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 LaneWZ23 ★★

This one was a tough sell. Not actor wise...Zoe has that great Dominican/Puerto Rican flare that I love and she's been great in other movies I've seen...but script wise. I mean this was just a jumbled story line that felt incomplete, sporadic and most of all very ineffective. We didn't see enough action scenes. When you did see one, they were sloppy and poorly edited. The love scenes (if you could even call them that) were filled with inappropriate music (not vulgar just oddly placed) and were misused at points throughout the movie. Not enough conviction from the main character and boring supporting actors with a weakly expressed story and you have a tranquil assassin movie that's only kept afloat by the beauty of its lead.
Review by Loic ★★½

Nem lembrava desse filme
Review by KOQ24 ★

Olivier Megaton sucks....................not sure if you knew that.
Review by josé ★★★½

nossa mas a cattleya criança correndo me surrou tanto... dou 10 passos e já to morrendo passo mal com a minha coluna de uma velha de 72
Review by oceansgi ★★★★½ 1

eu faria o mesmo. inclusive terminei o filme com vontade de cometer assassinato
Review by David Salazar ★

In “Colombiana,” Cataleya starts off the story as a defenseless young girl parkouring from the Colombian cartel. Eventually, she finds a safe haven with her uncle, transforming into a vengeful assassin on a mission to exact revenge on those who murdered her parents.
As the story develops, the 2011 film moves beyond an examination of a revenge plot and turns into something far more topical – the story of a woman trying to escape the confines of a male-dominated world. Everywhere Cataleya turns, she is met by men trying to tie her down in some way or another. Whether it be the cartel, or the FBI, or even her on-and-off romantic fling Danny, Cataleya is constantly running from men who…
Review by Scarlett ★★★

I liked this film a lot. I had no expectations going into, except that Zoe Saldana is badass.
She did not disappoint either. It was an awesome action film with a great female lead. I wouldn’t say it was ground breaking or the most amazing story I have ever seen! It was average on the storyline side.
I thought the score was pretty basic as well. It didn’t really stand out or emotionally attach me to the story. Again, not saying that it was bad , it was just basic and unoriginal.
This movie was great if you really didn’t want to think but just have some good ole fashion action entertainment-with a couple of random corny parts.
Review by lu fenty ★★★½

midia dms fi
Review by Kelsea

Are all female spies/assassins just emotionally distant Cool Girls? Yes. Does it get old when the men discover the talented super assassin they've been chasing this whole time is actually a woman? Also yes. Was this not as smart as it tried to be? Again, yes.
Review by artsmovies24 ★★★½

- MOVIE #1489 / #13 of January -

🎬 COLOMBIANA 🎬 - 7.7/10
directed by: Olivier Megaton
First time rewatching this since 2012.
- POSITIVES -
✅ Zoe Saldana is amazing in this.
✅ Some nice action scenes, especially in the first 20 minutes.
✅ Loved Cliff Curtis in this.
- NEGATIVES -
❌ The plot does get a little derivative.
❌ Pace seems to drag a bit, could’ve been 15-20 min shorter.
- FINAL THOUGHTS -
“COLOMBIANA” is a good action film, whenever theres action on the screen. I couldn’t get emotionally attached to any of the characters except for Zoe Saldana. The first 20 minutes are good, and the ending is a little predictable. Other than that a solid rewatch.
Review by Ozymandias64 ★★½

Muy meh.
Tiene escenas que están bien y las actuaciones son buenas aparte de que es entretenida al menos, pero la historia me parece una historia de venganza muy repetitiva que ya vimos en muchas otras películas, además que el villano es ridículo
Review by petja labović ★★★½

in a just world, every other action blockbuster would be a zoe saldaña vehicle