Léon / The Professional ~ Best movie I've seen in months

[Limewater]

She was good in V for Vendetta at least. And I don't care if that movie is hated because it made changes to the graphic novel. All movies do.

I disagree. She was bad in "V for Vendetta", but not as bad as she was in "The Other Boleyn Girl". Of course, they didn't give her a lot to work with in "V".

I hated the film "V for Vendetta," and I saw it before I read the graphic novel, so I had no preconceived notions except that Natalie Portman shaves her head and some of my friends liked it. The first hour or so is OK, but then from the prison scene on the whole movie gets corny as hell. I am convinced that "The Matrix" was only good on accident, because the Wachowski brothers haven't made a good film since.

I read the graphic novel about six months ago. To be honest, I don't have any strong feelings about it. I didn't really think it was that great, but it was worlds better than the movie.

Regarding Crux's continued discussion of suspension of disbelief:

The only real difference, believability-wise, between the first action sequence and the last is the number of bullets flying. It's pretty common in action films for the hero to know exactly how his target or assailants are going to act, but it's also pretty common in action films to have a ridiculous number of shots fired. I don't really see how one is more egregious than the other. For example, in the opening scene a guy looks over the railing outside his boss's apartment, seeing nothing. Leon pops up from who knows where to pull the guy over and to his death. That's not really something that a human could accomplish without some sort of extra-sensory perception or a disembodied birds-eye view of the scene.

Great film. Much better than V for Vendetta.

[Mozgus]

Speaking of the apartment building, my second favorite shot in the entire movie is during that scene, shortly before the explosion; Léon is swinging an axe to break open the wall, and the camera follows the axe to the wall in quick succession. Great cinematography.

Reminds me of The Shining. Didn't the camera move the same way there too?

[crux]

The only real difference, believability-wise, between the first action sequence and the last is the number of bullets flying. It's pretty common in action films for the hero to know exactly how his target or assailants are going to act, but it's also pretty common in action films to have a ridiculous number of shots fired. I don't really see how one is more egregious than the other. For example, in the opening scene a guy looks over the railing outside his boss's apartment, seeing nothing. Leon pops up from who knows where to pull the guy over and to his death. That's not really something that a human could accomplish without some sort of extra-sensory perception or a disembodied birds-eye view of the scene.

I don't completely disagree with you. In both scenes we're shown a level of prowess that isn't in proportion to the actual ability of a real hitman (or so I assume - I don't personally know any). Nonetheless, the difference is still large. For one, one of the key differences in the two scenes is simply volume. One cop orders dozens and dozens of SWAT officers to take down one man. A child runs into the room with the man, yet they still continue to rain down bullets without caution. Despite an urban apartment building (in New York City, to be precise), the police proceed to shoot a rocket - a fucking rocket - into an apartment building without care to the structure of the building, nonetheless without care to possibly killing an innocent child. Then we add the fact that the protagonist is able to walk out amongst those who want to kill him without suspicion. None of these things are present during the first action scene of the movie, which if we try hard enough we can justify Léon's knowledge of the situation (if he knew where the man was stationed, perhaps he simply listened for the footsteps; when he shoots the targets behind the shielded windows, he looks into one of the bullet holes, etc.).The fact that he's barely injured doesn't really bother me (he does get shot and they do a pretty good job of showing him get out of the way of danger) - this is the movies, he could be the luckiest man alive - but how reckless and idiotic could the police possibly be?

It's just a question of severity. If this was Die Hard I wouldn't even question it. But it isn't Die Hard and seems to want to separate itself from that type of movie. The action of the climax awkwardly juxtaposes that separation. At least much more severely than does the earlier action sequence.

That's really all I have to say on the matter. One man's line of incredulity is different than another's.

Reminds me of The Shining. Didn't the camera move the same way there too?

Very good call - it definitely does. So much so that I'd guess Besson took his motivation from that very scene. But the scene in The Professional zooms in on the axe and thus the camera has to rapidly shift back and forth to catch up with the speed of the axe, where as in The Shining the camera shifts back and forth while always keeping Jack in the frame (or at least mostly in the frame), resulting in a less frantic feel.

Here's The Shining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouVg2TGxyCs

I looked through every The Professional video and I could find and they all seem to cut out just before the axe shot (since that's when the bullets temporarily halt).

[Mozgus]

Watched it again with the landlords, and even they said "there's nothing wrong with that", right at the scene where Matilda insists on sleeping with him in the same bed.

But then a friend my own age said the movie made him uncomfortable. "I kept thinking he was ganna fuck that little girl." I just can't understand how anyone can see it like that.

[andythebadass]

Watched it again with the landlords, and even they said "there's nothing wrong with that", right at the scene where Matilda insists on sleeping with him in the same bed.

But then a friend my own age said the movie made him uncomfortable. "I kept thinking he was ganna fuck that little girl." I just can't understand how anyone can see it like that.

her life was so fucked up and his life was so fucked up... it couldnt get worse for them and they would inevitably make each others lives better..... its called the professional... not the pedophile.... lol

[Mozgus]

Here's a collection of scenes from the original script that drastically changed in the final version. This shit is completely different, and far inferior, but still worth reading fully.

It's a google cache link since the official link is extremely slow.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:Ve ... =firefox-a