Blu-ray Movie Reviews

She is society's worst nightmare, an antisocial misfit convicted of murder and sentenced to die. But a covert government agency may be able to transform her into a sleek, cool-as-ice assassin. Dressed to kill, trained to survive, she's set loose in a deadly world where unexpected romance complicates things even more.

It is always hard to judge a film that is a remake of an already brilliantly captured story. In this case we have the American take on Luc Besson’s Nikita, which is already available on Blu-ray and was popular enough to spawn this remake and a very popular TV show. Surprisingly this version is VERY close to the original and actually does a great job at translating Besson’s gritty masterpiece to the American audience. Fonda delivers one of her best roles in my opinion and the film never wanders too far off track from the original. Honestly this is one of the few films that is a worthy remake in recent memory.

Warner delivers a pretty solid HD presentation for this one. The film’s grain structure is left intact and I didn’t notice any signs of harsh noise reduction. There is still some occasional ringing, but luckily it isn’t overly intrusive. Colors have far more pop than I remember from the DVD release and really breathe some life into the rather subdued look of the film. Contrast levels are good, but blacks are occasionally raised which flattens out the image from time to time. While not one of the best looking Blu-ray catalog releases out there, it is a clear step up from the DVD edition.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and it is nice to see Warner start to include a lossless audio option on all their titles. This is an older film and the soundtrack does have a dated quality. The film’s music has a very 80’s style synth feel that can be a tad distracting at times. The action sequences have a nice level of dynamic range, but they also sound a bit canned in the sound effects department. The mix is spatial enough, but the surrounds are a bit underused given the genre. Most of this is a limitation of the production, but it still plays a role in the presentation as a whole.

Unfortunately the only extra included is the trailer.

As far as remakes go this one doesn’t disappoint. They managed to capture Besson’s intent and vision nicely and not try and reinvent the wheel. Warner has done a pretty good job with this presentation and the price makes it a solid investment for the collection.