From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 6 13:39:05 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: dare2b@earthlink.net (Noah Veil) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 6 May 1997 00:48:34 GMT Organization: Earthlink Network, Inc. Lines: 42 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5klv52$36q@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: dare2b@earthlink.net (Noah Veil) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07461 Keywords: author=Veil Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6890 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1263 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Noah Veil Copyright 1997 Noah Veil MASTERPIECE ALERT Of course it's easy to over react since I just saw it at the Dome in Hollywood, but this film completely blew my mind. It's unquestionably one of the best Sci-fi films ever made, Bladerunner with a sense of humor, Heavy Metal with brains, the first Star Trek film without the pretentions, and of course 2001 with four triangles instead of one monolith. As a film critic, I'm lucky enough to see films having heard nothing about them. When you've heard too many good things about a film, it can become an anticipointment, i.e. something that disappoints simply because you anticipate it so much. I promise I won't give anything away, but I don't think I can possibly blow this movie for you, it's so consistantly inventive and fun. I've never seen a film that openly borrows from so many sources yet somehow manages to be totally original. Other critics may trash it because it's such an audience pleaser. At last night's screening, there were at least four incredible sequences in the film that got the whole audience roaring and applauding with approval. One sequence in particular borrows from the baptism scene in the Godfather, the cantina scene in Star Wars, and the whole film Diva. It's a virtuoso display of editing back and forth between opera and rock that shows as much filmmaking bravado as I have ever witnessed. It also manages to send up Bruce Willis movies while actually BEING a Bruce Willis movie. I've liked the films of director Luc Besson (Subway, Le Femme Nikita, The Professional) but nothing prepared me for the skill he displays here, balancing action, passion, and humor in dozens of startling new ways. He's always had Kubrick's eye for symmetry, and this film looks better than Bladerunner (It was designed by Heavy Metal artist Mobius). I could go on and on. You heard it here first. The best film of the year and an absolute must see. MD http://home.earthlink.net/~dare2b/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 6 13:41:22 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mrbrown@ucla.edu (Michael Dequina) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 6 May 1997 00:54:35 GMT Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway Lines: 87 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5klvgb$37a@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mrbrown@ucla.edu (Michael Dequina) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07479 Keywords: author=Dequina Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6900 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1265 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Michael Dequina Copyright 1997 Michael Dequina The Fifth Element (PG-13) *** (out of ****) The cryptic teaser trailer has been unspooling in moviehouses for quite sometime now: "IT MU5T BE FOUND." So what, exactly, is The Fifth Element? After seeing Luc Besson's ambitious, much-shrouded-in-secrecy science fiction fantasy, I could not help but be let down by the actual answer, which is not nearly as exciting nor clever as one would think. But what is far from a letdown is the film as a whole, a wildly imaginative feast for the senses that does what all the best science fiction films do--create a universe unlike any other presented on the silver screen. The biggest irony of The Fifth Element is that the one thing that has been kept under such tight wraps--the actual storyline--is the most conventional, dismayingly so, element (pun intended) of the film. Speaking in the vaguest possible terms, the basics of the plot are as follows: in the year 2259, a great force of evil threatens to consume the earth, and only the four elements--earth, wind, fire, and water--united with a fifth element can stop it. Figuring into all of this are New York cabbie Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis); a shady, Southern-drawling entrepreneur by the name of Zorg (the hilariously hammy Gary Oldman, picking up where he left off in Besson's The Professional); a priest (Ian Holm); and a mysterious creature named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). All of the pieces come together in a tidy and somewhat underwhelming--and unsurprising--fashion, but there is no denying that this basic story holds some intrinsic interest. What remains interesting and exciting, however, after brief glimpses is the fascinating world Besson has created with production designer Dan Weil, director of photography Thierry Arbogast, visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson, and the crew at Digital Domain. The look is absolutely mesmerizing right from the opening moments to the last. The frenzied cityscape of New York, with its vibrant day-glo colors, tall buildings penetrating high into the clouds, and the swarm of cars, cabs, and other vehicles flying through labyrinthian skyways, is absolutely breathtaking to behold, especially in a wild car chase sequence early on in the film. But it would not have been a completely captivating vision if the people inhabiting the settings weren't equally as interesting, and are they ever. In addition to the exotic menagerie of alien creatures that populate this world, from bulky robots to dog-like Mangalores, the humans are outfitted in costumes by eccentric designer Jean-Paul Gaulthier, best known for creating Madonna's pointy bustier get-up in her Blonde Ambition tour. Gaulthier's outlandish creations, such as a number worn by Leeloo made entirely out of white straps, feel more at home in Besson's futuristic vision than on any fashion runway in the world; they add to the sense of otherworldliness about the film. While Besson's bold vision is the biggest virtue of the film, it also could be its biggest obstacle to reaching a mass audience. For all its imagination, certain things about the film may be a bit too quirky and bizarre. I really do not know what middle America will make of the most outrageous character of the film, Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), a flamboyant disc jockey who makes Dennis Rodman look conservative--he makes a raucous entrance dressed in an animal print dress, sporting a blonde hairdo in the shape of a hair dryer, speaking in high pitches at rapid fire speed. At first this character's hyper energy is funny, but the act wears out its welcome very quickly. Not irritating, but just as strange, is a musical number by blue-skinned alien chanteuse Diva (Maiwenn LeBesco), who sings--and dances--an aria that is an unlikely blend of classical opera and techno. The tune, as with the entirety of longtime Besson collaborator Eric Serra's innovative score, is haunting, but it is also completely jarring. Then there are the campy touches of humor Besson and co-scripter Robert Mark Kamen sprinkle throughout, which too often are silly and forced; a comic sexual encounter between Ruby Rhod and a flight attendant is highly distracting and not very funny, to boot. The story's weakness shines through in the climax and conclusion of The Fifth Element. While still visually and aurally spectacular, the events detailed are not as exciting nor powerful as they should be. The big, serious dramatic climax was met with more than a few snickers, and it ambitiously strives for a profundity which the film had not even begun to work toward. As such, at the end there is a sense that there was something bigger at work here, that there was still more left to be said about this story and these characters. This suspicion was confirmed by Besson himself, who told me in the lobby following the screening (imagine that, the filmmaker watching the film with the "enemy"--the critics) that what had made it to the screen was really just the first half of the lengthy original Fifth Element screenplay and that the second half--now titled Mr. Shadow--is still waiting to be made. Still, despite the story problems, The Fifth Element is an artistic triumph for Luc Besson; rarely does a filmmaker's original vision come to the screen in all its audacious, undiluted glory. It is a fascinating example of how of one artist's fervid imagination can transport an audience into an intoxicating fantasy world generally seen only in dreams. Michael Dequina mrbrown@ucla.edu | mj23@the18thhole.com mrbrown23@juno.com | mrbrown@iname.com | mst3k@digicron.com Visit Mr. Brown's Movie Site at http://members.tripod.com/~MrBrown/ Personal Page: http://members.tripod.com/~MrBrown/home.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:00:31 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: shreck@metronet.com (Matt Williams) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 May 1997 23:59:33 GMT Organization: TMI news testing Lines: 72 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lav95$6u3@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: shreck@metronet.com (Matt Williams) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07515 Keywords: author=Williams Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6906 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1268 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Matt Williams Copyright 1997 Matt Williams RATING: * * * (on a scale of 0 to 4) The best science fiction films manage to create a unique world, populated with rich characters and coherent to its own logic. The Fifth Element only meets these goals part way. It creates a visually intriguing setting, but adds rudimentary characters and a fairly standard action plot. Three hundred years in the future, Earth faces a mysterious problem. An unknown massive object has appeared in space, destroying all life it touches. When conventional weapons prove useless, one Father Cornelius (Ian Holm) believes he may have the answer. He has descended from an order that has guarded a secret for 5000 years: a weapon of ultimate good that can defeat the ultimate evil. In order to use this weapon, it is necessary to collect four stones (representing the four elements of air, fire, earth and water), along with a mysterious "fifth element". However, gathering them may not be as easy as Father Cornelius would hope, for there are other forces at work. The industrialist Zorg (Gary Oldman) wants the stones for his own nefarious purposes, and has the resources to get what he desires. In the midst of this conflict is thrust Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), an ex-military man, now struggling as a hovercab driver. Both fate and his government draw him together with Leeluu (Milla Jovovich), a strangely perfect humanoid alien who may hold the key to collecting and using the elements. The world that director Luc Besson has created is original and breathtaking. In fact, it is almost worth the admission for the eye-candy alone. Though cluttered, the sets makes firm strides away from the gothic gloominess of Blade Runner, which has influenced nearly every science fiction film in the last fifteen years. The vibrant use of color in the Fifth Element is refreshing (although you can't help but compare Leeluu's bright orange hair with Korben's bright orange tank top). The costumes throughout are a bit over-the-top, but interesting to look at, anyhow. The film reaches its pinnacle with the pure visual delight of its action pieces (the hovercar chase through New York traffic is particularly spectacular). However, once establishing so thrilling a setting, the remainder of the film is somewhat of a letdown. The Korben Dallas character is, well, Bruce Willis. Aside from the throwaway "my wife left me", there's not much development there. As Zorg, Gary Oldman gets to chew some scenery, but he never really has much motive (other than just being evil). Leeluu has some alluring enigma, but she remains shrouded in mystery throughout the whole film, and is used more as a plot device than a character. And the characters used for comic relief (particularly the shrill talk show host Rudy Rhod (Chris Tucker)) rarely have the effect desired. As far as the movie's overall plot, you've got a MacGuffin to quest for and some villains to provide obstacles, and a few throwaway morals tacked onto the end. Your basic action movie package...no insights here. Yet, as an action film, The Fifth Element is above normal, owning many of the same stylistic touches that made Besson's earlier works (La Femme Nikita and The Professional) such a treat to watch. Sure, there are occasional inconsistencies, and the characters are rather thin, but Luc Besson makes the best of the elements he has. If you're hoping for a science fiction masterpiece, you won't get it in the Fifth Element. Go in expecting a decent action film with stunning visuals, and you'll be sure to enjoy the ride. Matt Williams (matt@shreck.com) Reviewer for Shreck's Cinema: http://www.shreck.com Home of over 400 reviews, and information on over 500 upcoming releases From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:01:34 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:03:52 GMT Organization: - Lines: 122 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavh8$6v6@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07525 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6905 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1267 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 5.5 Alternative Scale: ** out of **** United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 5/9/97 (wide) Running Length: 2:07 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Brief nudity, violence, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry Director: Luc Besson Producer: Patrice Ledoux Screenplay: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast Music: Eric Serra U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures THE FIFTH ELEMENT uses one of the newest tricks in the science fiction motion picture handbook: perform a visual and aural assault on viewers in the vain hope that they won't notice the lack of substance, logic, and intelligence. For a few recent examples of where this tactic has been employed, check out STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and JUDGE DREDD. THE FIFTH ELEMENT, the summer of 1997's first big-budget disappointment, is right at home in such company. A lot of money was spent on this film, but $100 million doesn't guarantee a good product. Maybe someone should have thought of spending a few more dollars on a better script. Going into the film, I was guardedly optimistic. As a result of what I'd seen in the two-minute theatrical trailer, visions of BLADE RUNNER danced in my head (I guarantee that no one in their right mind would make such a ludicrous association after seeing THE FIFTH ELEMENT). And the director, Luc Besson, is a well-respected artist whose short- but-impressive resume includes such international hits as LA FEMME NIKITA and THE PROFESSIONAL (LEON). I figured that if anyone could handle the task of putting together a rousing science fiction adventure with Bruce Willis in the lead, it was Besson. Alas, such is not the case. What can I say about the storyline? There's not much there, and what there is, doesn't make a lot of sense. If you see THE FIFTH ELEMENT, do not, under any circumstances, attempt to reason out what's going on. In general, science fiction tales play fast and loose with reality, but here, it's so flagrant that even a moment's intelligent consideration of what's on the screen will shatter any hope of suspending disbelief. The goal in THE FIFTH ELEMENT is to save Earth from a gargantuan evil that's hovering somewhere beyond the fringes of the solar system, blasting space ships as it waits around for forty-eight hours so our heroes can destroy it before it turns the planet into a cinder. Nothing can stop this nearly-omnipotent enemy (which looks like the Genesis planet from the STAR TREK movies) except The Fifth Element -- the most powerful weapon ever devised. Things aren't straightforward, however, because the Fifth Element is actually a girl who can't speak English (Milla Jovovich), and she's missing four key stones without which she can't do her job. Pretty soon, there's a whole rogues' gallery of characters looking for the stones: an ex-government operative-turned- cab driver, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a new age priest (Ian Holm), a megalomaniac (Gary Oldman), and a bunch of bunch of ugly looking aliens. The quest, which starts on Earth during the twenty-third century, takes us to an outer space vacation resort where the stones are supposedly hidden. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is populated by all manner of flashed, bangs, and booms. New York City, circa 2200, has been rendered with eye-popping splendor by the effects wizards at Digital Domain. (Check out rush hour in the future if you think it's bad now!) Bright colors -- reds, oranges, and yellows -- are in evidence everywhere, from Bruce Willis' outfit to Milla Jovovich's hair. And Eric Serra's throbbing, cacophonous score tests the limits of theater speakers. On a purely visceral level, it's impossible to deny that THE FIFTH ELEMENT has an impact. When it comes time to discuss the rest of the movie, however, there's not much to talk about. When a wisecracking actor like Bruce Willis and a hammy performer like Gary Oldman are reduced to ineffectual bystanders, there's a problem. Willis and Oldman don't have much to do, and, when they're on screen, they fade into the background, dwarfed by the special effects. Willis, whose John McLane is the DIE HARD series, is used to taking center stage, but he can't compete with the visual busy-ness of THE FIFTH ELEMENT, and that makes him a pretty dull hero. Meanwhile, with her fiery hair and occasionally-revealing costumes, Jovovich makes an impression, although her effectiveness has little to do with acting and less to do with dialogue (she doesn't have much to say). Only Chris Tucker, who plays an insanely energetic, over-the-top talk show host (a loquacious Dennis Rodman in outer space) manages to hold his own amidst the digital chaos, but his outrageousness starts to wear thin after about two minutes. I will give Besson some credit. He never takes things too seriously, which is a good idea, because a somber version of THE FIFTH ELEMENT would have made it a candidate for the year's Bottom 10 list. The director, working from a comic book-type script that he co-wrote with Robert Mark Kamen (and which bears a certain resemblance to one of the segments of HEAVY METAL), injects a ton of offbeat, sporadically- effective humor into the movie, frequently causing THE FIFTH ELEMENT to cross over the line into self-parody. This unique approach kills any possible sense of adventure or suspense (the numerous action scenes are obligatory and perfunctory, and never remotely exciting), but it at least offers something unusual. Once THE FIFTH ELEMENT's assault on the senses starts to wear off, it's easy to become restless. After all, in keeping with the "epic" sweep demanded by such an obese budget, the film had to clock in at over two hours, even though there's no excuse for a movie with so little going on to last for so long. At least the payoff is worthwhile in a campy sense. Where else can you see sweat rung from a handkerchief become integral to saving the world? Besson may have misfired with THE FIFTH ELEMENT, but at least he does it with flair and a sense of humor. - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:02:41 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: kreme@netcom.com (Lewis Butler) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:05:53 GMT Organization: Nyx, the spirit of the Night (telent nyx.cs.du.edu) Lines: 53 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavl1$6ve@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: kreme@netcom.com (Lewis Butler) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07532 Keywords: author=Butler Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6908 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1269 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Lewis Butler Copyright 1997 Lewis Butler In short: A slamming action picture that owes a lot to BLADERUNNER, HEAVY METAL, STAR WARS and the computer game HELL CAB, to name a few. Bruce Willis puts in a steady performance as sort of John McClain of the 23rd century. The visual impact of the film is an important part of the film, and there are tons fo details to keep your attention. The film is basically pulp, but well executed and always fun. A steady +2 (-4 to +4, 0 is average). What can you say about a movie that shows a ring of red traffic lights hovering in space? THE FIFTH ELEMENT has the feeling of a comic book come to life, and I mean that as a compliment. There is a lot here that has been done before, but never this well. The film spends a lot of time getting the little things right and assumes you'll go along with the overall silliness of the main plot. And you do. The whole thing works somehow. There are references throughout the film to other movies, and there is a whole 1930's Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon feeling to the whole epic. The main plot line is trivial and not worth going into here, what works best is the overall presense of the film. I was reminded of Steve Rude's artwork for many of the scenes, and the entire sequence on the cruise ship could have been stright out of the comic book NEXUS. Gary Oldman turns in a wonderful performance as a psychotic power hungry servant of evil (Mr. Shadow). And everyone else in the movie does what needs to be done. There is a particular performance that deserves recognition, the role of the outlandish Dennis Rodman-styled DJ is outstanding. I don't know who the actor is, but he turns in a wonderfully comic performance. The special effects, of course, deserve their praise. Some people might dislike the comic-book look to some of the mattes and some of the city scenes, but I found the whole thing quite appropriate. -- Signatures follow: Distribution of this message by Microsoft, its subsidiaries, or its software shall constitute a violation of my copyrights. Microsoft may license copyrights to my messages, for distribution only, for the sum of $1,000 US per week. -- | kreme@cerebus.kreme.com 1015 South Gaylord, Denver, CO 80209 #100 | | WWW URL \ | | [303/722-2009] Vox \ Sometimes, after a lighting storm, I can see in | | [303/777-2911] Data \ five dimensions. -- Cornfed Pigg | From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:02:49 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:07:09 GMT Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. Lines: 103 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavnd$6vj@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07536 Keywords: author=Rhodes Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6924 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1270 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2 Most science fiction movies, good or bad, have a single look and set of characters that they use throughout the entire production. But not Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Every five minutes, some totally new character or special effect is introduced. This makes for a highly involving and mesmerizing film. Although the film is incorrectly being marketed as the "STAR WARS for the 90s," it does have some of the imagination of the STAR WARS saga. Where it differs, is that THE FIFTH ELEMENT never takes itself very seriously. The current trend among filmmakers is to engage in a battle with the studio's finance department with the filmmakers' goal being to spend the maximum amount possible on special effects. Whether the effects are worth the money becomes irrelevant; the effects become an end in themselves. THE FIFTH ELEMENT puts some sanity in this trend by spending every penny wisely, producing some of the most dazzling effects in a long time. If you are envisioning a depressing BLADE RUNNER motif for Besson's vision, think again. