Here, he shows why he retired. He flounders in the rotten part of an FBI agent trying to capture a renegade Soviet agent. Uptown Saturday Night . He plays each scene as if he had never seen any other scene in the script, including those that were chronologically earlier. Poitier is lucky that Shoot To Kill came out before Little Nikita , as the earlier success will likely cause people to forget this fiasco.
River Phoenix has nothing worthwhile to contribute to the part of the boy.
Of course, the script gives him nothing to work with, and Phoenix has been very good in better parts, so his flounderings can probably be blamed mostly on script and direction. Richard Bradford plays a Soviet agent as if he were giving examples of overused spy cliches. Richard Lynch, as the renegade, adds yet another indistinguishable villain part to his credits. No real motivation is given for his character, so he can probably be forgiven for repeated what he's done often before. None of the other cast members does anything worthy of mention.