Filmmaker Luc Besson

, who has crafted such major action franchises as La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and Taken, returned to the action thriller genre back in 2019 with this deeply divisive outing…and it’s now streaming free. Titled Anna

(or ANИA if you’re feeling fancy), Besson writes, directs, and produces this tale of a Russian assassin who turns double agent.

Starring Sasha Luss as the titular assassin, Anna boasts a stellar cast that includes Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy, Helen Mirren, and Alexander Petrov. The action outing was met with mixed reviews from critics, and ultimately bombed at the box office, earning $31 million worldwide against its $30 million budget. Despite all this, Anna is well worth checking out. And it’s a task that just got a lot easier, as Anna is now streaming free on Tubi

. You can check out the official synopsis for Anna below.

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Luc Besson returns with a new movie he filmed in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown, featuring many of his trademarks as a director.

“Beneath a woman’s striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the most feared assassins on the planet.”

‘Anna’ Was a Big Action Hit With Audiences

Lionsgate

Far from the first action movie to do so, Anna resulted in a huge split between critics and audiences. While the former’s response landed the thriller a rating of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences loved the story of a fashion model-turned-killer, with Anna achieving a far more promising 81% on the Popcornmeter. Though Anna is squarely in Luc Besson’s wheelhouse, critics felt that “this variety of stylized action have seen it all done before — and better.”
Audiences, however, couldn’t disagree more. “You could see that this was a Luc Besson film… action, suspense, intrigue & action, action, action. Double agent, triple agent, seeing the scenes & then backtracking seeing how everything unfolded to the create the events, I have to say that I sincerely enjoyed this film. You can tell this was conceived by the same man who was behind La Femme Nikita,” said one Rotten Tomatoes user. “The disparity between the critic and audience reviews speaks volumes… watch this if you want an entertaining spy flick that’s as engaging as it is fun,” added another, with further users heaping praise on Sasha Luss’ lead performance and even comparing Anna to the likes of John Wick.
Luc Besson has become a controversial figure in recent years following several allegations of sexual assault being leveled at the writer and director. Despite this, Besson continues to attract Hollywood stars to lead his projects. Following his twisted action thriller, Dogman, back in 2023, Besson will next helm the gothic horror romance movie, Dracula: A Love Tale. Starring Caleb Landry Jones as Dracula alongside Christoph Waltz and Matilda De Angelis, Jones has emphasized the madness inherent in Dracula: A Love Tale, saying “Usually, they take the monster away from you. This one gives the monster to you. But the love is very much mad about each other, and emphasis on the mad part, absolutely eating each other up, devouring one another for every moment that they are together… Then it gets cut short, and it becomes about longing for this and entering into a kind of madness… It is this love he will do anything for, and has to find a way outside of God to get it back…”
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Anna

Release Date

June 21, 2019

Runtime

118 Minutes