Léon: The Professional (1994)

Léon: The Professional (1994) 

Léon: The Professional (French: Léon; also known as The Professional) is a 1994 English-language French crime thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and features the motion picture debut of Natalie Portman. In the film Leon (Reno), a professional hitman, reluctantly takes in 12-year-old girl Mathilda (Portman), after her family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman). Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the hitman's trade.

Léon: The Professional was a commercial success, grossing over $45 million worldwide on a $16 million budget

Storyline

After her father, mother and little brother are killed by her father's employers, the 12-year-old daughter of an abject drug dealer is forced to take refuge in the apartment of a professional hitman who by her request, teaches her the methods of his job so she can take her revenge on the corrupt DEA agent who ruined her life by killing her beloved brother.

Plot

Leone "Léon" Montana (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner", as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. His work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello). Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant, and watching old films.

One day, Léon sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who is smoking a cigarette and sporting a black eye. Mathilda lives with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hall. Her abusive father and self-absorbed stepmother have not noticed that Mathilda stopped attending class at her school for troubled girls. Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to stash cocaine in his apartment. After they discover he has been cutting the cocaine to keep some for himself, DEA agents storm the building, led by sharply dressed drug addict Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). During the raid, Stansfield quickly becomes unhinged and murders Mathilda's entire family one by one while Mathilda is out shopping. When Mathilda returns, she realizes what has happened just in time to continue down the hall, where she desperately knocks on her neighbour's door. A hesitant Léon gives her shelter.

Mathilda quickly discovers that Léon is a hitman. She begs him to take care of her and to teach her his skills, as she wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother. Léon trains Mathilda and shows her how to use various weapons. In return, she runs his errands, cleans his apartment, and teaches him how to read. Mathilda tells Léon she loves him several times, but he offers no response.

One day after Mathilda has learned how to shoot, she fills a bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield. She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery girl, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Mathilda learns from Stansfield that Léon killed one of the corrupt DEA agents in Chinatown that morning. Léon, after discovering her plan in a note left for him, rescues Mathilda, shooting two more of Stansfield's men in the process. A now enraged Stansfield goes to find Tony, and assaults him in order to find out where Léon is.

When Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team sent by Stansfield captures her and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and grabs Mathilda. Back in his apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Mathilda by smashing a hole in an air shaft. He reassures her and tells her that he loves her and that she has given him "a taste for life", moments before the police come for him. In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. He goes unnoticed save for Stansfield, who recognizes him, follows him downstairs and shoots him in the back. As he is dying, Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands that he says is "from Mathilda". Opening his hands, Stansfield discovers that it is the pin from a grenade. He then opens Léon's vest to find a cluster of active grenades, which detonate moments later, killing them both.

Mathilda heads to see Tony, as Léon had instructed her to do before he died. Tony reveals to Mathilda that Léon instructed him to give his money to her if anything happened to him. He offers to hold the money and provide it to her on an allowance basis, on account of her youth. Mathilda asks Tony to give her a job as a hitman; Tony angrily declines, telling Mathilda to forget about her ordeal and return to school. Mathilda meets with the school headmistress, who readmits her after Mathilda tells her what had happened in the past several days and if the headmistress doesn't help her now, Mathilda would be dead by the end of the day. She then walks into a field near the school to plant Léon's houseplant, as she had told Léon he should, to give it roots.

Cast

• Jean Reno as Leone "Léon" Montana
• Gary Oldman as Norman Stansfield
• Natalie Portman as Mathilda
• Danny Aiello as Tony
• Michael Badalucco as Mathilda's father
• Ellen Greene as Mathilda's mother
• Peter Appel as Malky
• Elizabeth Regen as Mathilda's sister
• Maïwenn as The Blond Babe

User Review

With enough blood and gore to please any fan of action movies, and a unique love story to please the ladies, this is a great movie for couples to watch together. However, to truly comprehend the beauty of this film, you must see the European Cut.

The U.S. version is still a great movie, but it cuts out 24 minutes which contain much of the heart of the movie and most of what makes the film a work of art instead of the usual action fodder. Elements of the story which are only hinted at in the U.S. cut become the centerpiece of the story when the un-cut version is seen.

