Léon: The Professional (1994) – Jean Reno and Natalie Portman

7.5/10 — An assassin movie with a twist. Starring Jean Reno as the master assassin, and a young Natalie Portman as his unexpected sidekick.

If you can forgive the inappropriate Lolita-style undertones (it probably inspired that movie which was released just a few years later), this is otherwise a pretty good assassin-themed action movie. Reno and Portman both act very well, and Gary Oldman does a decent job as the main antagonist and a senior DEA agent.

It’s a simple plot, zeroed in on certain things, and generally made to high standards with strong performances by lead cast members – kind of like The Transporter in this way. However, Léon director Luc Besson was widely accused of inappropriate innuendos, and Natalie Portman retrospectively has mixed feelings about it, summing it up as ‘complicated’. Some people consider it a cult classic to this day. Feel free to make up your own mind about it. All in all, I give it a decent 7.5/10 rating but must advise it is liable to offend some people due to indecent innuendos.