If you haven't seen this film I can't really understand why. I get it, it's not Transformers but it is much much better. This movie is absolutely perfect and I can watch it time and time again and never get bored. As a matter of fact I am going to watch it immediately after I post this.
I can't even correctly speak about how amazing this movie is. If I had to choose my favorite films of all time "Back the Future" would be number one and this would probably be in a 38-way tie for 2nd place.
The story follows a hitman that leads a low-profile life in a New York neighborhood that reluctantly intervenes in the life of a girl's family that just happens to live a few doors down from him. He has never met her or her family but they were involved in some shady shit and it wasn't her fault ("She" is Natalie Portman, by the way. If not for this film we might not know who she is and perhaps someone else would have been partially responsible for ruining the Star Wars trilogy.)
she is very young but absolutely incredible in her performance in "Leon"
Leon is played by Jean Reno, who (and I encourage you to prove me wrong because i would love to see it) doesn't have many inspiring roles except the one where he is almost immediately dispatched in "Hannibal."
His lack of real English-speaking capability actually works to his benefit in this film because his character is not meant to be fluent anyway and his involvement with Matilda (Natalie Portman's character) is endearing and at times rides a fine line at potentially being inappropriate.
Gary Oldman plays the role of "Stansfield," the detective with apparently unending police powers that initially is pursuing Matilda's sketchy family and ends up hunting Leon, who he also doesn't know is a world-class assassin.
everyooooooooone!!!!!
The actors are absolutely perfect for this film, the story is phenomenal, the soundtrack (which seems to be fluid, moving from scene-to-scene) is absolutely stunning, and the directing is second-to-none. There is literally nothing that could be improved in this movie. It is absolutely amazing and if you haven't "seent" it I strongly recommend that you forget all the other things I have recommended and START RIGHT HERE.
I have no idea why the name of the film was changed to "The Professional" in USA when the rest of the world called it "Leon" but whatever, it doesn't change how incredible it is.
Here is the trailer and if you don't go and watch this immediately, you are a fool