The Fifth Element

Rating:
Summary: Wild, Giddy Space Opera...
Review: The story goes that director Luc Besson began writing THE FIFTH ELEMENT in his teens, incorporating all the Sci-Fi elements he loved into one over-the-top, grand space opera...sort of an "E.E. 'Doc' Smith 'Skylark' Meets Flash Gordon and Barbarella" hybrid with sex, intergalactic action, and even some pseudo-religious overtones tossed in...in other words, a teenage daydream come true! Critics panned the end result for this very reason, sneering at Bruce Willis' Earth-saving (yet again!) Korben Dallas, and Besson's then-girlfriend, clothing-optional Milla Jovovich, as the innocent demigod, Leeloo.

The critics were wrong!

THE FIFTH ELEMENT is, in the best sense of the word, a classic 'B' movie, a space opera where a prologue vaguely similar to STARGATE leads to a future Earth where traffic jams occur thirty stories above the ground, humanity is ruled by beefy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., and where the Ultimate Evil is served by everyone's favorite villain, Gary Oldman, sporting a Southern accent! If this DOESN'T convince you that this is a 'popcorn' flick, not to be taken too seriously, there is Chris Tucker, sporting a blond hairdo, as the Galaxy's favorite media personality, promoting himself as he hits on his adoring female fans; Ian Holm, as the monk who knows 'the Secret', forced, despite himself, to become an active participant in the adventure; and some of the most ... ugly alien mercenaries you'll ever see, terrorizing a space resort, until they meet their match in Bruce Willis' 'DIE HARD in Space' protagonist! Yippee-Ki-Yay, indeed!

The FX are astonishing, the comedy, broad and sly, the heroics, macho, and as Leeloo, sent to save Earth, Jovovich manages to be both naive and sexy, with broken English and a gymnast's grace.

Bruce Willis is a joy, as always, to watch, and he carries the film with charm and self-depreciating humor, whether dealing with endless phone calls from his mother, driving his sky taxi recklessly (cabbies change very little in the future!), taking on terrorists single-handed, or falling for the exotic Leeloo. When he blows away a roomful of hostage-holding aliens, then asks, "Does anyone else want to negotiate?", you KNOW Besson picked the right guy for the lead!

If you want Profound Science Fiction, watch 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY again...but if you want to kick back and just have fun, look not further...THE FIFTH ELEMENT delivers!

Rating:
Summary: In 300 years, when evil returns, so shall we.
Review: Absolutely fabulous. Dazzling scenery and effects. Amazing vision of the future. Stellar casting. Brilliant soundtrack. Wonderful story (when isn't love wonderful). Unless you look for the GErman release of this which has a number of documentaries on it and an English 5.1 track, you will not find ant extras whatsoever on the DVD's released in North America. For this reason you may as well get the Superbit version - especially if you have a home theatre. The DTS 5.1 track is stunningly brilliant!

Rating:
Summary: A bit too silly at times
Review: Don't take this film too serious, because obviously the producer/director didn't. This movie can't make up its mind if it wants to be a comedy or adventure. Maybe a cross between both is the best way to describe it. A comic bookish sci-fi that starts out pretty good with plot and decent special effects, but then it becomes funny...then excessively humorous...and ends up being just too darn silly. Someone must have brought laughing gas onto the set, and everyone involved overdosed. If you'd rather giggle than eat popcorn, then you might enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Five Elements, Five Stars!
Review: This is one of the coolest movies I have ever seen, and one of my favorite that I own! The story is set in a futuristic world with high-tech flying cars, tall buildings, crazy weapons, revealing outfits for.... NO! not for Bruce Willis, but for Milla Jovovich, who plays "Leeloo"! I really don't want to give away much of the story, because it's really interesting and I don't want to ruin it for you (if you haven't seen it). But I can tell you that this movie is very very cool! It keeps you interested from start to finish. The high-tech gizmos are also very cool and imaginative. The monsters aren't too scary, but they are abnormal enough to be convincing bad guys! This is a great science-fiction movie, highly recommended! Be prepared for a fun ride through a very creative futuristic world with lots of action and cool aliens! Again, I highly recommend this film! ENJOY!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: super green
Review: Ok, yea its odd, but i think its supposed to be wierd. First of all, its Bruce Willis, who is just damn sexy, then there is Mila who is also damn sexy. Oldman is a bit over hte top, with te accent and all, but it works in this movie. Chris Tucker was hilarious. Anyway, you either love this one or hate it and I love it.

Rating:
Summary: Sci Fi Laughs!
Review: Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is a retired Space Marine who's chosen the sedentary field of cab driver as his post-military lifestyle. The trouble is, is that the military needs him. Again.

Zork (Gary Oldman) wants darkness and evil to take over the Earth . . . and he's helping it out. And Evil/Darkness has a form; it's a big ball of energy speeding on a collison course toward Earth after millenia wandering the galaxies and looking for the Fifth Element: the only thing that can destroy Evil.

Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) is a resurrected woman found in a destroyed transport ship (she's reconstructed on Earth after they find only a piece of an arm left). But something is odd about this woman. She's got superhuman strength, speaks the 'divine' language, and can kick some bad-boy butt!

Ruby Rock (Chris Tucker) is a DJ with some serious attitude. He's rich, women fawn over him . . . he's the equivalant of a futuristic Wolfman Jack, only with less facial hair.

Come to find out, Leeloo IS the Fifth Element and she's the only one who can stop Evil. But can she? Or WILL she? With the help of a washed up Marine (Willis) and a panzy-boy DJ (Tucker) she's got a pretty good shot at it, wouldn't you say?

