Leon: The Professional (1994)

There's a reason this movie is in my list of top 10 movies OF ALL TIME!!! This movie is also the reason I will have an eternal boner for Natalie Portman (Why couldn't that baby be mine?)

If you've never seen this movie, you must, absolutely MUST, see the International Cut of the film. This is an extended cut of the movie and includes super uncomfortable borderline pedophile scenes that were considered to be too edgy for American audiences since we're all a bunch of fucking pussies. Seriously, though, they add to the overall quality of the story and the movie in general. Basically the movie was originally intended to be an action version of the book, Lolita.

The plot of the movie goes like this: an emotionally damaged hitman takes in a young girl after her family is murdered by crooked DEA agents and he teaches her his trade as she seeks vengeance against her family's murderer. In the hands of a lesser director, this would have been just another POS mid-90's action flick with a father/daughter twist, but Luc Besson makes it something special. The French have only done a few things right in their history (French toast, French fries, French kissing...), but this movie is right up there with menage a trois!

If there's a single reason why this movie cracks EPIC status it's the three main leads. Jean Reno and Natalie Portman have perfect chemistry as the father/daughter team who might fuck each other. Reno totally nails the lead as the hitman who survives by following strict rules and 12-year-old Portman is absolutely masterful as the girl who forces Leon to break all those rules. There's a reason this bitch has an Oscar, ladies and gentlemen.

And then there's Gary Fuckin' Oldman. God, this guy's good. In one of the truly underrated bad guy performances of all time, Oldman straight up OWNS as Agent Stanfield, a drugged-up crooked cop who loves Beethoven and doesn't mind getting his hands dirty to get the job done. Talk about creepy! Fuck Commissioner Gordon! This is Oldman in his fucking prime and is easily one of my favorite performances ever (not quite Doc Holliday worthy but up there).

Why It's Awesome: Kick-ass performances and a movie that successfully centers around character relationships instead of relying solely on action...which it has in spades. Acting, plot, directing, and writing are all house on this one.

Best Quote:

Stansfield: It's always the same thing. It's when you start to really fear death that you truly appreciate life. Do you like life, sweetheart?

Mathilda: Yes.

Stansfield: That's good because I take no pleasure in taking life if it's from a person who doesn't care about it.