The Reel Review
French director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Lucy) trots out this modernized rehash of his previous La Femme Nikita, about a beautiful model turned deadly assassin, in this 2019 film starring supermodel Sasha Luss (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) as Anna, a Russian beauty who becomes a deadly KGB killer between modeling shoots.
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For a relative newcomer to acting, the stunning, cerulean-eyed Luss actually is very impressive as an action star and the film has a slick, stylish look, an energetic score and some entertaining, well-choreographed action scenes. Time jumps reveal how she came to be a spy, despite some laughably bad dialogue and sloppy production (in one scene the dye packs simulating blood stains explode on the wall long after Anna shoots one of the bad guys – oops). Helen Mirren, Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy round out the supporting cast.
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Although Besson has previously given us better spy films like La Femme Nikita and The Professional, with other female-driven spy knockoffs Red Sparrow and Atomic Blonde in the past year. But for an over-the-top spy thriller with an insane amount of fight choreography, Anna is a mindlessly entertaining good time.
REEL FACTS
• Anna opened with little fanfare or advance screenings after a group of women came forward accusing director Luc Besson of inappropriate behavior. No charges were filed but as a result, the film, which was supposed to be the big breakthrough for supermodel-turned-actress Sasha Luss, opened quietly and was a box office dud, earning just short of its $33 million budget.
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• Of the entire cast playing Russian characters, only Sasha Luss, who also appeared in Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, is Russian in real life.
• Helen Mirren and Luke Evans previously worked together in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, playing mother and son.