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is described in the press kit as showing a non-apocalyptic future, and Dan Weil's sets are suitably colorful and inviting. Typical of the innovativeness is its rendering of traffic in a big city in the year 2259. Rather than heavy traffic on the one street level, the airborne cars operate on numerous but carefully controlled parallel logical surfaces. Keeping the ROGER RABBIT looking taxis in line, are police cars with the cops in Jean-Paul Gaultier's uniforms reminiscent of RoboCop. Among all of the visual spectacles is a story and some excellent acting as well. Bruce Willis, who can be terrific but has been in so many dogs like COLOR OF NIGHT that I have begun to dread seeing his name on the marquee, plays the starring role of the taxi driver and ex-government agent Korben Dallas. One day, a newly made woman with orange mop hair and some Band-Aid strips for clothing drops into Korben's cab, and I do mean drops. She speaks only a sing-song style of language that baffles Korben. ("I only speak two languages," he tells her, "English and bad English.") Her name is Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), and she has just been created from a strand of DNA from the remains of an alien spacecraft. In 48 hours a fireball of evil will consume the world unless she, being the perfect fifth element, and stones representing the other four are combined in some long lost temple. The screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen has enough complexity to make following it somewhat of a challenge, but never so much as to lose the audience. Working through it becomes an interesting diversion, but all eyes stay glued to the screen to see what will happen next. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is more a feast for the eyes than the mind. The film is filled with cartoonish shoot-'em-up violence, Willis, as one of many shooters, plays a much more lovable character than he does in the DIE HARD series. His enjoyment of his character transfers easily to the audience. The chemistry between Korben and his sidekick Leeloo pulsates with comedic and romantic energy. Beautiful Jovovich speaks with a Yoda-like, sparse syntax. ("Me fifth element," she reassures Korben. "Supreme being. Me protect you.") With her quirky mannerisms and speech, Jovovich steals most of her scenes. Gary Oldman plays Zorg, the leader of the bad guys on planet earth. His has a deal in progress with the thing about to destroy the planet. Oldman plays his part as total camp. With a heavy southern accent, he spouts one aphorism after another, including the classic, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." The funniest character in the entire movie is the black transvestite and talk show host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker). Ruby Rhod with his leopard skinned dress, his cylindrical hairdo, and non-stop mouth provides a perfect complement to the fast paced action. All of the details, right down to the barbecuing of the ugly little parasites on the spacecraft before the flight, are carefully orchestrated with maximum imagination. The press kit says that Besson first got the idea for the story when he was a teenager and has been developing it ever since. I believe it. The result overflows with energy and creativity. THE FIFTH ELEMENT runs 2:07 and is worth every minute. It is rated PG-13 for brief female nudity, cartoonish violence, and a little profanity. The film would be fine for kids say 9 or 10 and up. I had great fun at THE FIFTH ELEMENT so I recommend it to you strongly and give it *** 1/2. _______________________________________________________________________ **** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture. REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 6, 1997 Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:02:58 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: fbarlett@lynx.dac.neu.edu (Ferruccio Barletta) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:08:19 GMT Organization: Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 02115, USA Lines: 31 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavpj$6vm@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: fbarlett@lynx.dac.neu.edu (Ferruccio Barletta) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07539 Keywords: author=Barletta Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6935 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1273 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Ferruccio Barletta Copyright 1997 Ferruccio Barletta I've just come back from seeing "The Fifth Element". This movie is a perfect example of what happens when Hollywood spends a lot of money on sets and props but doesn't want to waste money on talented writers or actors. This movie really couldn't decide whether it wanted to be an action-adventure movie or a comedy. The story plodded on for two hours with a lot of scenes that were obviously thrown in so that Bruce Willis could do his "Die Hard in Space" bit. I really liked the Die Hard movies but, throughout the entire film, Willis seemed like he was too bored to really put any effort into it. And his performace was the best one in the movie. The many attempts at comic relief came across like three stooges bits. They usually elicited groans from the audience rather than laughs. Except for Willis and the girl, every character seemed very cartoon-like. I would not have been the least bit surprised if Roger Rabbit was in one of the scenes. Every single major character was very clearly Good, Evil or incompetent. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's boring, unimaginative, boring, unexciting, boring, stupid and most of all: BORING! The only positive thing I can say about it is that it has reasonably good music. This movie might just be bad enough to become a cult classic. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:03:05 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.wildstar.net!news.inetnebr.com!news.enteract.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!ix.netcom.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: jmb5b@faraday.clas.virginia.edu (John M. Bozeman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:08:05 GMT Organization: - Lines: 51 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavp5$6vk@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: jmb5b@faraday.clas.virginia.edu (John M. Bozeman) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07537 Keywords: author=Bozeman Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6941 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1275 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by John M. Bozeman Copyright 1997 John M. Bozeman Trailers for the 5TH ELEMENT have made made people wonder: is the movie going to be another crummy sci-fi big budget bomb done by people who don't understand the genre? Or may it's the "Star Wars of the '90"? The answer to this is: It is neither. The best way that I can describe it is to say it is like H. R. Giger did "Blade Runner." And made it a comedy. A description of the plot doesn't really do the film justice. Most of the film is set about 200 years in the future. Bruce Willis plays a down and out cab driver, who used to be a crack special forces military. One day he happens across a beautiful space alien (actually, she's a clone of one in human form--it's a little hard to explain) who, due to a big misunderstanding, is running from the police. Fortunately, Willis has just been assigned to hunt down some alien artifacts needed to save the world from a really evil fate. The same one that the alien is looking for for the same purpose. Too bad that the Bad Guys--actually, several sets of bad guys-- are also looking for them, too. Mayhem of course ensues. The best thing that can be said about the movie is that it deals with some pretty heavy subjects (the destruction of the world by evil forces) in a light-hearted manner. In a way slightly like "Die Hard" and/or "Lethal Weapon," serious topics and violence alternate with very funny events. Other important stuff: the acting is pretty good. Bruce Willis does a good job, as does the (cloned) alien (played by Milla Jovovich). And the main bad guy, played by Gary Oldman, is well-done--sinister, yet with a comic/ironic edge. The sound track is very interesting, and the art direction and some costumes are outstanding. And there are a few parodies of somebody who seems suspiciously like an artist formerly known as Prince. The film runs (with trailers) about 2 1/2 hours, but doesn't seem that long. Finally, I would note that the people I was there with seemed to enjoy the film at least as much as myself. John Bozeman From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:03:09 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: bbn@interaccess.com (Bennett Nason) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:11:21 GMT Organization: InterAccess, Chicago's best Internet Service Provider Lines: 47 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavv9$709@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: bbn@interaccess.com (Bennett Nason) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07553 Keywords: author=Nason Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6932 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1271 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Bennett Nason Copyright 1997 Bennett Nason Well, I've been lurking a bit here reading the posts on T5E, and have only one thing to say... If you have time, *get out to see it!!* It seems that many people are analyzing/understanding the movie incorrectly. The movie, as many people state, isn't meant to be serious (despite the message that love has extraordinary power at the end, which I kinda' liked...) It has a *ton* of humor in it, which is one of the most decisive factors in favor of this movie. I couldn't help but laugh all the way through the scene with the Father and Zorg (not to disclose too much here, but the funny looking alien thing with the long nose and the little robots were too much, not to mention Ruby and Zorg in general...) In addition, the special effects were simply dazzling... the visual artistry within this movie is deserving of much merit. The label of "eye candy" that is applied to it isn't in my mind fair. To call this film "eye candy" would be like calling the Mona Lisa "eye candy", something I hope all reading this would understand to be too simplistic. The scenes of NY and the multi-layered traffic scenes are absolutely breathtaking. (As a disclaimer, I'm not comparing T5E to the Mona Lisa... just drawing an analogy of sorts...) As far as the script and acting go, I'm more or less convinced that it is so-so. However, I enjoyed throughly the performances of Oldman (Zorg), Ruby, and thought that Jovovich did a damned cool job of playing Leeloo. However, I don't go to movies to gaggle and drool over good acting - if that's what I want, I go to stage performances. The two mediums are meant for different things, and you'll find many mroe talented **ACTORS**, in the purest sense, on stage, not on screen. Screen actors have to perform differently, and they more or less didn't detract from this movie. So, in the end, I think that the movie is a success, in that it delivers all it is meant to. It isn't meant to be th most fabulous movie of all time - it is meant to entertain and do so well. In that regard, I didn't get bored once, but stayed entertained and more all the way through. -Bennett Nason From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 15 14:03:27 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: inkpot@webvisions.com (The Flying Inkpot) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:14:04 GMT Organization: Flying Inkpot Lines: 79 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lb04c$70v@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: inkpot@webvisions.com (The Flying Inkpot) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07575 Keywords: author=White Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6939 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1274 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Dr. T. White Copyright 1997 Flying Inkpot Directed by: Luc Besson Story by: Luc Besson Written by: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen Cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovoich, Gary Oldman, and Ian Holm Produced by: Columbia Pictures and Gaumont Productions Running Time: 127 minutes Rating : ** for narrative coherence, **** for sheer fun It's hard to watch this film without thinking about the fact that it's the most expensive movie ever made. Not because it looks so cool (and yes, it does look really cool), but because it's just not worth it, and obviously so. Sure, it's a hell of a lot of fun, but then so is FARGO at a fraction of the cost of THE FIFTH ELEMENT. For the cost of this movie, you could make at least ten really good movies... maybe even twenty or thirty. The biggest problem with the movie is that it really doesn't make a lot of sense. Besson's original story was much longer, maybe three or four hundred pages, and in the process of cutting it down to affordable (!) length, it has lost a lot of important information. Without reading about the movie before seeing it, I would have been completely lost. So anyway... THE FIFTH ELEMENT, which takes place in the 23rd century, is about a New York cabbie, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), who just happens to be a former special forces agent (surprise!). Dallas gets involved in a scenario in which a "dark force" is consuming all that is good in the universe and can only be countered by the mysterious "Fifth Element". And the Fifth Element just happens to be...an incredibly cute, spunky girl (Milla Jovovich) with hair that looks like orange yarn and nipples that are highly visible regardless of what she is wearing. Standing in the way is Zorg (Gary Oldman, with the world's worst accent and haircut), an evil guy who wants the four stones (oh yeah, forgot to mention those...they are necessary for the Fifth Element to conquer the dark force; don't ask, I don't understand it either) in order to give them to the dark force (why?). So they all end up on a resort ship in space, along with an offensively stereotyped black disc jockey named Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), and all hell breaks loose as the various characters seek the four stones (hidden inside a blue opera singer from some other planet) before the dark force consumes the universe. OK. So the story make very little sense, but, as I said, it looks really cool (lots of special effects and explosions), and it is unexpectedly very funny. Unfortunately, it all seems so familiar. In fact, the film reminds me very much of Total Recall (not Blade Runner, as Columbia and Gaumont would have you believe), not just in the special effects but in its sense of humor as well. Both share a macho main character in a future world that is confusing to a real, hands-on type of guy who likes to blow things up and hit people, as well. This film is important only as an example of what can be done (and the limits of what can be done) with a hell of a lot of money. It will not go down in history as a great film, or even as another Star Wars or Indiana Jones type film (you know, intellectually undemanding but endearing for largely unexplainable reasons). But everybody's going to go see it, so go ahead (and you MUST see it on the big screen). You won't be overly dissapointed, but you won't be all that impressed, either. Let's just hope that Besson doesn't get so much money for the production of his next movie; maybe it will make more sense. THE FLYING INKPOT's RATING SYSTEM: * Wait for the video. ** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha! *** Pretty good, bring a friend. **** Amazing, potent stuff. ***** Perfection. See it twice. ____________________________________________________________ This movie review was written for THE FLYING INKPOT: an arts and entertainment magazine from Singapore. Current film reviews can be found at: http://www.inkpot.com/film/ ____________________________________________________________ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:18:44 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: smithers@u.washington.edu (Ryan Maves) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:09:39 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 72 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavs3$6vp@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: smithers@u.washington.edu (Ryan Maves) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07542 Keywords: author=Maves Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6954 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1276 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Ryan Maves Copyright 1997 Ryan Maves "The Fifth Element" is a fairly decent sci-fi flick by Luc Besson, Frenchman and creator of other such timeless epics as "La Femme Nikita" and "The Professional". After some coin-flipping, my girlfriend and I decided to go see this instead of "Austin Powers". Following some cajoling of my roommate and another friend, the four of us made our way to the theater. And this is what we thought. In short: nice try. "The Fifth Element" is a spectacular-looking movie with a great soundtrack, but things drop off abruptly after that. Besson seems to have borrowed its plot from a grade-C fantasy novel I read in junior high. Not to rob the viewing audience of the thrill of seeing it, this is the essence of the storyline: Every 5,000 years, the stars align properly to permit a black hole to form, unleashing an ultimate Evil with a Capital E that immediately heads out to destroy life, specifically life on Earth. A band of good aliens left a weapon on Earth long ago (in Egypt) to destroy this evil; this weapon is formed out of the classical four elements (wind, earth, fire, and water) which are united around a mysterious "fifth element". Don't worry, all of this is explained using lots of little words in the first five minutes of the film. The film opens in Egypt in the early 20th century, at the tmeple where the weapon is stored. The good aliens show up (to say "hi", I suppose) but are driven away when Luke Perry (I'm quite serious), an archaeologist's assistant, blows his top and starts shooting at them. They take the weapon's components away with them for safekeeping until Evil returns. In any case, the appointed time arrives during the 23rd century, and the good aliens are unfortunately prevented from personally delivering the weapon by some evil aliens known as Mangalores. Only "the fifth element" survives the crash of their ship, and it is taken to Earth to be restored. What is this ultimate weapon? It is an anorexic supermodel, Milla Jovovich, who escaped from the Eart authorities to be rescued by formal elite soldier and current cabbie, Bruce Willis. And you know you're in trouble when Bruce Willis is the best actor onscreen for the first thrity minutes or so. Better acting, in the form of Gary Oldman, arrives soon. Gary is an evil industrialist who wants to capture the weapon for some reason or another. He pursues the Willis-Jovovich duo relentlessly as they quest across planets to retrieve the remaining components of the weapon. En route, Milla discovers that humanity is capable of great destruction (gasp!) and that love will keep us together (awwww...). This movie has, it must be said, moments of greatness. The action scenes are great, the effects are stunning, and all in all Besson has created a stunning and rich world out of his mind's eye. It's sad, though, that