The two main characters are a recently-orphaned girl who is wise beyond her years and a hitman who is still an innocent. Their relationship unfolds against a backdrop of murder and revenge as director Luc Besson explores issues of age and maturity, good and evil, and the interplay of life, death and love.

The acting in this film is superb. Reno has an expressive face which conveys a myriad of emotions with great sensitivity and few words. He is cold as ice as the almost super-human 'professional', but his performance is most moving when he reveals his sensitive side. Watching as his wounded soul slowly begins to heal is enough to touch the heart of any woman, but it is handled so subtly that it never becomes too 'sappy'.

In her film debut, Natalie Portman turns in a performance that is beautiful beyond belief. She manages the transition from a frightened child to a woman capable of killing so convincingly that it makes the relationship between she and Leon not only believable, but understandable.

Gary Oldman is just the best psycho there is, and it is kind of nice to see him without all the strange makeup for a change. As a dirty cop in this film he personifies evil, and it is a joy to watch him do his thing.

The special effects are all you could hope for. Besson does great actions scenes - especially the explosions. There is also a lot of humor and when you throw in the tender love story - this picture has it all!

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American biographical black comedy crime film, directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay by Terence Winter is adapted from the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort and recounts from Belfort's perspective his career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm Stratton Oakmont engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street that ultimately led to his downfall. Leonardo DiCaprio (who also co-produced the film) stars as Belfort, with Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his second wife Naomi Lapaglia, and Kyle Chandler as Patrick Denham, the FBI agent who tries to bring him down. Matthew McConaughey, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, and Jean Dujardin are also featured. The film marks the director's fifth collaboration with DiCaprio, after Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), and Shutter Island (2010), as well as his second collaboration with Winter after the television series Boardwalk Empire (2010–14).

The Wolf of Wall Street premiered in New York City on December 17, 2013, and was released theatrically on December 25, 2013, in the United States, distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was the first to have been released entirely through digital distribution. It was a major commercial success, grossing more than $392 million worldwide during its original theatrical run to become Scorsese's highest-grossing movie to date and the 17th-highest-grossing film of 2013. The film was controversial for its morally ambiguous depiction of events, explicit sexual content, profanity, depiction of hard drug use, and the use of animals during production.

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise for Scorsese's direction and the performances of DiCaprio and Hill, and was nominated for several awards, including five nominations at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) for Winter, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nominations for DiCaprio and Hill, respectively. The film did not win in any category, although DiCaprio did win Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy. It was also recognized by numerous other awards ceremonies, as well as guilds and critics' associations.

Storyline

Jordan Belfort is a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 22 months in prison for defrauding investors in a massive 1990s securities scam that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including shoe designer Steve Madden.

Plot

In 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) loses his job as a Wall Street stockbroker for L.F. Rothschild, employed under Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) due to Black Monday. He takes a job at a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in penny stocks. Thanks to his aggressive pitching style and the high commissions, Belfort makes a small fortune.

Jordan befriends his apartment neighbor Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), and the two found their own company. They recruit Jordan's accountant parents as well as several of Jordan's friends, whom Jordan trains in the art of the "hard sell". The basic method of the firm is a pump and dump scam. To cloak this, Belfort gives the firm the respectable name of "Stratton Oakmont". After an exposé in Forbes, hundreds of ambitious young financiers flock to his company.

As Jordan becomes immensely successful, he slides into a decadent lifestyle of prostitutes and Quaaludes. He has an affair with a woman named Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie). When his wife Teresa finds out, they divorce and he marries Naomi, soon having a daughter. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI begin investigating Stratton Oakmont.

Jordan illegally makes $22 million in three hours upon securing the IPO of Steve Madden. This brings him and his firm to the attention of the FBI, mainly agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler). To hide his illegitimate money, Jordan opens a Swiss bank account with corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel (Jean Dujardin) in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley), who is a British citizen and thus outside the reach of American authorities. He uses the wife and in-laws of his friend Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), who have European passports, to smuggle cash into Switzerland.

Donnie gets into a public fight with Brad, and while Donnie escapes, Brad is arrested. Jordan also learns from his private investigator that the FBI is wiretapping his phones. Fearing for his son, Jordan's father pressures him to leave Stratton Oakmont and lie low while Jordan's lawyer orchestrates a deal to keep him out of prison. Jordan, however, does not want to quit, and talks himself into staying in the middle of his farewell speech.

