20 Greatest Revenge Movies Of All-Time

3. Leon: The Professional

After her family are brutally murdered by corrupt DEA agents, 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is taken in by Leon (Jean Reno), a hitman who happens lives next door. At first Leon is nervous to associate with her, used to a life of isolation, but their budding father/daughter relationship ensures that Leon: The Professional is just as heartfelt as it is gloriously violent (and it is gloriously violent).

Mathilda's plan? To learn to become a hitman, just like Leon, in order to use her skills to get back at the DEA agents who killed her little brother - namely one Norman Stansfield, played almost comically (and terrifyingly) by Gary Oldman, who spends the sum of the picture chewing the scenery like it's going out of style.

It's glorious to watch, and both Portman and Reno are on stellar form (especially Portman). Directed by Luc Besson, Leon is perhaps best taken as if it were a comic book adaptation; it is as ludicrous as it is entertaining, a balls to the wall action flick that cements itself as a classic because Mathilda and Leon are people we actually care about. It's a great revenge film, but it's also a lot more than that; inventive, original and remarkably touching, Leon is an experience that resonates emotionally.