the best parts of the film are the parts when (a) no one is saying very much, and (b) no one is thinking very much. The revelations made in the film (war=bad, love=good) are about as profound as my breakfast, and the underlying "mythology" of an ultimate Evil and the four elements are ideas that any two-bit writer could have scribbled on a bar napkin at 3 AM after drinking a few stiff Manhattans. Oddly enough, I think this movie deserves to be seen. It is a great sensory experience, particularly the backgrounds, effects, and the great soundtrack by Eric Serra. (Warning: it does look "French". The soldiers even wear berets.) The impact of this film could be lost on video, so shoot for a matinee. I give this a 5 on a 1-10 scale. Ryan C. Maves -smithers@u.washington.edu -http://weber.u.washington.edu/~smithers University of Washington School of Medicine From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:20:02 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: WFrith1680@aol.com (Walter Frith) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:10:12 GMT Organization: America Online Lines: 68 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavt4$6vt@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: WFrith1680@aol.com (Walter Frith) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07546 Keywords: author=Frith Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6958 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1278 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Walter Frith Copyright 1997 Walter Frith Comments on this review may also be sent to wfrith@icom.ca 'THE FIFTH ELEMENT' IS PRIMARILY A 'STARGATE' WANNABE Next to comedy, science fiction is probably the most difficult and often misfired form of filmmaking there is. The key to it is to make it somewhat believable even though you know all along it isn't and people have to relate to their movie characters to truly enjoy two hours of leisurely time spent in a movie theatre. The 'Star Wars' series worked because the trilogy gave us characters you could truly root for and characters you truly loved to hate. The 'Star Trek' series has worked so well because of it's mystical and intellectual profile not enjoyed by everyone but certainly by its loyal followers who have contributed more to that side of pop culture than practically any other on film. Television's 'The X-Files' works magnificently because of its central theme of government deception and conspiracy which is certainly a reality to anyone with common sense and its FBI connection has characters both very human and very vulnerable. The Egyptian connection. It was used as the central plot of 1994's 'Stargate' starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. The Egyptian connection. It is duplicated in 'The Fifth Element' which is a wasted and tiresome science fiction creation looking to establish new rules for that genre and it fails miserably. In 'The Fifth Element', the story begins in 1914 Egypt where historians are tracking ancient carvings in a desert structure believed to be the sign of mankind's destruction on Earth as an evil alien entity will eventually annihilate the planet. The opening scene has alien creatures in large mechanical outfits that look curiously like Alice the Goon from the old Popeye the sailor comics. The ancient wall carvings also indicate that a FIFTH ELEMENT next to the other four which are earth, wind, fire and water will act as a defender to prevent this destruction. The story then jumps three hundred years into the future to New York City and this prophecy begins to take shape. The police officers of the future look very much like the creations in 'Judge Dredd' (1995) which was a laughably bad action film starring Sylvester Stallone. 'The Fifth Element' has Bruce Willis playing a loserly cab driver whose career was once in full swing as a high profile military man and now the military wants him back to save the world (the plot gets trivial and tedious here) and Willis looks more like a needle in a hay stack than he does a leading man as he is surrounded by visually striking sets and effects which despite their convincing nature, drown out the characters from developing into anything more than cardboard cut outs. A priest (Ian Holm) is also central to the plot as he discovers that through generations in his family of passing down a secret legend that a fugitive from justice that Willis has rescued is none other than the fifth element (Milla Jovovich) which is an alien life form created by man as an alien/human hybrid. Destiny, it seems has brought them together to save all of human life on Earth. Oh, brother, is this hokey or what?! The film takes on a moronic imitation of not only 'Stargate' but 'Blade Runner', 'Close Encounters' and almost any science fiction theme you can imagine. Its climax is predictable, bogged down with unfunny humour and protracted excitement. Other members of the cast include Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker. 'The Fifth Element' is directed with a wooden hand by Luc Besson who should not attempt another run at science fiction but rather a run out of the movie business altogether as it will be hard to redeem himself after this movie masquerading as art but coming off as trashy cloning of films gone by. One of 1997's most disappointing films to date. OUT OF 5> zero Visit Mr. Frith's 'Movie Reviews' section of 'The Review' at http://www.arrowweb.com/review From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:25:13 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!bucklan.stupi.se!news-pen-4.sprintlink.net!news-east.sprintlink.net!news-dc-26.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: dzhines@midway.uchicago.edu (David Hines) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:11:14 GMT Organization: Rocket Squad Patrol 34 Lines: 206 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lavv2$708@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: dzhines@midway.uchicago.edu (David Hines) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07552 Keywords: author=Hines Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6974 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1280 THE FIFTH ELEMENT [Spoilers] A film review by David Hines Copyright 1997 David Hines "Tonstant Viewer Fwowed Up" Some remarks on _The Fifth Element_, "a Luc Besson film." Story by Luc Besson, screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. Directed by Luc Besson. Rating: */2, out of four: bot-fodder. I have a very special place in my heart for the late Dorothy Parker. "Who the hell is Dorothy Parker, and why should we give a damn?" I hear the masses cry. Mrs. Parker was a writer, fellas. She was a pretty good one, in fact, although today she's best remembered for her doo-dad poetry. There was a decent movie made about her life in the past year or two called _Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle_ -- oh, dammit, I shouldn't have said that, because now people will go rent the movie instead of going to the trouble of actually reading some of her work. Go to the library, will you, folks? Anyway, the reason I mention Mrs. Parker here is that she was also a reviewer of the highest caliber: that very rare thing, a *good* critic. And in her review of A.A. Milne's play _Give Me Yesterday_ (in the _New Yorker_ of March 14, 1931) she describes how she coped with a particularly bad moment: ==================================================================== | The cabinet minister talks softly and embarrassingly to Sally -- | | "Ah, Selly, Selly, Selly, Selly" -- but that is not enough. He | | must tap out to her, on the garden wall, his message, though she | | is right beside him. First he taps, and at the length it would | | take, the letter "I." Then he goes on into "L," and, though | | surely everyone in the audience has caught the idea, he carries | | through to "o." "Oh, he's not going on into 'v,'" I told | | myself. "Even Milne wouldn't do that to you." But he did. He | | tapped on through "v," and then did an "e." "If he does 'y,'" I | | thought, "I'm through." And he did. So I shot myself. | ==================================================================== When I read that passage, I thought to myself: "What a terrific idea!" So I went to the movies this weekend with a .32 caliber revolver in a shoulder holster. And a cyanide capsule hidden away in an extra tooth. And a Sinclair molecular chain in my shirt collar, and a .22 gun in my pocket for fun, and a razor in my shoe. And, just in case, I took a tomato. I'm allergic to tomatoes. And then I sat down and watched _The Fifth Element_. Thinking back on it now, I can't recall when I first attempted suicide during the film. I think it was just after the opening credits, when the archaeologist Dr. Exposition explained that the universe was divided into Good Guys and Bad Guys, and that the Bad Guys, who come every five thousand years to attempt to destroy All Life, can only be defeated by people who combine the powers of Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and... you guessed it, boyos, Heart, the eponymous Fifth Element. When I realized Luc Besson was proudly presenting to us "Captain Planet: the Motion Picture," I pressed that .32 revolver to my head and pulled the trigger till the gun was empty. Unfortunately, my aim is poor and I missed, and then the theater's emergency restraints kicked in and shackled my limbs and propped my eyes open -- and I was stuck, unable to get to my instruments of self- destruction. I resolved to use the cyanide tooth as a last resort, and screwed up my courage to watch the flick. And if watching was all I'd been doing, I probably would have found it fairly enjoyable. Visually, at least, _The Fifth Element_ is pretty cool. As far as the writing and direction goes, it's trite, laughable, sub-moronic, pathetic, offensive, execrable, overdone, and dopey; it may induce vomiting, headache, dizziness, sterility, and hatred for almost everyone involved with the flick... but _The Fifth Element_ is a very pretty film. But then again, _The Fifth Element_ cost ninety million dollars. For that much money, it had better be pretty. And it is; it really is. Jean-Paul Gaultier did the costuming, which is very interesting to look at. The sets are large and well-detailed, and effects are digitally composited with the sets to terrific effect. The aliens are really alien-looking, which is nice, and although there are few different kinds of aliens, there are a *lot* of each species; the animatronics bill alone must have been sky-high. The spaceships look good, and the flying cars are nothing short of flat-out terrific: beautiful individual design, and the multi-level traffic flow is a thing to behold. I like to watch lots of things moving around, and the effects people on _The Fifth Element_ did some great work with that, especially in a great series of shots in which Bruce Willis's character drives his cab downwards through several layers of traffic. I also particularly liked the flying restaurant that makes door-to- door (or rather, window-to-window) service. Unfortunately, movie theaters don't come with mute buttons. Visually, _The Fifth Element_ is tasty. Its plot, dialogue, and direction, however, are utter crud. Not only is it tripe, it is pretentious tripe. It is an unceasing barrage of moronic cliches that were outdated when its star was still in utero. It is offensive. It is yecchy. It shines, all right -- like a dead mackerel. Squirming there, in the dark, I longed for _Independence Day_ -- yeah, ID was a dumb-as-rocks movie, but at least it was unpretentious. _The Fifth Element_ is an example of the kind of crud that we can get when a movie director thinks he's some sort of artistic genius -- Besson is not, and his efforts to prove he is only hurt his film. In vain efforts to prove his artistic merit, he piles symmetry on top of symmetry, cuts from one location to another several times in the course of scenes to track parallel conversations, sets the action of one scene to the soundtrack of another... and in the end, it's pointless. The effect is more grotesque than effective: a plainitive cry of "Look, Ma, see how *nice* I'm directing!" And when I say grotesque, I mean it. Besson's idea of humor is to give us a simpering, prancing, effeminate stereotype as a talk-show host, and to then juxtapose scenes of pre-flight and take-off of a spaceliner with scenes of the said fop's seduction and bringing to orgasm of a stewardess. Nor is Besson content to limit his use of the nauseating beast to one scene; he has him prance and flounce and pout and lisp and whine his way through the rest of the film, and latch on to Bruce Willis's character to panic and roll his eyes and provide a little comic relief. _The Celluloid Closet_ points out that one common Hollywood tool is to have bad things happen to people outside mainstream gender boundaries -- that is, they're there to flaunt themselves, to vex the audience's sense of propriety, and then give the audience joy by dying in nasty ways. Does it say anything about the degree to which this creation annoys that I, who deplore both stereotypes and political correctness, was hoping Besson would kill him off and get it over with, instead of rubbing our noses in idiocy? Does it say anything that I, an SF fan of impeccable taste, found the fop more annoying than _Star Trek: Voyager_'s Neelix? Does it say anything that I, an MST3K fan who ordinarily would welcome the opportunity to make jokes about Dennis Rodman getting his own talk show, curled up in pain and whimpered? The plot is laughable. Really laughable. The deal is that these Bad Guys come around again, and zap things, and will blow up earth if they're not stopped. So the Good Guys have this weapon, right, in a temple in Egypt: combine the McGuffins, er, I mean, stones representing each element, open 'em, stick the Fifth Element in the center, and Captain Planet zaps the Bad Guys to kingdom come. Only, see, the aliens who are Good Guys took the stones out of the temple for some damn reason. So they have to get 'em back to Earth. And the alien they send to tell people how to fix the situation gets scragged by some of the Bad Guys' lackeys before he lands. So scientists clone him, and the clone turns out to be this chick Lee-Eluukulaniromanadvoratrelundar or some stuff like that, who goes by Lee-Eluu for short. She's played by Milla Jovovich, who says she dedicated herself so seriously to the role that she even took the drastic step of giving up pot for the duration of filming -- which is ironic, because she looks like a junkie. Anyway, Lee-Eluu, being no fan of confinement, escapes the unescapable cell in her Jean-Paul Gaultier bandage dress and takes a suicide plunge. Only she doesn't die, see, 'cause there's this cabdriver, played by Bruce Willis, whose cab conveniently breaks her fall. She doesn't speak English (hey, she's just a clone), but she speaks at ninety miles a minute in an alien language and reads English. She convinces him to take her to this priest of a sect that understands her, and they find out the stones are on this far-off pleasure planet and they go there with the priest and this disk jockey and have to fight to get the stones. Only there's this other guy Zorg, played by Gary Oldman, who wants the stones 'cause he's with the Bad Guys, for no reasons that make sense. Zorg says he's pro-chaos because it creates jobs, but the bad guys don't spread chaos; they just make people dead. No potential for being an evil megabusinessman there. But anyway, Zorg wants the stones, not to mention the heads of Our Heroes. And Zorg has a whole lot of ugly lackeys, some of whom want to kill him too. And Our Heroes fly around and fight Zorg and his henchmen and listen to opera and have some wacky good times and kick butt until Lee-Eluu finds out about war and wonders whether humanity is really worth saving, but then Bruce Willis's character kisses her so she decides what the heck and stops the Bad Guys from incinerating Earth. He must be a good kisser. You think that reads stupid? Imagine what it's like *watching* it. _The Fifth Element_ can't even beg off on the grounds of being intentionally low-brow, like _Independence Day_. The flick is a wretched mixed bag that tries to be too many things -- and ultimately is none of them. It's too trashy to be taken seriously, but too pretentious to be enjoyed as comic-book camp or as guilty pleasure. The stunning images, too, are a mish-mash, one that's almost entirely referential: images, effects, and costumes are derived from from _Blade Runner_, _2001_, _Star Wars_, _Brazil_, you name it. _The Fifth Element_ is an extravagant and ugly hodgepodge, a chimaera of skiffy films and 1930s pulps. It is a patchwork quilt stitched by an idiot, full of light and color and signifying nothing. It is a waste of ninety million smackers and of time and of talent and of however damn much you pay for a ticket. My recommendation: don't waste your time. Oh, and the cyanide tooth turned out to be defective, but after I got out of the movie, I did kill myself messily with about everything I had: the backup pistol, the razor blade, the Sinclair molecular chain. But I'm saving the tomato. I wanna throw it at Luc Besson. -------------------------------------------------------------------- | David Hines d-hines@uchicago.edu | | http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/dzhines | ==================================================================== From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:25:17 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 May 1997 00:14:28 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 95 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lb054$711@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07533 Keywords: author=Renshaw Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6956 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1277 rec.arts.movies.current-films:110606 rec.arts.sf.movies:83397 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw (Columbia) Starring: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker. Screenplay: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. Producer: Patrice Ledoux. Director: Luc Besson. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (brief nudity, sexual situations, violence, profanity) Running Time: 127 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw Here, I had thought to myself as I watched a television spot for THE FIFTH ELEMENT, may be the acme in hyperbolic idiocy. In one of those exclamation point-filled critical blurbs which tend to accompany pre-release advertising, someone was touting THE FIFTH ELEMENT as "STAR WARS for the 90s." I could only shake my head, especially considering it had only been a few months since we had actually seen STAR WARS for the 90s. Then I saw THE FIFTH ELEMENT, and I was forced to acknowledge that, in a perverse way, the statement was completely accurate. Like STAR WARS, THE FIFTH ELEMENT is essentially a fairy tale, an archetypal Good Vs. Evil story dressed up in high-tech trappings. And like many films of the 90s, it's so busy and loud that the compelling elements in the story tend to get lost. In a prologue set in 1914, we learn the secret of the mysterious "fifth element." It is a weapon created a benevolent alien race called the Mondoshawan to protect humanity from an evil force which threatens the universe once every 5000 years. In 2259, it is time once again for the Mondoshawan to deliver the weapon, but their ship is downed by agents of the sinister industrialist Zorg (Gary Oldman). Only one key to the weapon survives, a tissue sample which is replicated to produce a mysterious woman called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). When Leeloo flees the authorities, she ends up in the back seat of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a retired military man now driving a cab. Dallas becomes infatuated with the strange and beautiful passenger who seems to be on everyone's most wanted list, little expecting that his connection with Leeloo will lead him into a battle in which the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Whatever else one might say about THE FIFTH ELEMENT, you have to give this to Luc Besson: there is nothing he won't try to keep the audience watching. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a blitzkrieg of images, moods and messages which never lets up and never gives you a chance to get bored. Scenes of multi-level 23rd century air traffic provide a vertiginous backdrop for chase scenes; the production design and costumes (by Dan Weil and Jean-Paul Gaultier, respectively) are ablaze with color. Comic relief is provided by Ian Holm (as a cleric entrusted with the protection of the fifth element) and Chris Tucker (as a flamboyant radio personality), as well as by periodic phone calls from Dallas' kvetching mother. You've got your good aliens, your bad aliens (the shape-shifting mercenary Mangalores), your sex (enough to push the PG-13 envelope), your violence (ditto) and your romance, all tied up in a big shiny anti-war message before the finale. If that sounds like a lot to take in, that's only because it is. As undeniably entertaining as individual moments in THE FIFTH ELEMENT may be, the film never feels like a cohesive narrative with a distinctive sense of place. The most memorable creations of fantasy and science fiction, from THE WIZARD OF OZ to BRAZIL, created worlds which were not just unique but uniquely real -- every place, character and event were of a piece. Besson doesn't create that kind of world, one where you feel transported to somewhere you've never been. There are plenty of vivid details in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, like Dallas' one-room-does-all apartment and an airport filled with garbage, but they don't add up to anything truly intriguing. Things happen for the sake of a momentary laugh or gasp rather than for the creation of the film's internal universe. It's not a specific future; it's The Future, impressive but generic. It's nice to have sly performers like Willis, Oldman and Holm on hand to make THE FIFTH ELEMENT's relentlessness somehow forgivable. Milla Jovovich also does sharp work as Leeloo, doing a riot grrl spin on Daryl Hannah in SPLASH. Indeed, there are enough of the right elements in THE FIFTH ELEMENT that you can't help but wish that they had been put together better. This is a story about heroes, villains and the battle between Good and Evil where the hero's quest is unclear, the real villain is given just enough personality to make one threatening phone call, and the climactic battle is over in a literal and figurative flash. THE FIFTH ELEMENT moves, all right, but it moves frantically, like the wired mugger who accosts Dallas in one of the film's more amusing scenes. I kept thinking about how that character might have written THE FIFTH ELEMENT after an all night bender of Jungian mythopoetics and the 23rd century upper-of-choice. That's "STAR WARS for the 90s": Joseph Campbell on crack. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 elements: 6. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw Subscribe to receive reviews directly via email See details on the MoviePage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:25:25 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mcsuth@pacbell.net (Drew McWeeny) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:06:54 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Internet Services Lines: 184 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtfe$2cc@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mcsuth@pacbell.net (Drew McWeeny) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07580 Keywords: author=McWeeny Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6994 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1285 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Drew McWeeny Copyright 1997 Drew McWeeny This marks my first posting to this newsgroup, and I felt it was time to weigh in on a film that has drawn fairly hotly divided response so far. Also, just to correct a statement made in the Flying Inkpot review of the same film, this is in no way, shape, form, or fashion the "most expensive movie ever made." Even if it were, only a moron would think that the budget of a film is the criteria on which to judge it. If it doesn't affect your ticket price, and no one was coereced into spending the money, then what the hell does a budget matter? Now... on with the review... At first, the opening of the film seems odd, comic in an almost old-fashioned way. The doddering old archaeologist, the sleepy little boy, the dashing American artist, sketching it all. Even the threat that's introduced (a treacherous priest, a shot of poison) is old-fashioned. Like Spielberg's classic RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, this film's opening has a warm, old Hollywood glow about it... ... until the spaceship lands. The robots that climb out of the ship are ominous, threatening, black and metal, with odd angles and dangerous looking attachments. They're truly bizarre, and scare all hell out of everyone on the scene, as well they should. They arrive, and collect four stones, opening a secret chamber to do so. One of the humans, understandably upset by this, opens fire on one of the robots, and we gear up for an action scene in which these menacing metal warriors kick into high gear, tearing up everything and everyone in sight. But, for some reason... they don't. There's no firefight. The action beat we're all primed for from our years of immersion in the rhythms of "event" movies never comes. And that's the first clue that we're in for something a little different with Luc Besson's triumphant, if somewhat flawed, new SF epic, THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Having seen the film three times now, I can honestly say that I have finally "seen" the film. This is one of the most densely detailed pictures I've seen in quite a while, and it's a deserving entry into the pantheon of classic cinema works of imagination. Although I think I still prefer Besson's LEON to this new film, I was sufficiently dazzled to hail the film for what it is. It's an original vision of the future, and it's a richly imagined world into which the audience is invited. It was Einstein who said, "God is in the details," speaking of the Universe at large. In the world of SF cinema, details are just as crucial. An audience will only believe in a new world if the filmmaker commits to making it feel as real as possible. Audiences are willing to suspend disbelief if the actors and the filmmakers give it their all, really committing to this other place. Mark Hammill may not be a great actor (having just seen the SW Trilogy on the big screen again, I'm less infatuated with him than ever in the first film), but he does have a gift that made him right for those films. He looked like he lived in that world. The way he used the props, the familiarity with it all, the sheer mundanity he managed to convey all sold that reality. We believe because he believes. Besson has managed to do that here in fits and starts, and when it works, it's transporting. The New York that Bruce Willis' Corbin Dallas lives and works in is a crowded, noisy metropolis that feels totally familar and wildly exotic all at once. It's the sheer volume of air traffic that sells the illusion, the vision of a world grown up, where there's not a wasted bit of space. Besson doesn't just show his city off, though. In fact, he really doesn't show it to us until it makes sense to. There's no masturbatory establishing shots up front, no long boring pans across the city for no reason other than to show off the design. It's only when the action mandates we see the city that Besson finally shows it to us. It's worth the wait, too. Digital Domain deserves an Oscar nomination for their work here, and the early images from TITANIC suggest another one would be due for that. There's a wonderful texture to Besson's vision of the city, and the fact that it's so colorful and so alive is seductive. It's not the urban hell of BLADE RUNNER. People would still live in this New York. There's still things to enjoy here. In fact, if I have a complaint, it's that we don't get to spend enough time on Earth before leaving. And leave we do. We get to go on a jaunt to the far edge of explored space, where warships face down a big glowing ball of Evil, which seems to be named Mr. Shadow. We also get to go on a cruise around another planet, onboard a cosmic LOVE BOAT that features a perfect recreation of the London Opera House, where an alien diva gives a transcendent performance in one of the film's most bravura sequences, a marvel of cross-cutting, with a perfect blend of sound and image. The film ends where it begins, back in Egypt, back in that secret room, with the rocks returning from their journey. It's not a terribly surprising ending, but it's a moving one in many ways. There's not the same kind of shoot-'em-up climax that we've come to expect. In fact, the film's bad guys all sort of take each other out, way before the film ends. The threat is dealt with summarily, and is out of the way before we have a chance to really be threatened by it. The film's weak link is dramatic tension. Besson, whose LE FEMME NIKITA and LEON are both slow fuse firecracker suspense pictures, never really gets us suitably worried over whether or not the rocks will be retrieved. In fact, refreshingly, the good guys stay about two steps ahead of evil the whole way through the film. For once, Good doesn't mean stupid. That's going to frustrate a lot of American audiences. Willis is not the hero we're used to, and it's made all the more strange by the fact that it's Bruce "DIE HARD" Willis we're looking at. This movie's as big a departure for him as PULP FICTION was, no matter how much Columbia tries to sell this as an action film. It's not. It's a journey, with some action here and there along the way. For the most part, Dallas is a reactor, the eyes through which we see these events unfold. Overall, the performances in this film are a grab bag. Some great, some good, some nearly unwatchable. But the picture is richer for the risks it takes. Milla Jovovich, who's appeared to far less advantage in DAZED & CONFUSED and RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON, is marvellous here, brilliant and moving and funny and sexy. The divine language she speaks at the beginning of the movie, a bizarre babble that's indecipherable, is spoken by her with complete conviction, and her quicksilver emotional reactions, ever shifting, are surprisingly well communicated, considering we can't understand her at all. She's "born" in a cloning chamber in a great early scene, using a hand retrieved from a spaceship wreck, and escapes, dragging Willis into all this. She's the driving force of the film, and if Leeloo (her character) doesn't work, then neither does the movie. The person I saw the film with hated the movie, but really liked her work anyway, and I'm predicting she's a major star following this. She easily outdistances the much-overpraised Liv Tyler, who's never had a role half this good. Ian Holm is very good, but not especially differenct than he is in most films. He's got this bumbling semi-confused character down cold, just as Brion James could play the grizzled, never fully identified military figure who brings Willis back into the fold for one last mission in his sleep. Willis will be accused by many of sleepwalking through this role, but I disagree. I think there's a real laconic ease that he's mastered, and he imbibes Dallas with an unshakable quality that really works for the role. There's a sense of humor to this guy, but it's not all cheap one-liners (the real downfall of Akiva Goldsman's BATMAN & ROBIN script). The audience can laugh with him, not at him. It's a shame Besson keeps returning to one of the film's truly awful ideas, Willis' mother, who only exists as a voice on the phone. She's the stereotypical nagging mother, and pales in comparison to such maternal monsters as Katherine Helmond's Mrs. Lowry in BRAZIL. Chris Tucker, who was so good in FRIDAY and DEAD PRESIDENTS, may have committed career suicide with his work here. He plays Ruby Red, a ultra-flamboyant radio show host who accompanies prize winner Willis on a cruise around that foreign planet. There is really no way to describe the work he turns in. It's like Little Richard crossed with Nicolas Cage in VAMPIRE'S KISS and PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED. It's so far out there that you've either got to give in to it, or it will ruin the movie for you. I finally gave in, although I found it grating at times. I commend him for being so game, and for taking the chance. When (and if) he does work again, it's a safe bet it will be in something far more down to earth than this. Gary Oldman, on the other hand, has officially become the world's most dangerous actor. Nicolas Cage traded the title in when he started taking roles in THE ROCK, CON AIR, FACE/OFF, and SUPERMAN. He's sold out, and hard (I liked FACE/OFF, though, so I'm not complaining that much), leaving Oldman to proceed unchallenged. He plays Zorg, an arms dealer with a thick Southern accent, bizarre plastic hair, and a wicked limp. He also happens to have a simply hysterical gun, introduced in a wonderful scene that recalls all the James Bond/Q sequences, but bigger. There are rumors that there's a sequel to this film already written and ready to shoot (actually, just the other half of the original 400-plus page script) called MR. SHADOW. If that's true, then I'm sorry they killed Oldman's Zorg, who was a great foppish foil, a long slow fuse that never really got to go off with full force. If you look quickly, there are a number of noteworthy faces that pass by. Bad boy French filmmaker Matthieu Kassovitz (LA HAINE) tries to rob Willis early on in a funny little moment that goes nowhere, like so many of the film's asides. Trip-hop/DJ artist Tricky plays a fairly inconsequential role as one of Oldman's henchmen. Lee Evans, an astonishing physical comedian whose gifts were the highlight of Peter Chesholm's FUNNY BONES, is used to slight effect as a crew member aboard that luxury space cruiser. Some of the quirky casting falls flat, though, with Tiny Lister's turn as The President most notably never coming together. To sum up, this is a flawed picture, but its flaws only point up what's good about the piece. Besson will no doubt stump many people, even those already familiar with his work. For audiences willing to meet him halfway, though, this is an aural/visual feast with an all-new sensibility. Drew From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:26:08 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-kar1.dfn.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mleeper@lucent.com (Mark R. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:06:46 GMT Organization: Lucent Technologies Lines: 83 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtf6$2cb@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mleeper@lucent.com (Mark R. Leeper) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07579 Keywords: author=Leeper Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6997 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1286 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper Capsule: Luc Besson's manic sci-fi adventure will likely accrue a following, but its fans will not include me. The film has great art direction but a farce of a plot that devolves into a lot of familiar elements rather than a few new ones. Besson has a good eye for a scene but a very forced sense of humor. There were a lot of good people who worked on this film and it is a pity their efforts came to so little. Rating: low 0 (-4 to +4) New York Critics: 3 positive, 9 negative, 7 mixed I wonder if this is a postmodern science fiction movie? If so I am willing to go back to the Modern and start over from there. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is what you would get if you combined a plot from HEAVY METAL comic magazine, the pacing of a Japanese anime film, and Terry Gilliam visualizations. It is a film that will probably have a cult following while others will find it, as my wife put it, appallingly bad. France is known for modest art films, and director Luc Besson is French, but he is a renegade with a style generally out of empty Hollywood action films. His previous films include LA FEMME NIKITA and LEON (U.S. title: THE PROFESSIONAL). Here he has made a film with perhaps the best art direction since BLADERUNNER and uses it to tell a dim-witted pop-sci-fi story. Besson, who also co-authored the screenplay, realized that a good plot might be hard to follow for some. He simulates the same effect by having a bad plot that just has a lot of stupid things happening very, very fast. The Ultimate Evil comes visiting our solar system every 5000 years in the form of a huge glowing sphere that for some unexplained reason is trying to destroy the Earth. I guess that is just what huge glowing spheres do. With the help of some strange aliens and with four mystic stones we Earth people have been able to fend off the evil in the past. In 1914 the friendly aliens took the stones away for safekeeping. Previously they had been guarded by a long line of priests. The priests still know what do to about the coming evil, but no longer have the stones they need. Our main story is set early in the 23rd Century. The Evil is returning. There are forces of Good trying to stop the end of the world and forces of Evil trying to steal the stones. The leader of the evil forces is an industrialist named Zorg, played by Gary Oldman. Just what Zorg hopes to gain by letting his planet be destroyed, if it is his planet, is left as a loose end. I guess stealing mystic symbols is just what evil industrialists do. One of the good aliens is killed and cloned, but in cloned form seems to be a beautiful woman, Milla Jovovich as Le-Eluu. She is terrified of the humans who have cloned her and she takes a swan dive off a skyscraper (all buildings seem to be skyscrapers in the 23rd Century) and lands in the floating taxicab of Korben (Bruce Willis). This pulls Korben into the action and starts him on the quest for the four elemental stones. Bruce Willis is in the lead and--as he seems to have wanted to show people with IN COUNTRY--he can act. He just chooses not to push himself much beyond the limited roles he has been playing. Of somewhat more interest is Milla Jovovich. Though much of the film she must speak a nonsense language--actually it sounds a lot like Italian--and makes it sound very natural. This is not generally considered an important acting skill, but here it was what was what was required and she does a very credible job. Gary Oldman at one time seemed to be the Robert Duvall of his generation. He would do well to stay away from Luc Besson films since this is the second film in which Besson has been able to coax from Oldman his very worst and most exaggerated performances. His performance here is at best just not notable, and that is really unusual for an otherwise very good actor. Ian Holm plays a priest of the line entrusted with alien secrets. Like Oldman, he has done better acting jobs and perhaps their efforts are exaggerated intentionally by Besson so nobody misses the point that this film is not intended to be taken entirely seriously. This film had the budget, the art direction, the special effects, and the cast to make a much better film. One has the feeling that Besson is really talking down to his audiences and laughing up his sleeve. There are moments in this film that show what it could have been, but unfortunately it was no more than it was. This is a film that might be better to watch with the sound off. I rate it a low 0 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper mleeper@lucent.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:26:19 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: PHLBRADY@concentric.net (Phil Brady) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:09:28 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 59 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtk8$2cs@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: PHLBRADY@concentric.net (Phil Brady) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07596 Keywords: author=Brady Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7022 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1290 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Phil Brady Copyright 1997 Phil Brady Blade Runner gets referred to frequently by people discussing The Fifth Element. I suppose they are trying to articulate that both movies give us a vivid image of the future, and this rendering becomes a major character in the film. But while BR is a gritty exploration of "what is a man?," Fifth Element just a headlong rush into fun. And just for fun, replicant alumni Brion James shows up in 5E as a not-so-bright general. Actually, nobody comes off looking very clever, so we know early we're in for a goofy time. The setup is that EVIL shows up every 5000 years to take another shot at us, but we are protected by four stones, representing the ancient elements: earth, air, fire and water. They are actuated by a fifth element - a "perfect being" that channels their power. They have a small priesthood here on earth, but the true stewards are an otherworld race best described as muppets made out of tuba parts. It's now the 23rd century, and guess who's coming to dinner? They got Bruce Willis to play the Bruce Willis part: an ex-marine cabby down on his luck, lamenting to a friend that he hasn't met the perfect woman. The savior being is cloned into a space babe played by Milla Jovovich. Hmmm..what are the chances? In short order, she drops literally into his lap while fleeing police goons. Bruce shakes the heat and delivers her to the priest (Ian Holm) who knows what to do (but he's not very good at it). The stones need to be retrieved from an opera diva on a cruise-spaceship, and there's competition from a villain that wants EVIL to win. Gary Oldman plays an addled industrialist who thinks that he can sell more products in the chaos that follows total annihilation (I DID say addled). The Government pulls Bruce back in, and some good humor comes off as all the principals converge on the stones. Bruce runs into a super-emcee named Ruby Rhod (played by Chris Tucker). It's a fantastic character, an amalgam of Prince, Dennis Rodman and Joan Rivers, but director Besson commits the fatal Dom Deluise error. Dom can be a good addition to a movie, but after two minutes, it's a case of diminishing returns. Ruby gets to hang out with Bruce for the rest of the film, whining and distracting the audience (that's the Joan Rivers part). I know Besson falls in love with his leading ladies, as he did with Milla, but I can only assume he was sleeping with Tucker as well. So, anyway, Bruce gets the stones, saves the planet and gets the girl. Ho-hum. I have yet to remark on the main character, Besson's version of the future. I have seen this world before, as has anyone reading Heavy Metal magazine for the last twenty years. The two art directors are frequent contributors to that graphic novel collection, and their vision is treated kindly by the special effects. The three-dimensional gridlock in Gotham is well done, but more fun is Bruce's apartment/cell. Ripley had a more comfortable cubicle in Aliens, and Bruce's lesser appointments allow for some good sight gags. One that tickled me was an homage to the opening scene in Blade Runner. Bruce is also snacking and chatting with an Asian street vendor, but a pullback shows that the lunch wagon is hovering outside the window panel in Bruce's cube! Cute. Hopefully, the blurbmeisters have not raised your expectations too high and the non-SF types have not discouraged you. The Fifth Element is a real eyeful, and a lot of fun. This movie is meant to tickle those faithful to the SF genre, but it is a bit too far out there to hook many converts. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:26:47 1997 From: emr@crl.com (Elizabeth Reid) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:10:52 GMT Organization: University of California, Los Angeles Lines: 39 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtms$2d5@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: emr@crl.com (Elizabeth Reid) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07605 Keywords: author=Reid Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.de.ibm.net!ibm.net!newsfeed.uk.ibm.net!ibm.net!news.mite.net!news-lond.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!netcom.net.uk!news1.netusa.net!feed1.news.erols.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6976 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1281 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Elizabeth Reid Copyright 1997 Elizabeth Reid This movie brilliantly showcases the talents of Eric Serra, who wrote the music. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Luc Besson (director), Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich (stars). Willis and Jovovich show only two emotions each throughout the movie -- Willis is either enraged or confused, while Jovovich is either feral or ditzy. Besson seems to have abandoned coherence in favor of gaudiness. The plot is sketchy at best. Plot elements are introduced with impressive special effects but little explanation -- what exactly is a meteorite made from "pure evil", and what is the "Supreme Being/Fifth Element" supposed to do in the universe (apart from karate and the deflection of the evil meteorite)? There is no sense of mystery, let alone suspense. The frequent countdowns toward bomb detonations or meteorite collisions pass zero without measurably quickening the audience's pulse-rate. The entire film is a sequence of petty larcenies from other movies. The opening sequence is from _Stargate_, the many spaceship shots are from _Star Wars_, the cityscapes are from _Blade Runner_ (and Jovovich's hair and acrobatics are cloned from Pris), the war montage is from _The Abyss_, DJ Ruby Rhod has just escaped (or possibly been ejected) from _Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_, Jean-Paul Gaultier's costumes are straight out of _Barbarella_ etc etc. Tributes and references are one thing; a constant lack of originality is quite another. That said, the movie is fairly amusing. So long as you can stomach or ignore the metaphysical pretensions you can well enjoy the gaudy visuals, campy acting and slick action sequences. But frankly I think you'd do better to buy the soundtrack rather than a movie ticket. Elizabeth. ______________________________________________________________________ Elizabeth Reid Steere | emr@crl.com | http://www.crl.com/~emr/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:27:16 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.visi.net!chippy.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:10:23 GMT Organization: Null Publishing Co. Lines: 42 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtlv$2d2@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07602 Keywords: author=Null Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6986 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1282 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 1997 Christopher Null . I have seen the future, and it is very French. What can I say about THE FIFTH ELEMENT that you haven't probably heard already? Not much, but I will say that THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a mess -- a mess of grand proportions, full of dazzling colors, lights, explosions, outfits, and... hairstyles. Designer John-Paul Gaultier's involvement with Luc Besson's creation (the most expensive French production ever) is well-known, as is Milla Jovovich's role as Leeloo, supposedly the most perfect being (but I wouldn't have pegged her as being so flaky). The plot, what there is of one, is your basic "cab driver saves the world from a big flying ball of evil using magic rocks" story, with Bruce Willis as the cabbie in question and Gary Oldman as the corporate tycoon who wants the rocks for himself. And while lots of things blow up, most of the film is just plain boring and idiotic -- especially Chris Tucker's performance as Ruby, an indecipherable, intergalactic Dennis Rodman-meets-Rosie O'Donnell talk show host. Plus there's the blatant rip offs from BLADE RUNNER and BRAZIL that I won't even get started on. Enough already. My bet? Wait until summer for the real sci-fi to fly. RATING: ** |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| -Christopher Null / null@poboxes.com / Writer-Producer -Visit the Movie Emporium at http://www.filmcritic.com -and Null Set Productions at http://www.filmcritic.com/nullset.htm From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:27:29 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!feed1.news.erols.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu (David N. Butterworth) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:13:25 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 54 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtrl$2du@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu (David N. Butterworth) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07626 Keywords: author=Butterworth Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6988 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1284 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1997 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian Rating: *** (Maltin scale) French director Luc Besson's films ("La Femme Nikita," "The Professional") have often favored style over substance. With "The Fifth Element," Besson does his previous entries one better, sacrificing narrative coherence for a visually remarkable future world that leaves you breathless, if a little confused. It's no surprise that the film looks so good. French comic book creators Moebius and Jean Claude Mezieres guided Dan Weil's impressive production design, and iconoclastic fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier is responsible for the outrageous costumes (although one might argue that the carrot-haired Milla Jovovich displays a strategic *lack* of costume in several of her scenes). The story, on the other hand, is one that Besson himself threw together as a teen. Bruce Willis plays Korben Dallas, a New York cabbie who's reluctantly recruited to save the world by securing the mysterious fifth element. Part of the puzzle emerges in the form of Jovovich's bio-engineered supreme being, Leeloo, who drops into Dallas' airborne taxicab and provides new definition to the phrase "a perfect fare." In this classic and classy Good vs. Evil yarn, ubiquitous British bad-guy Gary Oldman plays corporate despot Zorg. Oldman churns out yet another of his puffed-up madman roles, sporting an American drawl that renders most of his dialogue unintelligible. Zorg's lizard-like alien henchmen vie with Dallas to unearth four sacred stones--representing earth, wind, fire, and water--which, when brought together with a fifth element, can either save the world or destroy it, depending on what side of the universe you woke up on. This 23rd-century actioner culminates at Fhloston Paradise, a intergalactic cruise ship of sorts, emceed in living color by Chris Tucker's effeminate Prince-ly pop diva, Ruby Rhod. How Besson worked him into this script is anyone's guess, although his hysterical mincing and shrieks of "Oh my God!" get funnier with age, especially during one of the bigger shoot-em-up sequences. Ignore the hokum that is at the center of this film and marvel at its eye-popping sets, outrageous costume designs, and down-to-earth performances from Willis and Jovovich. While the logic of the storyline leaves a lot to be desired, "The Fifth Element" satisfies as sheer spectacle. -- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:27:37 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: S687070@gcstudent.ins.gu.edu.au (Shane R. Burridge) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 20 May 1997 01:13:06 GMT Organization: Griffith University Gold Coast Lines: 61 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtr2$2dr@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: S687070@gcstudent.ins.gu.edu.au (Shane R. Burridge) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07623 Keywords: author=Burridge Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7017 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1288 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Shane R. Burridge Copyright 1997 Shane R. Burridge (1997) 122 min. McDonald's must be more than pleased with their product placement in this lavish science-fantasy. Not only are they shown as still being in business at their fly-thrus in 2214, but the film is so heavily decorated in red and yellow that by the end of it you'll be wondering if it wasn't all some huge, sly, subliminal advertisement, and that the elusive 'fifth element' is actually McDonald's Secret Sauce. Fortunately, I like red and yellow, I like science-fantasy, and I like Luc Besson: he showed modest-budget visual flair with his early film SUBWAY and big-screen visual flair with THE BIG BLUE (You can call it THE LITTLE BLUE SQUARE if television is the only way you've seen it). In THE FIFTH ELEMENT he outdoes himself - not since Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL has there been a film crammed with such visual bravura. Whether it's the costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier, or the set designs by Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Jean-Claude Mezieres (who turned out hundreds of drawings), or the bizarre hairstyles and weird creatures, the look of the film is astonishing, and it has surely met Besson's vision as he conceived it. THE FIFTH ELEMENT starts with the most well-worn of sci-fi ideas, that of the link between Ancient Egypt and extra-terrestrials - but it is delivered with such aplomb that it looks almost brand new. Similarly, the rest of the film operates on the simplest of premises. In fact it is so basic, and its conclusion that 'love conquers all' so trite, that it is practically beyond reproach - Besson is more interested in orchestrating his capricious storyline than providing a mindblowing concept. It works, because his enthusiasm for this project is so pervasive (in every scene, in every new camera angle, in each new gimmick) that you can't help share his sense of enjoyment. The cast he has assembled also gets into the spirit. Bruce Willis reprises his reluctant-hero role for the part of Korben Dallas, a cab driver (or, more accurately, pilot) on the skids. He has a chance meeting with an alien envoy (Milla Jovovich) that in turn leads him to an agitated priest (Ian Holm) and a venal company director (Gary Oldman). Curiously, none of these people are responsible for his involvement in an impromptu mission (to save the world, what else?) even though they are all destined to meet again at the conclusion. The four characters are as wild and diverse as the four elements that they are in search of, and just when you think the cast couldn't get more eccentric, an egotistic, motormouthed DJ (Chris Tucker) is thrown into the mix. Everyone is playing it for laughs, including Besson, who indulges in a welcome change of pace from his recent harder-edged stories. After two films about professional killers I was wondering if Besson had lost his quirkiness: now I look forward to seeing his next production. If it's as surprising a choice as this one, I won't be disappointed. There are several reasons to enjoy THE FIFTH ELEMENT, but a significant one is the fact that we were allowed to see it without being subjected to months of marketing hype beforehand. Could it be that studios have finally figured out that word of mouth is the best advertising of all? The only drawback now will be enthusiastic film reviews (such as this one) that will have you expecting more than the film can deliver. So just forget everything I said. And tell all your friends. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed May 28 16:10:14 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!sbg.ac.at!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 27 May 1997 16:51:38 GMT Organization: - Lines: 93 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mf3eq$4t2@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07628 Keywords: author=Prigge Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7027 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1291 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge Director/Co-author: Luc Besson Starring: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Tiny Lister Jr., Tricky, John Neville, Brion James I remember when a movie called STARGATE came out a couple years ago. It looked so interesting and so damn cool. Then I saw it...dull as a lecture on the pros and cons of photosynthesis. 'Course it went on to make a lot of money while the director's second feature became the most overly popular flick of last year (that was, in case you've been shacking up with J.D. Salinger, INDEPEDENCE DAY...another nice idea turned pretty stupid albeit much better than STARGATE). I've heard Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT being compared to STARGATE. My big question is: "Like, in what ways, man?" THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a sigh of relief from those hokey sci-fi films of olden days that should be shown on MST3K like THIS ISLAND EARTH and THE AMAZING COLLOSSAL MAN. While the plot isn't totally amazing (I know, we were all expecting satire here a la blade runner with a bit of Kafka tossed in just to differ the two), it's more interesting than anything else out, so why are we all bitching? I refuse to totally divulge the plot since it's been nicely bottled up by M. Besson so when one sees it, they're shocked, which is what SHOULD happen anyway: the world is going to be destroyed and a mysteriously woman with bizarre hair and a fluent other language (I'm giving Milla Jovovich a medal for speaking it so convincingly) is the only hope. She lands in the cab of a bitter ex-army guy, Korben Dallas (a very likable Bruce Willis) and the fun begins. THE FIFTH ELEMENT starts off slowly but then never sags as it accelerates to what felt like 130 mph. The film just takes off from the first slow frame and by the end, you're going "Wow!" Not only is the film very wild, it looks like the inside of someone's head...allow me to translate what that meant: reportingly, M. Besson tried to put one of his stories from his youth onto celluloid and just had enough money to do that. I sympathize with him, because I've had bizzare futuristic visions in my head too and I can picture what it probably was like (too many plot holes, I can guess). The future isn't really grim or anything, it's just very technical, and he satrizes this with several "nice touches." For one thing, everything's compact and semi-convenient. A comical, Chaplin-esque scene takes place in his small, claustrophobic apartment where he hides people in several different places (i.e. the shower which moves up and down with a freezing closet and a bed that slides underneath a cabinet). And one of the best "nice touches" includes the cigarettes with a filter that takes up a good 9/10 of the actual cigarrette. The film is a treat for the eyes and the story is a hoot to watch as it unfolds before our eyes with a touch of Kafka in it. The sight of a metropolis with flying cars buzzing by at high speeds is, well, orgasmic. This really could have sucked with a less-competent director. I can see Roland Emmerich making this into a disjumbled mess with hokey humor (my least fave kind of humor). But Luc Besson gives it a great sense of humor (with many great jokes and fine comical performances) and handles it properly: unseriously. If it had been serious, it would have sucked because the plot isn't made to be handled that way. As far as the acting, it works with the good sense of humor. Bruce Willis is likable but not great. He gave his character a great feel, but it's no John McClane, James Cole or Butch Coolidge (but, hey! He only gets the last two roles ever couple years!) Milla Jovovich has been, well, okay in her past movies (like DAZED AND CONFUSED, KUFFS, CHAPLIN) but here, she's great. I'm not a big fan of her but she was definitely a good scene stealer. Gary Oldman is my personal fave over-actor and here, he has made a wonderful character to impersonate: a wildly eccentric capitalist with a hick accent which puts Jerry Lee Lewis's to shame. The only real kind of annoyance was the usually great Chris Tucker, who plays a D.J. on speed, crack and many other kinds of drugs (I assume). His character dresses worse than Dennis Rodman and speaks faster than the Micro-Machine man. His first scene goes on too long (but gets a good laugh when Bruce shudders at the sound of his name a couple scenes later) but once the opera's over (get the opera for an original plot twist) and the bombs are flying, he's great. And how can I forget Mr. Ian Holm (or, as I sometimes refer to him as "Mr. Most-Underrated-Actor-in-Modern-Times Holm"), who's comedy comes from his acting, not his hyperactivity (which he doesn't posess). His facial expressions are priceless and he should get some kind of medal, just for being a great actor no matter what...including being held at gunpoint by a dog-looking alien. And how can I even forget the wild, original costumes by Jean-Paul Gautier? They're breathtaking and if they don't win an oscar, I'll hire those dog-like aliens to bomb the Oscar ceremony (just kidding in case anyone takes me seriously). Overall, this is a must-see film: a child-like film with a wild imagination. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's at least original and a fun ride. P.S. Luke Perry gets ousted in the first 5 minutes. MY RATING (out of 5): **** From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed May 28 16:10:19 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!news.algonet.se!hunter.premier.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: boiled@earthlink.net (Steve Kong) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 27 May 1997 16:53:51 GMT Organization: smart inc. Lines: 46 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mf3iv$4tk@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: boiled@earthlink.net (Steve Kong) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07639 Keywords: author=Kong Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7036 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1293 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Steve Kong Copyright 1997 Steve Kong Bruce Willis has got a strange on and off movie career. Usually, it's in the off position. But, once in a long while, he'll have a good film. The 5th Element is one of the latter. The commercials which ran for the movie, initially, promised, "The Star Wars of the '90s." A hard name to live up to. Willis plays a retired space marine type in this movie. His character's name is Korben Dallas. Dallas has now retired and lives in a nice small apartment in the mid-23rd century. A great evil in space is about to kill every living being on Earth. There seems to be no way to stop it. At least that's how it's seen by the government. A priest knows better. There are the four elements, which are in the form of bars. Then there is the fifth element, a being that is the catalyst for the weapon to stop this great evil. The only problem is that the aliens that were transporting these elements were shot down in space. The only thing recovered from the crash landing site was a portion of the fifth element. With this portion, they use a super-computer to spin up a new fifth element being. The fifth element is played by the beautiful, and oddly red headed, Milla Jovovich. From here the fifth element "drops in" on Korben Dallas, and they with the priest are off to find the other four elements. The story in The 5th Element is not too strong. What is strong in this movie are the special effects and the set design. It is the vision of the future that is put into this movie that sets it apart from other mediocre sci-fi movies. The visions of the future that are presented are of the caliber of those of "Blade Runner" and "Metropolis." Though not as dark as those presented in Blade Runner, the city in which Dallas lives is large, and the hover car chase early in the film is something to awe at. The other sets, including a futuristic cruise liner, Zorg's office, and the apartment building in which Dallas lives are also places to awe at. Along with these beautiful places are the costume design. The police have the best outfits, large, bulky, with a large lamp over the right side of their chest, and gun holstered above the left shoulder. The 5th Element is a movie to be seen, literally. The sights in this movie outweigh the story. The story itself is not too bad, it's enough to keep the movie going along, but it is the presentation of the future that should really be seen in The 5th Element. -- steve kong boiled@earthlink.net personal site http://home.earthlink.net/~boiled/ my movie site http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/2259/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:49:34 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news-dc-10.sprintlink.net!news-dc-2.sprintlink.net!news-east.sprintlink.net!news-dc-26.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: cpshelle@watarts.uwaterloo.ca (Cameron Shelley) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 18:11:23 GMT Organization: Evil Designs Inc. Lines: 141 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkgsb$9ag@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: cpshelle@watarts.uwaterloo.ca (Cameron Shelley) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07649 Keywords: author=Shelley Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7090 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1310 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Cameron Shelley Copyright 1997 Cameron Shelley (Columbia) Review by: Cameron Shelley -- May 21, 1997. Review URL: http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~cpshelle/Reviews/tfe.html Cast: Bruce Willis (Korben Dallas), Gary Oldman (Zorg), Milla Jovovich (Leeloo), Ian Holm (Victor Cornelius), Chris Tucker (DJ Ruby Rhod) Screenplay: Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen Director: Luc Besson Producer: John Alan Amicarella, Patrice Ledoux, and Iain Smith The Fifth Element is a hard movie to pin down. Perhaps the best way to describe it is as a collage of sights and events organized (if that is the word) around the mission of an unlikely hero to save the world. For me, at least, watching TFE had the quality of a daydream, or the fantasies sparked in adolescent years when reading a comic book. Like a daydream, the sequence of events makes little sense upon later reflection, and like an adolescent fantasy, the characters are drawn from a small stock of simple and familiar types. But it is the "sparky" aspect of TFE that is most obvious. Scenes, jokes, and plot devices fly off energetically and disappear in almost all directions. This is probably what has prompted so many reviewers to compare TFE to nearly every other science-fiction movie they've seen. Certainly, TFE does have a kind of borrowed look. The hovering cars are reminiscent of Blade Runner, the glowing ball of evil and the cabbie hero of Heavy Metal, the Egyptian aliens of Stargate, the farcical police of Brazil, and on and on. Plenty of action-adventure cliches get screen time as well - although I think the 3-D car chase scene was pretty good and deserves credit for originality. But Besson seems neither to parody nor plagiarize these earlier films. TFE is simply a pastiche of their more obvious attributes. If you consider collage to be good art, then TFE could be appealing; otherwise it will probably seem to be just pointlessly contrived. My own view is somewhat in between: I don't get the impression that Besson is just rehashing used material from the genre, but neither does his profligate use of such material seem coherently ironic or tongue-in-cheek. To a large extent, it is all just there. In any case, Besson does his borrowing pretty well. The scenery, gizmos, and aliens are generally lively and eye-catching. The costumes too are interesting and appropriate. The inscrutable and somewhat maladroit aliens, the Mondoshawan, have big, clunky environment suits to stomp around in. The belligerent (and stupid) Mangalores dress and act like rhinos, at least when not in disguise. And the bizarre talk-show host, Ruby Rhod, looks and talks like a sped-up version of Prince with his hair on amphetamines. And, of course, there are many gorgeous women in various states of dress and undress. These characters, and the special effects associated with them, succeed in holding the viewer's attention and interest while on screen. Generally, the acting is also good in the sense that it is energetic and appropriate to the task. Jovovich, in fact, puts on a good performance as Leeloo, the genetically perfect human sent to Earth by the Mondoshawan to save it from the big evil ball from another dimension. Her role is one of the naive innocent thrust into a fallen world she naturally doesn't understand, which she delivers with a sort of girlish enthusiasm. Gary Oldman also deserves credit for a deftly greasy turn as the evil industrialist Zorg, who is in cahoots with the evil ball itself (we know this because the ball gives Zorg a phone call, calling itself "Mr. Shadow"), while Chris Tucker goes "over-the-top" portraying the shrill and mincing Ruby Rhod. At the center of all this is the character of Korbin Dallas, as mailed in by Bruce Willis. Willis's performance is often flat (as opposed, say, to understated), a problem which may be caused by the similarity of Korbin to most other characters Willis has played since Moonlighting. Whereas TFE's other borrowings are generally superficial and lightly handled, Willis's self-plagiarism comes off as plodding, at least when there are no babes or firefights to distract attention from him. The roughest point of the movie, though, concerns the plot. Certainly, action-adventures aren't supposed to be intellectually challenging, but the plot of TFE is inexplicably arbitrary even for its genre. Every 5000 years, a big evil ball shows up and menaces the Earth. Every 5000 years, the Earth is saved from the evil ball by the benevolent Mondoshawan, using the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire, and a mysterious Fifth Element (Leeloo). But the Mondoshawan change the plan, with the result that in 2300 they fail and humanity must be bailed out by genetic engineering and a heroic cabbie. No motivation for these intricacies is offered, nor do they make much sense in retrospect. Well, the Mondoshawan do actually offer their motivational motto, "Time is nothing, life is most important," (here they sound like ad men for Pepsi) upon arriving three hundred years early, killing an Egyptologist for knowing too much, and then taking off with Earth's only means of defense. Yeah, thanks. Attempts to moralize intrude awkwardly from time to time, as when Zorg nearly chokes to death on a cherry, or when Leeloo learns about "war" and suddenly wonders if humanity is worth saving. Fortunately, Korbin saves the day by declaring his love for Leeloo. Oddly, Besson seems to really want to make a meal of this last-minute complication, but only gets well-deserved snickering from the audience. TFE does alright in the use of the future to parody the present, but it can hardly claim to be an exploration of serious issues such as war, love, or the rather suspect notion of "perfection" in genetic engineering either. TFE is carried by its energy and surface appeal, but it is a precariously thin surface. Having borrowed so heavily from other works, Besson risks having his film already eclipsed by its predecessors as well as its successors. The next big effects-driven, science-fiction picture may indeed finish the job. As Bruce Willis said, in reacting to some negative reviews of TFE, "The written word is going the way of the dinosaur." Presumably, then, the next picture with an even larger ratio of effects budget to writing budget will be even better! CEL: Dept: From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:49:46 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: syegul@ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 18:14:10 GMT Organization: Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers Lines: 67 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkh1i$9al@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: syegul@ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07651 Keywords: author=Yegulalp Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7056 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1299 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Serdar Yegulalp Copyright 1997 Serdar Yegulalp CAPSULE: Entertaining if *really* ridiculous action-adventure epic from French bad-boy director Luc Besson. Expensive, and it shows, but couldn't they also have spent some money on a solid story, too? There are so many good *individual* things in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, Luc Besson's gargantuan adventure-fantasy epic, that it's easy to overlook how they don't neccesarily add up to a good movie. On the plus side of the balance sheet, we have action, adventure, and some of the most lavish-looking scenes ever put on film. On the minus side, a silly story. A very silly story. In the abstract, ELEMENT is great fun. It moves fast and always has something worth looking at, and for people who enjoy such things from movies (I know I do), it's very enjoyable. But there are limits. The movie has been (unfairly) compared to BLADE RUNNER, which is one of the few really profound SF movies out there. ELEMENT is mostly a loud action movie with some SF trappings -- and one of the most sumptuous visual styles yet put on screen. The mega-cities are big, but they looked a little more like really big *sets* than actual environments. Maybe that's deliberate, since the movie wears its ambitions to be entertaining pretty plainly. The movie opens at the turn of the 20th century, with some aliens dropping in on an archaeological dig (Luke Perry gets a few cute moments as a junior archaeologist that Indy Jones would probably want to deck). Much mystical mumbo-jumbo is exchanged. Flash-forward to 300 years from now, when former military man Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis, being his usual self), now a cabdriver, becomes the unwitting rescuer of Leeloo, a genetically engineered superbeing that is the fulfillment of a cosmic prophecy. The rest of the plot involves securing four stones that can help Leeloo complete her mission of saving the world against a gigantic evil thing that resembles a sentient star. I mentioned that this was an adventure fantasy. ELEMENT is only SF by accident; it uses the trappings of SF to dress up a basically silly story. But just because it's a silly story doesn't mean a fun time can't be had. The movie has an incredible amount of confidence in itself, even when giving us scenes that are ridiculous in the extreme. Most surprising is Milla Jovovitch as Leeloo. She's given the interesting job of playing a character who can't communicate directly with anyone (at first), and she succeeds in making Leeloo a sympathetic and truly *alien* character. There is also a touch of philosophy in her character: What's the point of saving a race that is only hellbent on its own destruction anyway? I wish some of this stuff had been explored further in the movie, but that's not where the movie's agenda really lies. Also good is Gary Oldman, who holds himself slightly more in check here than he did in Besson's THE PROFESSIONAL (where his tics and mannerisms threatened to destroy every scene he was in). ELEMENT is bound to be enshrined in the college fratboy SF hall of fame. It wants to entertain and be fairly bizarre. It succeeds in both respects. Watch it in a theater with a good sound system, and check your brain at the door. Sometimes, though, I wish mindless fun didn't have to cost so much. Three out of four cosmic artifacts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- syegul@ix.netcom.com EFNet IRC: GinRei http://www.io.com/~syegul another worldly device... UNMUTUAL: A Digital Art Collective - E-mail syegul@ix.netcom.com for details ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:49:51 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!chi-news.cic.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: escharf@seattleu.edu (Eric G. Scharf) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 18:19:29 GMT Organization: - Lines: 74 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkhbh$9b6@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: escharf@seattleu.edu (Eric G. Scharf) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07657 Keywords: author=Scharf Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7089 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1309 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Eric G. Scharf Copyright 1997 Eric G. Scharf "Buckaroo Banzai" with ten times the budget and one tenth the plot. Despite several dire reviews and some wry personal criticisms, I felt obligated to go see this, the first "summer movie" of the season. And although I don't exactly regret seeing this movie, I do wish I had managed to pay only $3.75 for the privilege. "The Fifth Element" is remniscent of "Buckaroo Banzai" in that it drops the audience straight into the action and rushes along without bothering to explain odd details. But where "Buckaroo Banzai" told an interesting (or at least novel) story with minimal reliance on special effects, "The Fifth Element" spends millions on effects to dress up what is essentially a drug-running plot from a "Miami Vice" episode. "The Fifth Element" makes exactly zero (or negative, if you count the opportunity cost of the film's underwriting) contribution to the field of science fiction cinema. Don't bother looking for any explication of the political, technological, or social developments of the 250 years that allegdly transpire between the present and the film's milieu; the cinematographer's chief inspiration for 22nd century Brooklyn seems to have been Super Mario Bros. The "President of the Federation" was inexplicably feckless; I've seen more grace under pressure (and better dialogue) from my local McDonalds night supervisor. When the director's vision of the ancient race of interstellar good-guy patrons turned out not to include the ability to stay a closing elevator door, I knew the film was in trouble. "Buckaroo Banzai" was also a helluva lot funnier. The only (intentional) comic relief in "The Fifth Element" waits until two thirds of the way into its 122 minutes to show up in the form of a refugee from a cancelled UPN show, but who is supposed to be a DJ (apparently, the dominant form of mass media in the 22nd century will be radio). This might have been an opportunity for yet another satire of the media, but even that would have been preferable to the tiresome hysterics provided by this buffoon. The vast majority of screen time is taken up with either mediocre car chases and gunfights or Milla Jovovich trying to duplicate Jodie Foster's shameless Oscar grab in "Nell". Note that this movie was directed by Luc Besson, the man who brought us "La Femme Nikita". Jovovich's character is supposed to be this "perfect human" (think the title character from "Species" with a heart (and an accent)), strong enough to rip through her "unbreakable" incubation chamber. She is even shown memorizing Earth's library of martial arts. So what does Besson do? He exempts her, alone among all the primary (and secondary) characters, from the Universal Action Hero Immunity to Automatic Weapons. During the penultimate fight scene, Jovovich is trapped in a ventilation shaft and fired on repeatedly. Note that we also don't get to see her get wounded, which is the only reason to wound a hero in an action movie. We simply don't see her again until Willis has (after letting the aforementioned DJ grab far more screen time than he deserves) dispatched the bad guys and comes back to rescue her. The washed-up Special Forces guy turned-cabbie is better in a fight than the interstellar female assassin/Avatar of Good. Right. Saving graces: Gary Oldman as Joe Bob Briggs, the (not really) surprisingly impotent arms-dealing mastermind and Servant of Evil (everyone knows that the Mark of the Devil is secretions of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup on the forehead, right?). Eric Serra's eclectic soundtrack. I almost forgot that Ian Holm is in this movie. I'm sure he'd rather I did. Go see "Twelve Monkeys" instead. You'll come away with a much better feeling about Bruce Willis, science fiction, screenwriting, French cinema, and the future of humanity. -- Eric G. Scharf escharf@seattleu.edu http://www.seattleu.edu/~escharf/film/5thelement.html http://www.seattleu.edu/~escharf/film/ http://www.seattleu.edu/~escharf/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:50:10 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 18:21:59 GMT Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists Lines: 97 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkhg7$9bn@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07665 Keywords: author=Agapow Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7106 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1316 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Paul-Michael Agapow Copyright 1997 Paul-Michael Agapow It is 250 years in the future. Dallas (Willis), an ex-soldier, drives taxis in the swarming metropolis of New York. One day a orange-haired nymphet Leeloo (Jovovich) speaking an unknown language crash-lands in his taxi. Soon she is doing the "speed learn from an encyclopedia" shtick and with the help of a priest (Holm, and by the look of his acolyte's headgear his religion must worship of early 80s rock bands) we find out the universe is doomed. Unless, of course, four widgets are obtained from a remote location and assembled in a Dungeons and Dragons puzzle room, against the wishes of the evil businessman Zorg (Oldman) and a group of unexplained shape-changing aliens. Did that sound silly? You have no idea ... There are several types of logical blunders in fiction. In "The Fifth Element" the first type betrays perhaps nothing more than carelessness on director Besson's part: black holes mentioned in 1914, temperatures of -5000 C, a (apparently) three hour flight during which the passengers cryosleep to avert boredom, a planet "in the constellation of ...". Stupid, but the plot does not in any way depend on these points - they are at most distracting. You shouldn't get too upset about such trivia. A second might be the absurd fact that once accepted allows the rest of the story to proceed - a flying, invulnerable superhero; a rapid growing, parasitic alien that can lay eggs in any humanoid; or (in this case) the assembly of four artifacts to save the universe. But "The Fifth Element" abounds with another type of mistake, in the logic that leads the story from one point to another. Although the moment to moment action is straightforward and the plot is essentially simple, upon analysis it is completely nonsensical. The President, the fate of the entire universe at stake mind you, orders a low-key one-man mission. Leeloo is surprised and shattered by the human concept of war, forgetting that her race has spent eons fighting genocidal forces intent on obliterating all life, that her ship was destroyed by hostile forces, and that she has been karate-chopping and waving guns about for the past hour. Zorg's motives are murky and his controller totally unexplained. Several times the plot powers itself out of dead-ends using "with one mighty leap he was free!" logic. Possibly there is a lot of footage on the cutting room floor, possibly a lot of explanatory material was excised from the script. Or maybe the film is just plain dumb. The cast is crowded with superfluous characters and execrable acting. Gary Oldman, sounding like a cross between Gomer Pyle and Anthony Robbins, falls into both categories. On the bright side Willis does well, albeit as a caricature, while Jovovich is surprisingly good even when required to utter stupid lines. (The more English she speaks, the less convincing her character becomes.) Mention should also be made of Luke "don't blink or you'll miss me" Perry, who deserves bigger roles, and a bizarre cameo as a mugger by Matthieu Kassovitz (director of "La Haine" and star of "Un Heros Tres Discret"). And despite the above problems, the film is fairly enjoyable. Besson has always favoured (and got away with) feel over logic and look over plot. For example, his "Subway" and "La Femme Nikita" are fun despite also being plainly ridiculous. But more recently, with "Leon the Professional" he showed a masterful handling of script, direction and character with more lucid and intense plotting. "The Fifth Element" is big step back to his earlier work, a big, dumb but likeable film. The whole is absurd but the parts are quite good: a bioengineered opera diva, residential blocks designed for police lockdown, the dizzying heights of New York protruding from a smoggy abandoned surface, cigarettes that are 75% filter. In a way the correct film to compare it to would be "Bladerunner", not for the narrative but for the vision of a brash, busy and colourful future - a three-way collision between Ridley Scott, Doc EE Smith and Jean-Paul Gaultier. It also helps that the central conflict is at once broad (good vs. evil) and very personal (Dallas fighting for Leeloo), largely avoiding machismo and flag-waving. It grieves me to recommend a picture to "switch your mind off" at. But unlike other big dumb pictures (like most anything coming out of the Hollywood system), "The Fifth Element" is a little different, more colourful, more exciting and less offensive. If you're going to take your mind candy, it may as well taste good. Unfortunately this film will probably not come across well on video due to the diminishing of the visuals. [**/ok] and on the Sid and Nancy scale. "The Fifth Element" Directed by Luc Besson. Starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Gary Oldman, Brion James, Luke Perry, Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr, Matthieu Kassovitz. Released 1997. ------ paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/] From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:50:16 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sn.no!uninett.