Product Description

Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello star in Leon the Professional, a go-for-broke thriller about a professional assassin whose work becomes dangerously personal. Calling himself a "cleaner," the mysterious Léon is New York's top hit man. When his next-door neighbors are murdered, Léon becomes the unwilling guardian of the family's sole survivor - 12-year-old Mathilda. But Mathilda doesn't just want protection; she wants revenge. Training her in the deadly tricks of his trade, Léon helps her track the psychotic agent who murdered her family. From the electrifying opening to the fatal finale, Leon the Professional, is a nonstop crescendo of action, suspense and surprises. Experience the uncut version, with 24 minutes of footage not included in the original U.S. theatrical version.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5544 in DVD
• Brand: RENO,JEAN
• Released on: 1998-02-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about an Italian 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

From The New Yorker
The first American movie from Luc Besson, and it's even more absurd than his French ones. Léon (Jean Reno), a mob hit man living alone in Manhattan, befriends a precocious young girl (Natalie Portman), whose family has been wiped out by a twisted D.E.A. official (Gary Oldman) eager to finish what he started. The least objectionable thing about the movie is the violence-it's quick and funny. The most objectionable thing is Gary Oldman's performance, baroque in its awfulness. Almost as bad is the director's attempt to construct a visual style-and, for that matter, characters-by piling one mannerism on top of another. Thus Léon is presented as a lonely, sleepless, plant-tending, milk-drinking illiterate; what happened to the human being? For all his yearning to be hip, Besson is wedded to good taste. The love story between man and girl, which could have propelled the film toward outrage, stays mawkish and prim. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker