Anna 2019

     Anna is a young beautiful girl but she’s living with a dolt boyfriend.  He steals a car and tries to get money from an ATM using the owner and his card.  This is stupid because the entire transaction is on camera.  Two police cars come to the scene and he tries to outrun them.  There is an accident and he is killed.  Anna’s life changes dramatically and she finds a career in the fashion world.  She starts out as a simple model but in a short time she enters the elite modeling.  Her world changes again when she becomes a dangerous assassin.  

     There is a lot of intense martial arts violence, punching, kicking, stabbing and slicing.  Dead bodies and lots of blood, guns, shootings, car chases, crashes.  Passionate kissing, heavy breathing, clothes ripped off.  Sex talk and references to prostitution.  Strong language throughout, chain-smoking cigarettes, social drinking and references to drugs.  Anna is a powerful woman but a relentless killer and she never feels free.  Helen Mirren wearing a black wig is Anna’s handler.  She is tough and pushes Anna to her limits.  Over time, Anna gets worn out from her constant assignments.  She wants to make a deal with Mirren to decrease the time she is working and have more down time on vacations.  5* (I really liked this movie)     

118 min, Action directed, produced and written by Luc Besson with Sasha Luss, Helen Mirren, Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy, Lera Abova, Alexander Petrov, Nikita Pavlenko, Anna Krippa, Aleksey Maslodudov, Eric Gordon, Ivan Franek, Jean-Baptiste Puech, Adrian Can, Alison Wheeler.

Note:  Imdb 6.6* out of 10* with 55,782 reviews, Roger Ebert 1 1/2* Peter Sobczynski, rotten Tomatoes 33% with 69 critics 81% with 2225 ratings, RollingStone 3* out of 5* David Fear, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Benjamin Lee, Common Sense Media, Jeffrey M. Anderson, age 16+, 1* positive, 2* role models, 4* violence, 4* sex, 4* language, 2* drinking, drugs, smoking, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 6624 ratings, Letterboxd 2.8* out of 5*, IndieWire David Ehrlich Grade C.

Special Note:  There is another movie from 2014 with the same title with Taissa Farmiga.  During filming Luc Besson was accused of sexual misconduct.  No charges were filed due to lack of evidence.  The studio and distributors distanced themselves from the movie.  It was released without official screenings and with only minimum publicity.  This was supposed to be a breakthrough film for Sasha Luss but the box office was 30 million worldwide.  This could mean the end for Besson’s EuropaCorp studio.  The company is already struggling from his previous box-office failure, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 2017.  I've seen this movie and I can see why it failed at the box office!!