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ram@iris3.carb.nist.gov (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 18:26:05 GMT Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Lines: 75 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkhnt$9c3@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ram@iris3.carb.nist.gov (Ram Samudrala) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07670 Keywords: author=Samudrala Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7045 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1294 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Ram Samudrala Copyright 1997 Ram Samudrala /The Fifth Element/ is one of the most visually spectacular movies I've seen. While peppered with attention capturing details of life in the future and philosophical insights into human nature, the plot leaves quite a bit to be desired. Set in the 23rd century, the plot is a standard one: good conquers evil with a bit of love and some lady luck. With such stunning visuals, a complex plot would have only detracted from the movie. However, the problem is with the execution. Director Luc Besson focuses too much on the details of the visuals and too little on the details of the plot. When I walked out of the movie, I was in awe, but feeling empty at the same time. The fifth element is part of a weapon that is used in conjunction with the four other elements (Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water) against an evil force that threatens Earth every 5000 years. The weapon was created by a race of aliens, the Mondoshawan, who safeguard its presence on earth in Egypt. But when they fear the impending arrival of World War I, the Mondoshawan take away the sacred stones representing the four elements to be returned when the evil force next arrives near planet earth during the course of its 5000 year cycle, approximately 250 years later in the year 2259. In the year 2259, as the Mondoshawan return to complete their mission, their ship is shot down through the orders of an agent of the evil force, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman). However, the Mondoshawan, wise in their ways, did not trust humans and the ship supposedly containing the stones turns out to be a decoy. Meanwhile, the good guys on Earth are able to salvage a few cells from the destroyed ship and reconstruct, using the genetic information in the cells, the entire organism representing the cells. The reconstructed organism turns out to be a perfect human female, with the short name Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). In fright, she busts out of the regeneration chamber and runs into Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a New York City cabbie who had been a highly decorated fighter pilot. Leeloo's mission is to find a priest, Victor Cornelius (Ian Holm), who carries with him the tradition of activating the fifth element against the evil force. President Lindberg (Tom Lister Jr.), who was earlier made aware of this information, enlists Dallas' aid to retrieve the four stones from the Diva Plava Laguna (Maïwenn Le Besco). Along with the aid of DJ Ruby Rhod (played hilariously by Chris Tucker), Leeloo and Dallas confront Zorg and the evil force for control of the elements. While the plot may seem like a combination of many trend-setting sci-fi movies (/Star Wars/, /Heavy Metal/, /Bladerunner/, /Metropolis/, and /Brazil/) on the surface, I think it goes a bit deeper than that. Given a longer movie, we probably could've seen more of the detailed aspects of the writing come out without sacrificing any of the visuals, and I that I think would have made watching this all the more worthwhile. Even though my initial comments come off negatively, I think this is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. And it is not because of the visuals, but because of the subtle messages hidden here and there through the movie. There is, of course, the aspect of war that's tackled not with words but with tears rather profoundly. But more profound is Zorg's display of creation through destruction, and how we adapt to the changing environment by modifying our genetic makeup. Besson's vision of the future, like in the case of Terry Gilliam, is probably more realistic than one by Gene Roddenberry or George Lucas in Star Trek and Star Wars respectively. That alone makes this movie worth watching. The soundtrack is excellent as well. email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:50:21 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!uninett.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: scottjp@cris.com (Scott Promish) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 21:18:55 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 58 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkrrv$a1u@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: scottjp@cris.com (Scott Promish) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07681 Keywords: author=Promish Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7115 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1319 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Scott Promish Copyright 1997 Scott Promish Directed by Luc Besson Egypt, 1915: Archaeologists are in the process of deciphering recently discovered inscriptions in an ancient temple. Meanwhile, an old priest plots treachery in the name of a greater good. Just as the secret is about to be discovered, however, aliens arrive to retrieve it, claiming it is no longer safe on Earth. They leave the priest with the key to the chamber, telling him to pass on his teachings so that humanity will be prepared when the time comes... Three hundred years later, an entity in the form of a fiery planet is heading towards Earth, destroying everything in its path. The only thing that can stop it is a weapon consisting of four stones representing earth, air, fire and water, along with an unknown fifth element. Unfortunately, the ship transporting these items is ambushed and completely destroyed just as it reaches Earth. The only ones with a clue as to what is going on are the latest in that long line of priests, and a woman cloned from salvaged DNA from the crash. Bruce Willis plays Corben Dallas, the ex-military cab driver who unintentionally finds himself wrapped up in these events. He does his usual Bruce Willis thing. Chameleonic character actor Gary Oldman is the bow-legged, southern-accented corporate overlord Zorg, who does everything in his power to keep the elements from falling into the right hands. Zorg considers himself a servant of chaos and wants the cosmic evil to arrive even though it will presumably mean his doom as well. But the real star of the film (aside from the effects) is model-turned-actress-turned singer/songwriter Milla Jovovich as the perfect warrior clone Leeluu. For the first half of the film she doesn't even speak any English, yet she still steals every scene she's in. Whatever language it is she's speaking, she does so as if it's her first; that's how natural it comes off (and it's rapid-fire speech, so it couldn't have been easy.) Her acting in other respects is also impressive - she's come a long way since RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON. It's a gorgeously feral, convincingly alien role. The effects are top-notch and flawless. From the space battles to the alien races everything looks perfect. This is a film that should be seen on a big screen, and in digital sound if possible. The art direction, which is by noted French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud, is stunning. It may even look familiar to readers of Heavy Metal magazine, to which he is a frequent contributor. THE FIFTH ELEMENT runs a little over two hours but it goes quickly, and it seemed to me there still could have been a lot more. Apparently Besson (director of LEON/THE PROFESSIONAL, NIKITA, and many others) had to cut his original story in half to make a film of reasonable length. As a result, there's much that wasn't fully explained or explored. If any of this was filmed and simply edited out, perhaps we'll see a restored version on video. Or maybe even a continuation of some sort...? [Review written 5/26/97] From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:50:25 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!bucklan.stupi.se!news-pen-4.sprintlink.net!news-east.sprintlink.net!news-dc-26.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: cq292@freenet.carleton.ca (Eric C. Robinette) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 21:19:36 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Lines: 54 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mkrt8$a23@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: cq292@freenet.carleton.ca (Eric C. Robinette) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07684 Keywords: author=Robinette Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7060 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1300 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Eric C. Robinette Copyright 1997 Eric C. Robinette A- Starring: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Luke Perry Written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen Directed by Luc Besson. "The Fifth Element" is a dumb, comic-book level story obsessed with it's look and effects. That's why it's so much fun. Much has been made of the fact that Luc Besson dreamed up this sci-fi eyeful as a teenager, and he goes to great pains to prove it, throwing all kinds of sights and sounds at us with exuberant glee at the expense of character and plot. The movie's all the better for it. Too many sci-fi epics make the mistake of asking the audience to take them seriously, to bear in mind their heavy-handed morals that are more tiresome than touching. By wearing it's emptiness on it's sleeve, The Fifth Element works effectively as a pure shot in the arm that energized me for two hours and nothing more, and that was fine with me. Indeedf uge plot is, and aple,lain with a southern accent (Oldman). That's pretty much it. For some people, this won't be enough to chew on, but I found the whole confection pretty tasty because I could feel the enthusiasm that Besson feels by bringing his lifelong fantasy to the screen. Most of the players seem to be having fun right along with him, too. Though Willis is using his annoying smug mode, it actually works here as counterpoint to the wild-goings on around him. Jovovich, amazingly, rises above having been in "Return to the Blue Lagoon" with an energetic and even affecting performance. Chris Tucker is also fun to watch as an overhyped DJ on helium, Ruby Rhod. The only real disappointment here is Gary Oldman who has his menacing stare in place but also uses a weird "soutvern boy" acaent that setms out of pnace and diletes his vilBainy. The oook of the eilm has ofte been comp ved to BladeoRunner, witi its cast, growded city oapes, but Ufe similarieses end thermv The techios at Digitac Domain have created bright, fast-moving, landscathat match tirector's en and are theithesis of B Runner's foding skylinehe chase sce hrough the vcal levels ors in the cis a dazzlingvel I won't o forget. Ufunately, Bess enthusiasmvntually proo be too mucf a good thing, and the picture begins to collapse under its own weight at its too-long conclusion. Besson throws so many action scenes and digital effects at the audience that the movie wears itself out, rather than end with a real wallop. Up until that point, though, The Fifth Element works as one of those rare movies that asked me to check my brain at the door, and I felt no dumber for having done so when it was over. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 7 22:32:48 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!erinews.ericsson.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!01-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!news.radio.cz!news.eecs.umich.edu!panix!news-xfer.netaxs.com!feed1.news.erols.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: legeros@pagesz.net (Michael J. Legeros) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 3 Jun 1997 16:42:28 GMT Organization: none Lines: 82 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5n1hhk$4ds@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: legeros@pagesz.net (Michael J. Legeros) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07748 Keywords: author=Legeros Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7153 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1326 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Michael John Legeros Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros (Columbia) Directed by Luc Besson Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen Cast Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry MPAA Rating "PG-13" Running Time 127 minutes Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC (02MAY97) == Here's a topic that will be debated on the newsgroups for the rest of the summer: is Luc Besson's spectacular sci-fi action/comedy/ love story the most visually arresting film of the decade? Could be. Think BLADE RUNNER meets BRAZIL in this magnificently multi-colored, multi- cultural vision of the 23rd century. Every image is an eye-popper and not just the flying taxies or futuristic cityscapes. Costumes, make-up, even the smallest set decorations are stunning. And yet, the special effects-- the most seamless blend of mattes, models, and computer animation that I can recall-- never once threaten to overpower the narrative. Yeah, there's a plot. Former fighter pilot-turned-New York cabbie Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) saves the life of an orange-haired beauty (actress/model/recording artist Milla Jovovich), who is actually an alien super-weapon, once stored on Earth, then removed from Earth, then *returned* to Earth, to save the Earth from an approaching, planet- sized, super-duper-evil-and-with-a-cherry-on-top menace. So far? Now, to be activated, she (it?) requires the presence of four sacred stones, which she doesn't have, and which a villainous industrialist (Gary Oldman, bucktoothed and brandishing an outlandish Southern accent) is also trying to get. Got it? Based on a story that Besson started when he was sixteen, THE FIFTH ELEMENT is likely to be the most cryptic of the summer blockbuster wannabes. (Actually, it's a French film that's been several years in the making. Does that qualify as standard summer fare?) Only the slightest explanation is offered for the movie's major events, though, admittedly, anyone with even a *modest* sense of sci-fi can extrapolate what's what and which end is up. The smaller story details, however, are another matter. Besson and Robert Mark Kamen's screenplay relies heavily upon coincidence and that's all fine and dandy until you try to think about it. (I tried to make detailed sense of the plot and track who was where and how they got there and almost had a brain hemorrhage in the process.) Okay, so you may not understand even *half* of the story. That's fine. THE FIFTH ELEMENT entertains in so many, many other ways. Nearly every character, for example, gets their turn at playing comic relief. (So much comic relief that some scenes border on slapstick.) Ian Holm, the ass-biter from BIG NIGHT, is very funny as a high priest who's also the alien's contact person on Earth. Later scenes with Gary Oldman are often a howl, while latecomer Chris Tucker is a hyperactive scene- stealer as the flamboyant radio personality Ruby Rhod. (Imagine, if you can, a cross between Dennis Rodman and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. And then try not to scream.) At the end, Besson attempts to get serious with statements about war and violence and man's bottom-line need for love. The resulting shift in tone, however, is too abrupt and turns the finale into a fizzle. (The sequence also feels rushed and the accompanying special effects are hardly special. This is a movie that needs a *big* finish, which we don't get, and which may be on purpose.) I suspect that Besson intended to end on a different note. Maybe something more sentimental than visceral. Maybe a tug at the heart instead of a kick in the 'nads. Had he paid more attention to plot comprehensibility, and not required the viewer to work *quite* so hard to play along, we might've even felt it. Grade: B+ -- Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jun 7 22:33:04 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!erinews.ericsson.se!news.seinf.abb.se!inquo!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mredman@bvoice.com (Michael Redman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 6 Jun 1997 01:17:23 GMT Organization: ... Lines: 86 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5n7of3$blp@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mredman@bvoice.com (Michael Redman) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07776 Keywords: author=Redman Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7162 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1328 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Michael Redman Copyright 1997 Michael Redman ***1/2 (out of ****) Climb into the back seat and get ready as Bruce Willis takes us on one hell of a cab ride. The first of the major science fiction films of the summer hardly gives you a chance to breathe as the action keeps on a-comin'. In 1914 Egypt, archeologists are investigating a __major__ find when the mother of all space ships pulls up outside the temple. Out of the floating megalith waddle insectoid aliens in copper battlesuits. They've come to retrieve the supreme weapon stored on Earth for 5,000 years in the care of generations of priests. With the upcoming war, this planet is no longer a safe haven for its own protector. Three hundred years later, the ultimate evil in the guise of a flaming planet is streaking its way towards its goal: destruction of just about everything in the universe. Sensing that this may not be in the best interest of said universe, our friendly aliens are returning the weapon when they are ambushed by the not-so friendly droopy-eared dog soldier aliens. When their ship crashes into the moon, there is only one "survivor" on hand. Through a high-tech cloning technique, the hand is reconstructed as the consummate weapon which turns to be babe deluxe Milla Jovovich. A couple of minutes later she takes a dive off a several hundred story NYC building busting through the roof of Willis' floating taxi. Willis, ever the die-hard, takes on the mission and goes up against fascist industrialist Gary Oldman as well as the bizarros from outer space and a huge fiery catastrophe. There's not a second to lose: the end of the world is in a matter of hours and his driver's license has been revoked. The film is so dense with things to look at that you'll never catch them all. The run-down city of the future owes much of its look to "Bladerunner", from the vertigo-inspiring view down through the multiple levels of air traffic to even a friendly Asian food vendor. There are a million things going on in every scene and the effects are top rate. Much of the design is by French illustrators Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Jean-Claude Mezieres. Responsible for some of the most innovative early "Heavy Metal" stories, Moebius' influence is apparent in some of the more fantastic elements. The alien battlesuits are dazzling and the blue-skinned alien diva is magnificent. Even the priest's goofy hats are straight out of his graphic novels. Willis is his usual hard-nosed rough and tumble kind of guy. When he gets to Fhloston Paradise, a floating resort, you know to expect a big shoot-out. The film doesn't disappoint. The lobby of the hotel turns into one of the most explosive huge gun battles you've seen. Through all the destruction, falls and bruises; the taxi driver maintains his sense of humor, firing out wisecracks as often as bullets. Jovovich is indeed the ultimate fantasy. A flaming red-head who moves like a cat and fights like Bruce Lee, she speaks an unworldly language, is powerful and independent yet vulnerable. Dressed in revealing thin spandex bandages, the dazzling beauty is prone to dropping her clothes at any given time. The archetypal male dream. Oldman struts his stuff with a pronounced limp and his half-shaved head covered in a plastic dome while holding court in a depraved southern accent. Possibly the most bizzare character in the film is Chris Tucker as radio personality Ruby Rhod. A combination of Dennis Rodman and Little Richard, Rhod's mouth runs a mile a minute. When he first enters the movie, it's an unwelcome intrusion of camp, but as time goes on the DJ develops into the perfect foil for Willis. Like many recent filmmakers, Director Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita") has appropriated bits and pieces from other films. You'll see "Star Wars", "Star Gate" and half a dozen other "Star" films as well as the obvious "Die Hard" and "Bladerunner". Although I'd have preferred a more original plot, this is the first film in years that I wanted to see again just a few days later. It's difficult to recommend an effects film much higher. [This appeared in the 5/22/97 issue of the "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com ] From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:35:43 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:48 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sn.no!uninett.no!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!europa.clark.net!mis3!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mmapes@indra.com (Marty Mapes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 26 Jun 1997 16:31:39 GMT Organization: Indra's Net, Inc. -- Public Access Internet. Lines: 95 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5ou5hb$e2o@nntpa.