recommended it for rewatching.

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