Never really materializes as a taut espionage thriller and winds up as an unsatisfying execution of a clever premise ...

This lacklustre espionage thriller is bogged down with the sort of clichs you'd expect from the height of the Cold War.

Richard Benjamin's strategy in directing ''Little Nikita'' seems to have been to paper over the holes in the plot with routine moves from spy shows past, in hopes of making the improbable passable.

Phoenix is generally pretty decent with what he has been given, but truth be told if he was excised from the plot completely nothing else would change. He is a spectator of the story, and not ever an active participant in it.