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: mmapes@indra.com (Marty Mapes) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #08015 Keywords: author=Mapes Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7412 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1389 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Marty Mapes Copyright 1997 Marty Mapes *** (out of 4) The trailers for The Fifth Element make it look like it tries very hard, perhaps too hard, to be cool and stylish. The futuristic setting and the backflipping scraggly girl invite a skeptical comparison to Blade Runner. In fact, the movie does have some elements of Blade Runner. It also has some from Die Hard, Brazil, Star Wars, and Stargate. It sounds like a big confused jumble, but actually it has its own internal consistency and look. It is almost immediately engaging and engrossing. After an introductory scene in Egypt, 1918, the movie jumps to the 23rd century. A black hole of Evil threatens humanity. Attempts to destroy this Evil with force result in the growth and strengthening of the evil body. Four stones from the early Egypt sequence, plus a perfectly engineered human, the Fifth Element, are needed to banish the darkness and death. The good aliens, the golden robot ducks, are the keepers of the stones and of the Fifth Element. When they learn of humanity's impending doom, they come to the aid of the Earth, bearing these five components. On their way to Earth, they are shot down by the the evil mercenary aliens, "destroying" the stones and the Fifth Element in the fiery wreckage. The human government is able to salvage a piece of the Fifth Element from the wreckage and regenerate the perfect human using DNA from the mummified and stone-encased piece of shrapnel. The human reincarnated from the Fifth Element is Leeloo, and she escapes from the clutches of the scientists so she can go off in search of the priest she's been programmed to find. She falls into the arms of Corben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a down-on-his-luck space cab driver, an ex-space military man kicked out of the space army who now lives alone with his cat. (In the last Besson film, The Professional, the hero lived alone with his plant.). The two end up on a search for the stones so that they can vanquish the evil black hole. Working against them is Jean-Baptise Emmanuel Zorg (that's John-the-Baptist, Jesus, Zorg, played by Gary Oldman), who wants to steal the stones and use them for evil and darkness. (Chaos is better for the economy, you see.) The plot sounds rather ridiculous, but The Fifth Element is so engaging and has such integrity of style, that I was never bothered by the cartoonishness of the plot. This is a positive example of solving a problem by throwing enough money at it. Several factors make this movie much better than it sounds. First, the visual elements of this movie are interesting, and the filmmakers went all out. The sets are great (the scientist's chamber), the costumes are great (the police officers, the aliens), the special effects are good, and these are cartoonish by the same amount as the plot, which allows them to cohabitate in the same movie. Second, this movie is good, fun, escapist entertainment. The movie has a little humor and camp -- not too much to distract from the action, but enough to keep you watching for little jokes. If you haven't seen it yet, pay attention to Dallas' cigarettes, or look for visual "quotes" from Star Wars. There are lots of clever details packed into the movie. Finally, the editing (by Sylvie Landra) was superb. Besson and Landra used some cross-cutting techniques both to cleverly link scenes and also to transition from one scene to the next. The cross-cutting (as well as the "regular" straight cutting) kept the movie's pace nice and brisk. The one factor that nearly everyone disklikes about this movie is the character Ruby Rhod (played by Chris Tucker -- rhodamine is another shade of red). Ruby is a flamingly shrill, annoying DJ, ten times worse than Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh combined. Many people say the movie would have been better without him, and I'd have a hard time disagreeing. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see a science fiction movie with space scenes and interesting aliens that is not part of some established Star (fill-in-the-blank) series or based on some pre-existing comic book. Apparently, Besson wrote the story for The Fifth Element when he was a teenager, and he is just now coming back to it. This movie is not as heavy as Blade Runner or as insightful as Brazil, but incorporates a lot of the more fun elements from both. The result is a movie that's less substantial than either, but a lot more fun. Check out more current movie reviews at http://www.indra.com/~mmapes/ From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:47:42 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 18 15:23:47 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sn.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Jesse Kaplan Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Fifth Element (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 25 Jul 1997 04:10:35 GMT Organization: MHVNet Lines: 44 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5r98vr$lo9@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08332 Keywords: author=kaplan X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7763 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1458 THE FIFTH ELEMENT: A FILM REVIEW BY Jesse A. Kaplan Cast: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovivovich, Chris Tucker, Ian Holm, Luke Perry Directed by Luc Besson Wow! When I orginally found out about THE FIFTH ELEMENT (T5E) I was amazed by not only the plot, the effects, the sets, and the casts, but just how what an incredibly different movie it was going to be. Well now its out all over and has gotten some mixed reviews. Let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen, this movie is terrific. All the future will be lost unless the fifth element is found. I don't even know how to explain the movie so I won't. Let me say this then. If you like action, Sci-Fi, great costumes, an amazingly hott up and coming actress, shoot 'em up, futuristic ride of your life the T5E is the movie for you this summer. Bruce Willis (DIE HARD, PULP FICTION) is at his best as an Ex-Marine turned taxi who has to save the world from annialation from the unltimate evil. Evil is helped by the crooked arms dealer billioniare Zorg, played by Gary Oldman (THE PROFESSIONAL, AIR FORCE ONE). Leeloo, as the Fifth Element, the surprime being must be used correctly to defeat this evil with help from a struggling to save priest, Holm, and his assistant. Once the action moves to the space resort we are met be D.J. Ruby Rodd ,Chris Tucker (FRIDAY) who is a great cross between Prince, Dennis Rodman, and Orpah Whinfrey. The sets and costumes and the best part of the movie and the $90 million dolllar budget certainly isn't wasnted at all in this movie. Definately one of the true hits of this summer. Although compared to Sci-Fi thrillers such as STARGATE and BLADE RUNNER, T5E works because its not deep at all. Simply great mindless fun, guarenteed to make your $7.50 worthwhile. THE FIFTH ELEMENT runs 2:07 and is worth every minute. It is rated PG-13 for brief female nudity, cartoonish violence, and a little profanity. A definate winner, *** 1/2. **** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it . ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture. Copyright 1997 paladin@mhv.net Jesse A. Kaplan From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:47:45 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 18 15:23:49 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!EU.net!howland.erols.net!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Andrew Hicks Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Fifth Element (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Aug 1997 05:06:36 GMT Organization: University of Missouri - Columbia Lines: 85 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5srfcs$e75@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08556 Keywords: author=hicks X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7958 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1483 THE FIFTH ELEMENT A film review by Andrew Hicks Copyright 1997 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions (1997) **1/2 (out of four) THE FIFTH ELEMENT is an action / science-fiction hybrid that cost nearly $100 million to make but left out two of the most crucial elements of both genres. The best action flicks have a good sense of humor and the best science-fiction films have a brain. THE FIFTH ELEMENT has neither, and zero suspense. What it does have is a terrific visual style, outrageous art direction and a wide variety of people sporting a wild variety of costumes, proof movies are looking more and more like music videos. If only they'd fade out after four minutes... The first 15 minutes or so take place in Egypt, 1914, where an explorer has discovered some strange markings in a temple as Luke Perry looks on. A priest tries to stop the explorer from stumbling upon a cosmic secret, but too late. Down comes an alien spacecraft, out of which steps a strange bronze / chrome being that unlocks the entrance to a strange room. The brings out four small stone obelisks just as Luke shoots it. No, Luke, it's a friendly alien! Too late, the alien dies, after squeaking out a warning about the evil invading the earth 300 years from now. Flash forward, oh, 300 years or so. We meet Bruce Willis, a retired government agent who's now living out the mundane existence of a cab driver. In the first few scenes, we get the requisite world-of-the-future scenes. The bed makes itself, the microwave cooks food in a second, the cigarettes are four-fifths filter and the cars fly. Willis heads off in his cab as we cut to a secret government lab, where a group of scientists are examining the DNA of an armor-clad hand, the only remaining body part of an alien spacecraft that was shot down earlier in the day. They stick it in some futuristic chamber and reconstruct the entire being based on the DNA of the hand. After a few bright flashes we see a nude, orange-haired Milla Jovavich. One of the scientists makes the mistake of getting too close to the glass chamber, as Jovavich smashes the chamber and bashes his head in before jumping through the wall of the building. A chase ensues as she jumps from the building and right into -- as coincidence would have it -- Willis' cab. She's just beautiful enough that he risks his life outrunning the cops. Of course, she doesn't speak any English, so she can't tell him who she is or what she's running from. All she can say is the name of a priest, one in a long line of holymen who has been trained to protect the four stones. But we soon learn the stones were stolen by evil Zorg (Gary Oldman), who is working for the evil aliens that want to destroy the earth. Jovavich was sent by the good aliens to protect -- she is the fifth element. So the elements are earth, air, wind, fire and anorexic models? I can handle a universe like that. The weak writing shows through as the priest reminds Willis that she may have superhuman strength but she is also fragile. She needs his love to survive. Pathetic, as are the caricature portrayals by Oldman as the psycho villain and Chris Tucker as a flamboyant but frightened radio host who is thrust into the action two-thirds of the way into the movie. THE FIFTH ELEMENT has a few interesting elements. It's fun most of the time and always flashy, but it's also missing a lot. We don't care about the characters, there's no suspense and the plot is predictable and borrowed from hosts of other sci-fi flicks. If they're going to throw so much money at a movie, they should at least invest a few million in the creative end. The mise en scene is nice but it doesn't balance out the writing. The two-and-a-half star rating applies to the viewing experience I had -- huge screen, digital stereo sound. It was almost enough to make it seem good at times. Otherwise, the rating is knocked down by at least a half-star. -- Visit the Movie Critic at LARGE homepage at http://www.missouri.edu/~c667778/movies.html Serving America For Nearly 1/25th of a Century! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Aug 28 14:44:18 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!news.grnet.gr!news-feed1.eu.concert.net!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!192.48.96.125!in3.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: The Fifth Element (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 25 Aug 1997 17:12:05 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet ~Lines: 130 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5tsed5$t88@nntp5.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08713 Keywords: author=fung X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8146 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1510 THE FIFTH ELEMENT (Columbia - 1997) Starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James Screenplay by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen Produced by Patrice Ledoux Directed by Luc Besson Running time: 127 minutes ** 1/2 (out of four stars) Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned. ------------------------------------------------------------- Regarding Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT, nobody could quite summarize it so succinctly and so accurately as Mr. Besson's himself; of his film, which he conceived at age sixteen, he commented: "I was writing solely for the pleasure of it. I just put down on paper everything that I love and see. I just like to go for it, and I consider the serious questions later." That this is clearly evident in THE FIFTH ELEMENT would be somewhat of an understatement; this film seems to be a celluloid collage of a sci-fi fanboy's wildest fantasies. You want a goon squad of shapeshifting alien villians? You want benevolent aliens marching about Egyptian ruins? You want a giant, virtually unstoppable clump of Pure Evil rushing towards planet Earth, signifying the destruction of Life As We Know It(tm)? You want a battered Everyman (it's not by accident he's a taxi driver, the cinematic signifyer that This Is An Average Joe - see HEAVY METAL for a similar futuristic equivalent), pretty waif in tow, struggling against a sinister meglomaniac and his army of mercenaries to Save The Planet(tm) in a prototypical battle of Good vs. Evil? Boy, have you come to the right movie. Mr. Besson throws striking sequences one after the other onscreen, and while they hardly coalesce in any sort of cohesive manner, in an odd way THE FIFTH ELEMENT sort of works; it's loud, bizarre, and remarkably silly, but to its credit the film never takes itself seriously in the least, and we are bombarded by so many audacious images and sights that it never becomes boring. Not exactly high praise, to be sure, but THE FIFTH ELEMENT isn't exactly a great film. Its greatest strengths are its visuals; the sets and costumes are astonishing. Save for a fifteen-minute prologue, the film is set in 23rd century Earth, and Mr. Besson's view of it is a staggering one: multi-levelled congested traffic from flying automobiles zipping about, towering skyscrapers stretching above the smog on the surface beyond the reaches of the eye, plummeting elevators screaming down rails, and, of course, that Universal constant, McDonalds. The scenes in which we explore this strange new world through the eyes of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), our genetically re-engineered heroine, are a visual feast, and a triumph not only for Mr. Besson's vision, but for the effects team at Digital Domain. Even that staple of the uninspired action film, the chase scene, takes new life in THE FIFTH ELEMENT; it's really something to watch Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), our taxi-driving hero, desperately weave through three dimensional traffic in order to attempt to lose the police. Dan Weil's award-worthy production design is terrific, particularly the magnificent auditorium scene in the off-Earth resort complex. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is filled with sequences and effects which should be a sci-fi fanboy's delight: the onscreen meticulous genetic reconstruction of Leeluu, from a scrap of recovered DNA to a scantily-clad, orange-haired pixie; the demonstration of evil Zorg's (Gary Oldman) powerful homing gun, which is never again used in the film. Why does Mr. Besson show us this stuff in the film? Why, because (in my best fanboy voice) it looks really really cool! (fanboy voice off) They're along the same lines as the gratuitous nothing other than to impress. Tossing every wild idea that comes your way, though, can result in a lot of unnecessary onscreen junk which rather clearly fails to serve any purpose. I really couldn't think of any reason as to why the tentacled blue alien diva had to be tossed into the mix, other than so that Mr. Besson could perform a lot of cross-cutting between her wailing and the action going on elsewhere in the resort complex. For that matter, other than for sheer audacity, was it really even necessary for the resort complex to be halfway across the galaxy? At this point I come to the most blatant of the unnecessary elements (no pun intended) of the film; the prancing, perpetually-screeching over-the-top Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) character. Why, oh why? He seems to be there sheerly for comic relief, but given all of the other comedic elements in the film (Ian Holm's hapless, bumbling priest Cornelius, Gary Oldman's scenery-chewing Zorg), was it even necessary? The Ruby Rhod character never works and is extremely grating, and by the time the film reached its denoument I had the sinking feeling that he was introduced simply so that there'd be an obligatory fourth person around in order to activate The Fifth Element. Coming off the best in THE FIFTH ELEMENT is Milla Jovovich, as the wide-eyed Leeluu, who's so wonderfully expressive in her performance that I had to ground myself by noting that she had virtually no dialogue in the film. Ian Holm was also effective as the good-hearted but incompentant priest (no world saver is he). Gary Oldman is one of today's best actors, but his over-the-top performance in Mr. Besson's earlier film, the terrific THE PROFESSIONAL (a.k.a. LEON), is dwarfed by his bizarre villanous turn here - granted, it does make for interesting viewing, particularly when one considers the pointlessness of his role. Bruce Willis' performance in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, however, is unremarkable; surrendering to the gargantuan scope of the film's set pieces and its mythological struggle of Good vs. Evil, he's merely along for the ride. THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a hodgepodge of individual sequences, visual effects and set pieces, some of them wonderfully inspired, and others misfiring badly. It doesn't all work out together, but on the basis of the effective spectacle of Mr. Besson's wonderously bizarre vision alone, the film is worth seeing, and the other strengths in THE FIFTH ELEMENT (of which there are, believe it or not, a few) are icing on the cake. - Alex Fung email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ -- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "God, I loved it. 'I'll send you a copy.' BAM! Bitch went down. 'I'll send you a copy.' BAM! Sid - Superbitch!" - Rose McGowan, SCREAM From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 18 22:45:40 2003 From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Fifth Element, The (1997) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 19:45:22 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 35613 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1192834 X-RT-TitleID: 1077152 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #35613 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 80 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!feed.news.nacamar.de!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7438 rec.arts.sf.reviews:641 THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003 In a time where most of the big Hollywood blockbusters seem to be made exclusively for teenage boys, it is interesting to find a Hollywood blockbuster based on the writings of teenage boy. THE FIFTH ELEMENT, 1997 science fiction spectacle by famous French director Luc Besson, was originally devised by Besson during his teenage years. The plot (or what goes for plot) of THE FIFTH ELEMENT is set in 23rd Century. Earth is threatened by evil omnipotent and unstoppable force that crosses transdimensional boundary in order to threaten the planet every 5000 years. The only hope for Earth is Leeloo a.k.a. Fifth Element (played by Milla Jovovich), the perfect being which happens to be in the form of beautiful girl. In order to stop the evil force, Leeloo needs four stones representing four other ancient elements - fire, earth, air and water. In order to get them she would recruit assistance of Korben Dallas (played by Bruce Willis), cab driver and disgruntled war veteran who gradually falls in love with her. While he follows Leeloo to distant space station in order to obtain the stones, evil arms dealer Zorg (played by Gary Oldman) stands in their way. It seems that THE FIFTH ELEMENT even in its early script form was envisioned as a movie based more on stunning visuals than on anything that could remotely be associated with coherent plot or multi-dimensional characters. The characters look like caricatures; sometimes this can work, just like in science fiction camp classics like Mike Hodges' FLASH GORDON. Here the one-dimensional characters are played by actors who at times seem lost (Luke Perry in prologue), not very original in their performance (Gary Oldman in umpteenth incarnation of insane villain) or obviously over-qualified for the job (Ian Holm in the role of priest Vito Cornelius). Bruce Willis, whose character, modelled on the cab driver in HEAVY METAL, is nominal protagonist of the film, is overshadowed by Milla Jovovich, fashion model who hardly speaks the word in the film, and Chris Tucker in a brief but memorable role of the TV show host who can't keep his mouth shut. But the display of acting abilities is not the reason why THE FIFTH ELEMENT should be watch. Its main appeal lies in the incredibly effective combination of special effects, Eric Serra's music, Dan Weil's production design and Jean-Paul Gaultier's costumes. The special effects provided Besson with the tools to provide the movie with the spectacular images, displaying the eagerness of a child in the candy store. Eric Serra's music is also quite appealing, especially in while borrowing from Donizetti's operas. Dan Weil's visions of 23rd Century world pays homage to such futuristic classics like METROPOLIS, BLADE RUNNER, as well as comic books of Moebius. Finally, Gaultier provides campiness by dressing the characters in outrageous costumes and few pleasant moments for teenage (and older) males in audience by dressing Mila Jovovich in as little textile as possible. All that isn't enough to lift THE FIFTH ELEMENT into the science fiction classics category, not even into science fiction camp classic category, but it is enough to provide audience with two hours of entertainment and show that "guilty pleasure" sometimes can be associated even with 1990s Hollywood blockbusters. RATING: 6/10 (++) Review written on August 29th 2003 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 35613 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1192834 X-RT-TitleID: 1077152 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10