Overview
Roy Parmenter is an FBI agent in San Diego; 20 years ago his partner was killed by a Soviet spy, nicknamed Scuba, still at large. Scuba is now trying to extort the Soviets; to prove he's serious, he's killing their agents one by one, including "sleepers," agents under deep cover awaiting orders. Roy interviews a high school lad, Jeff Grant, an applicant to the Air Force Academy. In a routine background check, Roy discovers that Jeff's parents are sleepers. He must see if Jeff is also a spy, confront the parents yet protect them, and catch his nemesis. Meanwhile, the Soviets have sent their own spy-catcher, the loner Karpov, to reel in Scuba. Alliances shift; it's cat and mouse.
Reviews
"Little Nikita" is a highly addictive film and it makes for compelling viewing from beginning to end. Richard Benjamin appears to have forsaken his own acting career in favour of pursuing directing instead and he has certainly selected a very wise choice of material this time around. Benjamin's career as an actor has often reflected that of someone like Clint Eastwood in a lot of ways. They only specialised in playing a particular type of character for the most part and this undoubtedly restricted their choices principally because they may not have coincided with audience expectations concerning what they might have wanted to see them appearing in, but they have now successfully managed to extend their range into other genres as a director and apparently with great acclaim. Hopefully this is a trend which will continue well into the future.