Colombiana

2011 Directed by Olivier Megaton

Revenge is beautiful.

After witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, Cataleya Restrepo grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents' death.

Zoe Saldana Cliff Curtis Callum Blue Michael Vartan Lennie James Amandla Stenberg Graham McTavish Jesse Borrego Cynthia Addai-Robinson Ofelia Medina Jordi Mollà Affif Ben Badra Max Martini Charles Maquignon Beto Benitez Sam Douglas Angel Garnica Mark De Alessandro Reem Kherici Guillermo Ríos Silas Cooper Mylène Pilutik

Alternative Titles

Venganza despiadada, Smrtící orchidej, Colombiana (2011)

crime action drama thriller

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by gwen ✨ ★★★ 2

- I want to be a killer. Can you help me?
- Sure.
Honestly, I know a sequel wouldn't have been possible but I would have wanted one just to see Miss Saldaña as a badass killer again :)
Review by Andy Summers ★★★

This is another of those films that failed to impress me on its initial viewing. Directed by Olivier Megaton and starring Zoe Saldana as an assassin, this has definite similarities with producer Luc Besson's film Nikita. Playing a woman with a past and a unquenchable thirst for revenge on the drug-lords that murdered her family, there are plenty of bodies and the odd inspired piece of plotting.
When Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) arrives as a nine year old into the U.S. she disappears from under the authorities noses and heads for Chicago. Having been a witness at her father's murder, it has changed her forever and she asks her uncle to train her to kill for a living. Years pass and…
Review by Burrows ★★★½ 1

Don’t get me wrong, COLOMBIANA covers no new material here. It’s revenge week at my place, I suppose as this is the third vengeance-themed action piece I’ve watched in as many days. I must have done deep resentment building over something.
Anyway, where PEPPERMINT didn’t even nail down the concept of revenge, and DEATH WISH (2018) felt weirdly like a feel-good revenge film for the whole family, COLOMBIANA succeeds in its appropriate backstory, character depth, action scenes, cinematic vengeance, and visual style.
Zoe Saldana is a great balance between legit actor and action star. COLOMBIANA knows what it is, and doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is the perfect tone. The film merges the color and pacing of a Tony…
Review by Tarryn-tino ★★★

I don't actually know what to say about this. Colombiana was neither amazing nor terrible.
Zoe Saldana was a kick arse assassin and her younger self was very cool.
Lots of shooting, humans getting dominated by animals and good old fashioned revenge.
Not bad :-) enjoyable at least.
Review by Simone ★★★★ 2

Film #73 of the June Challenge
I will champion any film that puts a kick-ass black female in the lead role, but Colombiana tried everything it could to convince me I should give that up. The baddies are super cliché, the writing is sub-par, and Michael Vartan as the cute but boring love interest nearly did me in. What kept me around was Zoe Saldana. She does a fantastic job of the physical side of the role and the emotional, human side is pretty well-developed as well. People complain about her being too skinny but I don't really think that's fair. She is who she is and she shouldn't be ridiculed for her body type. She's stunning and incredibly magnetic, and I think she does a great job carrying a film that probably shouldn't exist based on how derivative and predictable it is.
Review by Matt ★★

Generic action thriller with the hyper-lovely Zoe Saldana whose character shoots, stabs and shags her way through the blandest of revenge stories like she's put the cheats in beforehand. Directed by the same chap who did two Taken films and written by Luc Besson, I probably should've guessed it wouldn't be a classic.
Review by IronWatcher ★★½

Watched on Netflix
"Colombiana" could have been the female equivalent of "Taken" With leading actress Zoe Saldana, the right woman was cast for the job, blessed with incredible acting talent. This talent is not overly demanded in "Colombiana", but at least it enhances her credibility. Sadly, the movie messes it up too often.
It's true that "Colombiana" can stand out with a certain amount of harshness, but the dirty, grimy, this sudden rawness that made up "Taken" is just missing. Everything runs a little bit too smooth, coincidences pile up and the action just seems interchangeable here and there. Only one action scene actually conveys an immediate tension through its directness, the rest is ironed out and is only intended…
Review by Nicolò Grasso ★★½

Original Title: Colombiana
Year of Release: 2011
Genres: Action Thriller; Crime; Drama
Director: Olivier Megaton
Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Main Cast: Zoe Saldana, Cliff Curtis, Callum Blue, Michael Vartan, Lennie James, Amandla Stenberg, Graham McTavish
I wonder how many shit unpublished scripts Luc Besson has lying around. While From Paris with Love had okay action and an excessive Travolta performance, Colombiana was doomed from the start by being an Olivier Megaton film, one of the worst action directors to have ever worked in the mainstream. Even in the theatrical international version (which is bloodier and less cut than even the US unrated one), the action suffers immensely from quick editing and constant breaking of the 180° line.
To…
Review by Ed Küpfer ★ 2

