Never seen Leon: The Professional before, anyone know what's the best version of the film to see on the first go? The theatrical version is 110 minutes, International version is 136 minutes, and the Directors Cut is 133 minutes.
International.
Thanks
Ended up seeing this today. And I gotta say, I'm really surprised at the acclaim that this film has received, as I thought it was an absolute trainwreck from start to finish. Just 2+ hours of over the top, over acted stupidity.
Besson is to subtlety as pizza is to vegetable. I've come to the conclusion that Besson is just a terrible director, and an even worse screenwriter.
Watching a Besson film is like watching Idiocracy except in different settings. Literally every single minor character in the film is a complete imbecile. Every. Single. One. And it's pretty hard to believe Leon as this ultra skilled hitman the way he acts like Mr. Bean all the time. The only redeemable thing in the whole film was Natalie Portman's performance, which I actually thought was one of her best performances I've ever seen. I also thought Oldman did fairly well considering how poorly written his character was.
After seeing this and The 5th Element I can't imagine ever giving another Besson film a try.
After reading through this thread though, pretty well everyone loved it except for El Floppo who was called "uppity" for his criticism. I guess El Floppo now has some company