This SF flick has it all: action, romance, laugh-out-loud antics, and futuristic perspectives. A very, very, very fun film to watch. I've seen it at least six times and it always makes me laugh. Tucker and Willis work like comedic geniuses together whenever they're in the same scene.

A++++ funny film!

Rating:
Summary: Humorously Entertaining
Review: The movie is a humor-laden sience fiction film with motifs borrowed and cleverly adapted from virtually every other science fiction film that preceded it. The main plot seems to be a cohesive compilation of all of the individual short stories in the animated film "Heavy Metal" (i.e. the evil sphere, the flying cab driver, the flying protectress, etc.) A lot of the futuristic stage design seems to be borrowed from Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner."

Bruce Willis was o.k. in the film but seems to be just another version of his "Die Hard" character: "This is how you negotiate!" Although some reviewers found Chris Tucker to be annoying, that's exactly the character he was asked to play in this movie, an annoying, wimpy, effeminate, and talkative DJ. Mila Jojovich's role as Milou was irritating with the nonsensical baby da-da talk. The best performance was by Gary Oldman as the evil industrialist, Zorg.

Overall, the movie is not meant to be taken seriously and is more of an action comedy sci-fi. The special effects along with the acting are good enough to make it credible and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding SciFi I loved it....
Review: It has decent action, memorable characters, visuals that are outstanding, one of a kind music, real and "simulated sets" feel at home in the movie storyline and it's solidly sci-fi. The special effects don't take away from the movie they draw you in.

Ok so most of it is predictable but I don't need any more bad ending movies this is a "bad guys crash the party" and "reluctant good guy kicks butt", Bruce Willis excels at this.

There is a story but not too deep, just right in my opinion. Even the obnoxious characters such as Chris Carter's "screamin DJ" is annoying but he fits oddly into the movie. Also the story doesn't take itself too serious. Its probably appealing if you like "a little off center" movies.

I give it a thumbs up for story, action, humor, romance, visual art and music. This movie is so well done, even people who say they don't like the movie will watch it again and again. Ok so the "professional reviewers" didn't like tooo badd for them, this is going in my personal collection absolutely.

Rating:
Summary: Aw, come on Bruce!
Review: I love movies, but this one was inanely stupid. Self important Bruce Willis stars in this cheesy sci-fi. I wanted to scream shut up at Chris Tucker. He ran around the movie in a dress screaming most of the time. The plot didn't help the movie either. In the end, Bruce saves the day with his manliness or whatever. A James Bond type ending is literally the answer to the mystery. We laughed and laughed at this one because, well-I can't even describe how odd it was. Don't waste your money or time seeing this.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating, for some reason I cannot fathom
Review: Have ya ever done a little late-night channel surfing and landed on a movie that was really annoying and obnoxious, yet for some reason you couldn't bring yourself to change the channel? No? Well perhaps YOU have not, but that's exactly what happened to me when, during a caffeine-laden midnight channel-clicking frenzy, I suddenly stopped and watched the second half of 'The Fifth Element'. It was loud, dumb, annoying, and preposterous-- yet I found myself unable to touch the 'Channel-Up' button on my remote until the closing credits started rolling.

What was it about this movie that made it so compelling in spite of itself? Well, to find out for sure, I decided to give this flick a rent, so I could watch it all the way through. And you know something, it it actually wasn't half-bad... until I got to the part I'd seen before, that is. Then I found my senses brutally assaulted by the pestilent spiel of Chris "I'm-a-Chris-Rock-wannabe-except-a-lot-more-obnoxious-if-such-a-thing-is-possible" Tucker as an intergalactic quasi-transvestite DJ. Basically, he's doin' the exact same routine here that you've seen in just about every other flick he's done, especially those Rush Hour movies with Jackie Chan.

Speaking of playing the same or very similar roles: I wasn't exactly wowed by Bruce Willis' performance here as he reverts back to his John McClane character from the 'Die Hard' series for the umpteenth time. Heck, I was half-expectin' him to yell out "Yippi-Ki-Yay, (MoFo)!" as he laid waste to his alien adversaries during the big Phloston Paradise battle sequence!

I was also kinda irked by Gary Oldman's cheesily over-the-top portrayal of Zorg (Zorg? Methinks the screenwriter of this tale is a 'Calvin and Hobbes' fan...), an evil industrialist weapons manufacturer hell-bent on acquiring the elemental stones for his own nefarious purposes. I couldn't stand his character's accent; listening to him talk is like listening to those gawd-awful InPhone radio ads that James Carville did. On the upside, at least Carville has the good fashion sense to not wear a TupperWare™ bowl as a hat...

I gotta admit, however, that most of the visual effects were top-notch, or at worst very close to top-notch. Which is always a good thing for a space-opera maven such as myself of course. Sadly, I didn't take a fancy the look of the main alien creatures: the robot-like Mondashawan, and the Mangalore mercenaries. They all looked looked just a bit too silly and cartoonish, even for such a tongue-in-cheek production as this film. If they were in 'GalaxyQuest', however, they'd have been right at home! The only alien being who looked right was the blue diva-a little overdone, just not to nearly as ridiculous a degree as her fellow ETs. And don't get me started on that sherbet-colored elephant-looking thing that lives in Zorg's office desk, or those ridiculous landing-gear parasites...

I must also admit that, like many others have stated, 'The Fifth Element' is visually stunning. As previously stated, the effects were pretty high-quality, and it's glaringly obvious that little expense was spared in making the sets as colorful and detailed as possible. It's just a shame the movie's script didn't achieve the same lofty plateaus the visuals did...

'Late