From the director who brought you the incomprehensible mess that is Taken 3. Colombiana is slightly better than that, in the way that a shit sandwich is slightly more palatable than death. In any case, I defy anyone to watch this clip and tell me who is doing what to whom.
Review by Jordi Sánchez-Navarro ★★★ 1

Tan absurda como divertida, tan bien realizada y montada como cabe esperar de un producto Europacorp, Colombiana proporciona numerosos placeres, entre los cuales ver a Zoe Saldana propinando una tremenda paliza a Jordi Mollá no es precisamente el menor.
Review by William (first account) ★ 1

Ugh! Why have I been watching horrible movies for the past few days? I just do my day job for you guys to never waste time or money from films like Priest and Batman v Superman. Well, Colombiana felt like dreadful WORK!
Here's one positive I can give: Zoe Saldana.

Now, let's jump into the negatives:
This is such an extremely dull action movie that is filled with horrible acting, lame-ass characters, and incomprehensible action scenes that will give the audience a hard watching experience. Despite Zoe's best efforts, she's just stuck in a god awful movie that doesn't appreciate her talents. I blame mostly Olivier Megaton or TRON whatever the fuck you want to call him. Every time he…
Review by La Revolver Perez ★★

Mucho parkour, muchas coincidencias, muchos acentos raros, 0 sentido.
También... moraleja, nunca tengas una alberca llena de tiburones por que probablemente te van a comer a ti.

Recent reviews

Review by RAGHAD ★★★★★

هذا الفلم شفته قديم ٧ سنوات يمكن بس مستحيل انسى اول مشهد فيه اثر فيني مره وانحفر بذاكرتي
يتكلم عن بنت انقتلوا امها وابوها قدام عيونها وهي صغيرة ولما كبرت تحاول تنتقم من الفاعلين
Review by Chris Stuckmann ★★

C+
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEnre11YqwA&list=TLPQMDMwMzIwMjHSyXC_nTRLKw&index=7
Review by nonserviam_blog ½

-/10 ... 5 minutes in and I'm already annoyed that Spanish speaking people in Colombia speaks English with each other.
Then we come to the award winning dialogue :
"Kill that little bitch" ... 5 seconds later the same man: "Stop shooting, we need her alive".
... and we go from there. The girl get arrested for drunk driving, (she's acting) they don't even make her take a breathalyser.
If you think this has nail biting and tense scenes, you got to have some kind of brain damage.
Absolut braindead garbage, and not even fun bad, just bad.
I put the rating -/10 which is not even a rating, it means I gave up after 40 minutes. Life's too short and have too many movies to watch.
Review by Jess ★★★★½

Zoe yesssss
Review by Chris1Wan ★★★★

I want a sequel NOW !! Zoe Saldana is a badass superstar !! This movie had me on hook from start to finish.
Very impressive
Review by Adrian Lestrange ★★★½

Zoe Saldana, a bad ass woman. How can you not like this film? The action sequences are nail bitingly great, and it was great to see Zoe in a Hispanic role.
Review by Daya_a ★★★½

te amo de rasgar o peito zoe saldaña
Review by Jason Alley ★

This is a profoundly stupid movie.
Review by mariana ★★★½

I’ll never forget the day I watched this movie with my dad when I was 12 years old. This almost messy movie made me realize I love action movies, and that’s why it’s remarkable.
Cataleya invented revenge, this woman is fearless, and I love her, the scene when she pretends to be drunk is so iconic.
Review by Videohuette

Man merkt diesen übercoolen und hochstilisierten Actionfilmen eben doch an, dass die 90er vorbei sind - so richtig passen sie nicht mehr in die Zeit, machen aber doch irgendwie Spaß
Review by Alyssa Bailey ★★★★★

I'm starting to realize that I love revenge movies even though I grew up sheltered and quiet with no enemies. I must have had it out for someone in a past life.....
I have never really been that into action movies, but this was the first one I was ever engaged with. A Badass lady taking down a crime boss for her family?! I don't think any other action movie will tackle that trope better than this one to me. A family favorite!
ALSO- Watching this was my first time seeing both Zoe Saldana and Amandla Stenberg in anything.
Review by DamianOaks007 ★★½

Big problem with this movie- It takes 29 MINUTES to get to Zoe Saldana! Which is why the movie is probably 10 minutes too long. Why did we need to half hour cold open? I'm watching this movie because I want to see Saldana starring in an action movie and we eventually get that.
I do wonder what her experience was making this movie. Obviously she's tied up making the star trek and marvel movies, but if Milla Jovovich and Kate Beckinsale can make a million mediocre action movies, I would've loved to see Saldana get to make more of these with better directors. But maybe this just isn't what she really wants to do, and that's totally fine.