Jordan, Donnie and their wives are on a yacht trip to Italy when they learn that Aunt Emma has died of a heart attack. Over the objections of his grieving wife and his yacht captain, Jordan decides to sail to Monaco so they can drive to Switzerland without getting their passports stamped at the border and settle the bank account, but a violent storm capsizes their yacht. After their rescue by Italians, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed when a seagull flies into the engine. Jordan considers this a sign from God and decides to sober up.

Two years later, the FBI arrests Jordan because Saurel, arrested in Florida on an unrelated charge, has told the FBI about Jordan's criminal activities. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence on his colleagues in exchange for leniency.

Fed up with Jordan's lifestyle, Naomi tells Jordan she is divorcing him and wants full custody of their children. After their argument turns violent, Jordan relapses on cocaine and attempts to kidnap their daughter Skylar before crashing his car into a fence. Naomi and the Belforts' housekeeper rescue Skylar from the vehicle and leave Jordan, bleeding and defeated, in the car.

The next morning, Jordan wears a wire to work. Jordan slips Donnie a note warning him about the wire. Feeling disappointed and betrayed, Donnie gives the note to the FBI, and Jordan is arrested for breaching his cooperation deal. The FBI raids and shuts down Stratton Oakmont.

Despite this one breach, Jordan receives a reduced sentence for his testimony and is sentenced to 36 months in a minimum security prison in Nevada. After his 2006 release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales technique.

Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort
• Jonah Hill as Donnie Azoff (based on Danny Porush)
• Margot Robbie as Naomi Lapaglia (based on Nadine Caridi)
• Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna
• Kyle Chandler as Patrick Denham, FBI agent who is lead of the investigation
• Rob Reiner as Max "Mad Max" Belfort
• Jon Bernthal as Brad Bodnick
• Jon Favreau as Manny Riskin
• Jean Dujardin as Jean-Jacques Saurel
• Joanna Lumley as Aunt Emma
• Cristin Milioti as Teresa Petrillo
• Christine Ebersole as Leah Belfort
• Shea Whigham as Captain Ted Beecham
• Katarina Čas as Chantalle Bodnick
• P. J. Byrne as Nicky "Rugrat" Koskoff
• Kenneth Choi as Chester Ming
• Brian Sacca as Robbie "Pinhead" Feinberg
• Henry Zebrowski as Alden "Sea Otter" Kupferberg
• Ethan Suplee as Toby Welch
• Barry Rothbart as Peter Diblasio
• Jake Hoffman as Steve Madden
• Mackenzie Meehan as Hildy Azoff
• Spike Jonze as Dwayne
• Bo Dietl as Bo Dietl
• Jon Spinogatti as Nicholas
• Madison McKinley Garton as Heidi
• Aya Cash as Janet
• Thomas Middleditch as Stratton Broker in a Bowtie
• Shea Coleman as Skylar Belfort (14 months old)
• Giselle Eisenberg as Skylar Belfort (4 years old)
• Johnnie Mae as Violet
• Jordan Belfort as Auckland Straight Line Host

User Review

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is infectiously entertaining. It is probably the funniest movie I have seen all year with witty dialogue, over the top characters, and filled with energy that bleeds off the screen. Between all the fun however, there is also a story about addiction and how it can cause a downward spiral in your life whether it be drugs, money, or power.

Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese does a wonderful job keeping this movie at a high at all times. Never once does this movie lose it's energy or sense of humor much like the drug induced characters. There are a lot of quick cuts and edits to keep the movie feeling as If you are on drugs as well as playing high energy music in some of the more serious situations.

The cast brings their "A" game. The stand out is obviously Leonardo DiCaprio, who pretty much owns and excels any scene he is in. This film really showcases his diverse range.

Overall "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a full on adrenaline ride that never loses momentum. It's directed with a lot of flair and energy and has an incredibly well written script that gives it depth and a ton of laughs. The cast is fantastic and DiCaprio gives his best and most fun filled performance to date. I really enjoyed this movie and think it's the funniest movie of the year 4.5/5