Little Nikita

PG

1988

1 hr. 38 min.

Mystery & Thriller

List

53%

15 Reviews

Tomatometer

45%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) is an FBI agent with a long-standing vendetta against a Russian spy named Scuba (Richard Lynch). Now, Scuba is blackmailing the Soviet government by tracking down and assassinating their sleeper agents in the United States. Parmenter discovers that high-school student Jeff Grant (River Phoenix) is the son of two such agents (Caroline Kava, Richard Jenkins), which is a total shock to Jeff. Parmenter must try to track Scuba while also protecting the Grants.

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steve d

Sidney Poitier deserved so much better.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

xx x

Could have been so much better. Great cast.-

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier made one well-regarded political thriller together — Sneakers — but did you know they did another? Directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Bo Goldman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and John Hill (Quigley Down Under), Little Nikita does what The Americans did several decades earlier. Jeffrey Nicolas Grant's (Phoenix) parents — Richard (Richard Grant) and Elizabeth (Carolina Kava) — are really Russian deep cover agents that have actually forgotten their mission and settled into America. Things would be fine if it weren't for the Soviet killer called Scuba (Richard Lynch) and his mission to murder these sleeper agents one by one. Konstantin Karpov (Richard Bradford), a Soviet spy catcher, wants to stop him. And so does Roy Parmenter (Poitier), who wants revenge on Scuba for killing partner several decades ago. It seems like no one was happy with this movie, as Phoenix felt Benjamin treated him like a child and that the Russian characters were too simplistic. Worse, Columbia Pictures chief David Puttnam told Benjamin that it was one of the worst movies he had ever seen and tried to get editor Jim Clark to fix the film. It bombed at the box office, as did the movie that pretty much remakes it, Abduction.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

deke p

Intriguing. Lots San Diego. So that's River PHOENIX, Que lastima. Saw it on The Movie Channel 'SIDNEY POITIER Iconathon Night'.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Little Nikita" is an espionage thriller for the TV-movie-of-the-week crowd, so thoroughly undercooked and so dependent on Red Scare 101 tropes that it's a wonder that we still manage to find diversion amidst its unremarkable formula. We can conclude that it most likely exists for no other reason than to serve as a vehicle for the legendary Sidney Poitier and the then-upcoming River Phoenix, who perform with such cogent resolve that it makes the film virtually impossible to dislike. In "Little Nikita," Poitier portrays Roy Parmenter, an FBI agent preoccupied with Phoenix's Jeff Grant, a young Air Force Academy hopeful. Energetic and feeling trapped in his suburban life, Jeff, seventeen, wants nothing more than to graduate and call flying his living. But Parmenter couldn't care less about the teen's hopes and dreams; he's more infatuated by the boy's parents (Richard Jenkins and Caroline Kava), whose identities prove to be contradictory after undergoing a routine background check. A few days of snooping later and Parmenter finds that the Grants are hardly who they say they are - they are actually sleeper agents from the Soviet Union, deep undercover and apparently finished with the lives they once lived. Of course, Jeff is completely in the dark when it comes to his true identity; in his mind, he's no different than any of the other young men on his block. And so Parmenter, who follows him around like a pesky gnat, is a pest who has a weird way of checking up with Air Force applicants. But the agent is less concerned with the dangers the "Grants" could possibly inflict on the U.S. and more with the danger that could be inflicted upon them; within the last few months, KGB agents are mysteriously being picked off by an anonymous force. They, despite throwing towels into their respective espionage bins, could become victims if they aren't careful. And so begins a deadly chase, Jeff creating conflict as he disregards peril in favor of passionate identity seeking. We've seen films like "Little Nikita" many times previously, its clichés (from the constantly smoking, emotionless but brutal Russian villains to the determined, acutely patriotic hero) abundant and its innovations next to nothing. Its stabs at hard-hitting drama (namely the familial troubles that arise from Jeff's questioning of his selfhood) are after school special at best, and its attempts to veritably depict Cold War conflicts are shammy. The plot grows more tiresomely derisory as it goes along. And yet, "Little Nikita" is besettingly watchable, in no doubt because Poitier and Phoenix are leading men able to make a wearisome film inimitably appealing, Poitier a lead of unbreakable doggedness, Phoenix a successor to James Dean whose edgy appeal only grows more abiding as time drags on. So maybe the film's dumbed-down politics and inept thrills are enough to turn most off - but as long as actors of its caliber are leading the way, there are worse ways to spend ninety-plus minutes.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

william s

Just kept waiting for this movie to get moving but it never did.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Richard Benjamin

Director

Sidney Poitier

Roy Parmenter

River Phoenix

Jeff Grant

Richard Jenkins

Richard Grant

Caroline Kava

Elizabeth Grant

Richard Bradford

Konstantin Karpov

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Variety Staff

Variety

Never really materializes as a taut espionage thriller and winds up as an unsatisfying execution of a clever premise ...

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Trevor Johnston

Time Out

This lacklustre espionage thriller is bogged down with the sort of clichs you'd expect from the height of the Cold War.

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Walter Goodman

New York Times

Richard Benjamin's strategy in directing ''Little Nikita'' seems to have been to paper over the holes in the plot with routine moves from spy shows past, in hopes of making the improbable passable.

Rated: 2/5

May 21, 2003

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...periodically watchable yet mostly underwhelming...

Rated: 2/4

Jan 27, 2023

Full Review

Ángel Luis Inurria

El Pais (Spain)

Unfortunately, the result is terrible. [Full Review in Spanish]

Mar 26, 2020

Full Review

Cathy Burke

United Press International

Sidney Poitier, 10 years absent from the screen, is now back with a vengeance.

Oct 11, 2016

Full Review

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Synopsis

Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) is an FBI agent with a long-standing vendetta against a Russian spy named Scuba (Richard Lynch). Now, Scuba is blackmailing the Soviet government by tracking down and assassinating their sleeper agents in the United States. Parmenter discovers that high-school student Jeff Grant (River Phoenix) is the son of two such agents (Caroline Kava, Richard Jenkins), which is a total shock to Jeff. Parmenter must try to track Scuba while also protecting the Grants.

Director: Richard Benjamin
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Rating: PG
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.5M
Sound Mix: Surround

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