Little Nikita (1988)

Rather flat and without a bit of charm, this is a failure of a Film that is broadly overacted and under Plotted. It assumes much and is delivered in an almost blasé style that goes against the grain of this type of thing.There is a horribly intrusive, dated Musical Score, and Scenes that are laughably written that come off as unintended Humor. River Phoenix is the worst over-actor here and that is saying something . Because everyone is beyond Characterture and land in the Realm of unbelievable and boring. This is a Cold War Thriller wannabee with a not aging very well Sidney Poitier giving what seems like a dated, tired Performance. Nothing to recommend here. This is a real sleeper, meaning cured insomnia and not unnoticed or for that matter Spy vs Spys.

Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier), having a great mistrust for anything Russian, arguably understandably so as his FBI partner had been killed by a Soviet spy codenamed Scuba decades earlier, has to ascertain if Jeff Grant (River Phoenix), a recent Air Force applicant, is in fact a Soviet spy just as his 'sleeper' parents are, while at the same time protecting them from the aforementioned spy who killed his partner all those years ago and whom is now has turned rouge and is killing Soviet agents in an effort to extort money from Russia.This film is would be a strictly average 'espionage' thriller if not for Poitier and Phoenix who give some excellent acting in a vain attempt to propel this film above it's source material. They're not entirely successful, as the movie is still pretty of the cut and paste variety. But at the same time I do appreciate their combined efforts.My Grade: C

The plot of this film has more holes than Swiss Cheese and seems more than a little dated, even if the baton of the quintessential foreign bad guy has passed now from the Nazis to the Soviets to the Islamic terrorists or (perennial favorite) our own US government.What if the most ordinary white-bread American parents (yours) turn out to be Soviet spies? That is the premise of this film. What if some renegade Soviet spy is blackmailing the KGB operatives in the US by killing its agents one by one for MONEY! How capitalist! How demented can you be? This is the kind of guy who would take your girlfriend water skiing just so he can see her get smooshed by an oil tanker or something. And what are the poor hapless KGB agents supposed to do? Send your Mom and Dad off to pay this guy off? Why? Almost all of the agents are dead. The only ones left are Mom and Dad. Considering that Mom and Dad are near useless as agents, hey, be our guest, comrade.And Mom and Dad are sleepers biding their time running a flower shop while waiting for their orders, which finally come in a dead fish. But by this time their covers have worked so well they are now God-fearing Americans. It is as though Ozzie and Harriet were Russian spies. But of course there is blackmail.Meanwhile who is the FBI agent assigned to this case? Good old Sidney Poitier. Not only is he just the fatherly kind of guy to investigate and then help poor little Nikita (River Phoenix) along, but he moves in next door and is strangely open about his being an FBI agent. Just your friendly neighborhood FBI agent, who washes his car on the weekend and sleeps with the schoolmarm, but who is ready with his weaponry in any case. Gradually he convinces the boy (River Phoenix) of the facts of the matter. I mean wouldn't anybody be convinced that their parents are Soviet spies? This convincing takes about five minutes. I guess teens will believe anything if the news is delivered by Sidney Poitier. Meanwhile River places his trust in this total stranger rather than his own parents who are so good at being faux Americans that they have forgotten their Russian roots.The fateful moment comes when the KGB boss invites the parents to the Kirov Ballet for instructions. The invitation arrives in a fish in a coded message in a metal canister. Mom cuts herself rather badly on a knife she is so upset by this call to action in the service of Mother Russia, but at least they get to go to a nice ballet about Sleeping Beauty out of it. Anyway Mom looks like she is going to exsanguinate there in the kitchen and all the boy does is go off to his room where he leaves his bedside record player going as he drops off to sleep fully clothed.Well the parents botch the hand off and wound the bad KGB agent killer and some Mexicans being deported make off with the money and cross the border with it, no questions asked. The killer is wounded but is still alive however and Poitier and the parents chase after the KGB boss, who by this time is taking poor Phoenix at gunpoint to Tijuana aboard public transit. Why? Can't they afford to own automobiles? (Perhaps The budget for transport had to be cut severely after they paid this agent killer off.) And why are they taking the boy? To adopt him and raise him as a Russian? Makes no sense. Are Americans that stupid? Are Russians? I don't think so.After a ridiculous interview at gunpoint between the parents, the boy, the KGB agent killer, and the KGB Boss, they arrive at the border. Nobody on the train seems to notice that folks have guns pointed at each other back there, but then maybe on the San Diego transit system such things are commonplace.Things resolve themselves finally when they shoot the KGB killer and some of the KGB boss's henchmen haul the corpse across the border about as easily as one might leave an amusement park. They even haul the agent killer's (Scuba they call him) dead body across too, no questions asked. The border agent looks on innocently as though he were Gomer Pyle, as if to say "Thanks for visiting, come back soon, y'hear?" Admittedly this film was made in the mid-1980s before 9/11 and the breakup of the Soviet Union. The borders with Mexico and Canada were scandalously porous in those days. The Soviets were still the designated bad guys, but hey, they're just doing their jobs, right? Things were softening between the Soviets and the Americans then, but I still don't think you would have gone off to have a beer with Konstantin and Vladimir after a hard day at the FBI office.

