#140RVW
Indifferent spy movie which stars River Phoenix & Sidney Poitier and still isn’t any good. Not bad, just uninspired & poorly thought out…
What’s more:
Usually when you watch old 1980’s movies you see a bunch of people you recognize. This movie is practically unique in how few familiar faces there are. After Phoenix & Poitier, Richard Jenkins is the only person you’re likely to have ever seen before. And that makes sense when you realize how little there is going on here.
It might be stretching it a bit to call any movie with Sidney Poitier & River Phoenix underpowered, but this really does feel kind of thrown together. I’m more than a little surprised that this was a project that either of them wanted to do.
At first glance, it’s very promising: kid thinks he’s leading normal life until he is told that his parents are sleeper agents for the USSR. Not bad, even if in 1988 it was right on the edge of being out of date.
The trouble is that the premise that brings them out of hiding is threadbare (spy is killing sleeper agents until the Russians give him money?) and the Poitier character’s actions seem really unusual. We get that he’s looking for this one Russian spook who killed his partner (20 years ago!) but why is he working alone and what exactly is his job? He’s sorting through Air Force Academy applications and then he’s stalking a teenaged boy and asking him to spy on his parents – to what end? It’s all a bit confusing, but it doesn’t matter because you won’t really care.
If that sounds harsh, it’s not meant to be. True, Little Nikita is not a good spy movie and in fact it’s not a very good movie at all. But it features two amazing actors (even if both are mugging furiously in this one) and was entertaining for an hour and a half and there are worse things to be.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
| Main Cast | Sidney Poitier Roy Parmenter, River Phoenix Jeff Grant, Richard Jenkins Richard Grant, Caroline Kava Elizabeth Grant |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 18 Mar 1988 UTC |
| Director | Richard Benjamin |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
| Plot | An FBI agent works to uncover an All-American family as Soviet sleeper agents and gets caught up in friendship with their unaware son. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 98 |
| Tagline | He went to bed an all-American kid and woke up the son of Russian spies. |
| Writers | John Hill (screenplay) and, Bo Goldman (screenplay) … |
| Year | 1988 |
