20 Baffling IMDb Top 250 Placements You Won't Believe
5. Leon
The Film:
A cult classic action film from director Luc Besson focusing on the unusual friendship between an assassin and a 12-year-old girl seeking vengeance against a corrupt cop who murdered her family.
Placement: #27
Why It's Wrong:
This is yet another good film that's managed to end up at a ridiculously high position for no apparent reason. Leon is a solid action film from the 90s with lots of good moments and a trio of great performances from Jean Reno, a very young Natalie Portman and a wonderfully loud Gary Oldman, but it's hardly a classic. It's also too slow and not nearly as deep as it thinks it is.
It's one of those films where the hype attached to it feels wildly excessive, even though it's a solid film. The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 71% is lower than it should be (This deserves mid-70s at least) but is closer to an appropriate critical rating. Leon remains a film that's definitely worth watching but it certainly ain't one of the top 30 films of all time. Put this one in the same category as Interstellar, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects and Forrest Gump.
With this particular score, everyone is wrong.
Where It Should Be: #200-#250