I sat to watch this one because it came from the 1980s, and had (Sidney Poitier) in it. Although I know so well that this great icon made a lot of movies that didn't deserve his great talent at all. But let us watch this thriller from 1988.. At first some ridiculous questions were allowed to be asked such as : if the FBI knows the places of the Russian sleepers (temporarily retired Russian spies) why for god's sake they didn't warn them at all about this maniac killer ?! Or even arrest them in the first place?!!, and if (Poitier) already knew the truth of (River Phoenix)'s parents what exactly he intended to do with their son by telling him the hidden reality ?? Is it for using him to convince his father and mother not to obey (Richard Bradford) the Russian officer ?? Maybe. But what's the need of those ones in particular to hand over the money to the killer? And why on earth that very Russian officer phoned the sleepers themselves (after the ballet) from (Poitier)'s apartment ?? .. And if he didn't intent to kidnap their boy (who enters at the same time to the very place so easily !) by what he was going to threaten the previous agents ? Especially with the fact of their parents being dead ?? And let us look at that scene which HAS the Russian officer showering and the killer is here suddenly (with a knife !), menaces him quickly : (I Want My Money Fast) and runs away !!.. To have the miserable fat officer standing under the shower just offended ?? So you must ask yourself why in the world he didn't run after him (even nude ?!), or why he didn't hold his gun (if he had one !) to shot the evil guy who had just a knife ??.. For a second I thought that there was a secret relationship or undercover partnership between them BUT at the end I said to myself what a good twist it would've been if they did what I was thinking of !! Anyway I've got some things extra to bother : (Poitier) all his work at his office is just looking at the pictures more than 10 times ??, reading names from his computer to discover the reality of the sleepers in such too easy way to the extent that I was saying while watching : WaW, the job of the FBI agents is very simple ! Then what's the necessity of his love affair with the school's employee (Poitier was 61 years old at the time)?, and when it comes to the end of the movie I just wonder why the Russian officer kidnapped the boy to have this long chase?! I believe not to kill him for sure but to negotiate with the Americans to GET the killer in his custody, however the movie made him kill the killer with the American FBI agent in the same time ! So long live the peace agreement and good bye to the old cold war ! (must notice that the movie is produced at 1988. Not before. So the changes were very fresh !) but you must ask yourself first what the killer would have earned by throwing the boy out of the bridge ?! And what a shot when all the money went to the two very poor alien emigrants by pure coincidence just to till us how America is so generous and kind to anyone would resort to it ! By the way there is a strange guy appears in that scene out of the blue to stand beside (Poitier) and talk with him about the continuance of life ! so (Poitier) responds in his wise tone : yes, same all same all !!.. Who is that guy anyway ? And from where did he emerge ??!.. Well, It was so aspirant movie with a new catchy story which had unpredictable thrilling lines : The FBI old agent who wants to fulfill his old revenge, the nice relationship between the mentor (Poitier) and Little Nikita (Phoenix), what would you do if you discovered that your parents are not what you're used to know ?? and that serial killer for the old spies who was chased by the Americans and the Russians too. All of this was so bright and original but unfortunately the main big mistake was in the SCREENPLAY which was incapable of building solider plot without any holes. At last, the most enjoyable things in here would be : the potentials of the story, the magical charisma of the old (Sidney Poitier) and the young (River Phoenix) together, Marvin Hamlisch's stylish music, the good chase at the end, and the brief but unique presence of (Ingrid M. Rhoads) at the Air Force Academy as (Cpl. Hogan) in maybe 3 shots only ! (you maybe missed her.. but not me !) although she didn't talk but she was unforgettable sexy in the military suit.. Unforgettable unlike the movie itself for a lot of people and if you don't believe me just ask yourself (for the very last time) why there are no more than 9 comments in here about this one after nearly 20 years of its production ?!