by Jason Whyte

Jan 25, 2000

"The Fifth Element" is the typical summer fare for 1997: you have good visuals, good sound, but no story and no character development. While it has a good opening, with the discovery of ancient stones that will help stop anarchy against earth, the whole movie goes trippy and flat at the same time after that.The film zips ahead to the 24th Century, where the world population seems to be 250 billion (which is IMPOSSIBLE because the earth can not hold that many peoplewithout draining oceans and building ten miles into the air), and a big ball is heading toward earth.

Now this big ball doesn't have a name, and it doesn't matter: we see it one minute, the ball posing a threat, then we go see Bruce Willis as a cab driverand Milla Jovovich as a mysterious girl holding the Fifth Element key. Lots of gun fights and groovy visuals, and then we see that ball about 75 minutes later,coming once again towards earth. At this point, there is a stupid shootout which kills the future setting: the gun fight could happen anywhere at anytime, but in the 24th century it seems immature.

But that's the entire theme of The Fifth Element: immaturity. The film never achieves any sense of plot idea or sense, rather, it just hits you over the headwith purely enjoyable visuals and good Techovision photography. (I guess it has good sound; the theatre I saw it in, the projectionist lost his DTS discs and the whole thing was played in Dolby, with poor surrounds and thin dynamics. There was no way to see it in my favorite SDDS 8-track format, which is the definitiveway to see it. The theatre was only equipped to handle DTS.) In fact, these are the only things in "The Fifth Element" that save it from pure disaster.

Grade: C
By Jason Whyte jwhyte2@ibm.net

 

by Gordon McAlister

Jan 25, 2000

Folks have missed it on this one. It is a great film that is being overlooked because its a rare combination of action adventure and Serious philisophical stuff from the continent. We are talking postmodern here big time and old time - relegion that is son.

LeeLoo is a Christ fiqure to beat the band. Divine Warrior - Immaculate conception - covered in crosses - from before time and outside the universe - falling from the sky into Corbins life - here to save the world - constantly called perfect - the defeat of evil comes out of her mouth, when she is loved. Come on quys and girls don't be fooled by Bruce Willis being in the picture - remeber he did 12 Monkeys just to work with Gilliam - he is trying to do some serious stuff even though the die hard image dies hard.

See the film - get out your old sunday school lessons and have something to talk about for the next couple of years.

 

by JACOB SIEFKES

Jan 25, 2000

The Fifth Element is what I call a 5050 movie. Half the people liked it and half the people didn't like it. But, whether you liked it or not the feelings were strongly expresed, if you liked it you loved it, it was the best movie you ever saw, but if you didn't like it, you hated it and didn't even want to express you saw the flick. Me personally I loved it, as a matter of fact with all the movies I've seen this is my number one favorite! I went out and bought the soundtrack and the book, and I hate reading!!! The plot was exciting, the special effects were the best I have ever seen, it was very easy to understand, and the cast was excellent with Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, and Chris Tucker as Loc Rhod, an outstanding performace by these three! It was a science-fiction movie with a twist, including comedy, and a little romance. Overall if I were Siskel and Ebert, I would give this two thumbs up, but I'm not, but I will with out a doubt give it my approval with a cherry on top!!!

 

by Chaim Dauermann

Jan 25, 2000

There are some movies you walk away from, knowing that you have just seen a film that will go down in history, or should. This is most certainly one of them. "The FifthElement" is one of the most stylish and visually impressive films ever made and should not go unnoticed. The incredibly artistic feel gives you a feeling you're looking at a surrealist painting. The colors and sounds blend together in a lovely mesh of pure visual joy. The music is of the highest quality, matching perfectly with the action on screen.

The acting is also incredible, the best performance being turned in by a beautiful and charming Milla Jovovich. Her simulation of an alien language is as convincing as it gets. The smooth editing links the whole production together perfectly. This is a scifi classic that needs to be recognised. Go see it!

Rating: *****

 

by Peter Woods

Jan 25, 2000

The Fifth Element is my worst movie of the year! Face it, It is bad! Even my cat can do a better space movie then this trash.

0% out of 100%

Rating:No stars

Grade:F

 

by Brandon Kayser

Jan 25, 2000

I think The Fifth Element is a wonderful movie, but if your not a science fiction fan this may not be the best choice. If you think this movie is mainly action you're wrong there is much more science fiction and suspence, although there is some awesome action scenes. There are many great effects in this movie along with a great story. In conclusion if you are looking for a suspenseful science fiction movie with some great action scenes and wonderful special effects this is the right choice.

 

by Ben Haddock

Jan 25, 2000

The Fifth Element was probably the best Sci-Fi movie I've seen this year. Aside from all the action a few plot twists helped the movie pace along. The soundtrack is really excelent very hard to find unless you put one out on order. Some things in the movie could have been left out, like the fact that you see Milla Jovovich's chest a few times is really unesseccary. But other than that It's a Top noch Movie and a must see for all people.

 

by Thommi

Jan 25, 2000

This film really kick`s butt! Go and see it, it`s good fun and very entertaining !

 

by Robert Schmatz

Jan 25, 2000

"The Fifth Element" I thought that I should send some thoughts about this film after reading some of the "critics" that has been written about it. It seems to me that there is a lot of people that just shouldn'tīt see movies that come from other sources than HollyWood. This film has it all, a good plot, millions of oneliners, lovely effects and much much more. This is not a nobrain action movie, this is a play with narratology in a film genré that usually has no room left for intelligence.

If you look at this film a second or third time you will see that you have missed a lot of intelligent pieces (a 4 parallel crosscutting for one example).

so If you didnīt like it... Well Iīm sorry but I think that you need to see it again without comparing with nobrain action flics...

 

by George Jobson

May 27, 2003

"The Fifth Element" is a fun science fiction adventure about a cab driver, played by Bruce Willis who rescue a strange being who is beliueve to be a key element in saving the earth from a cosmic force. Willis gave a great performance, but it was the supporting performances that needed to be mentioned. Gary Oldman plays another villian, but unlike his past performances, he played his villian role more of a comic vain. Milla Jovovich plays the strange being. Ian Holms is wonderful too, and Chris Tucker in his funniest performance of his career as the loud dee-jay who yells out "Unbelievable." The chemistry between Tucker and Willis in one scene worked very well. Trucker with his mike, will asked Willis, what did he think of this vacation, and Bruce will say one word phases, like you can hear cricklets cripping in the bacxkground. Trucker will yell out "Unbelievable." The film has very special moments, thanks to the writing from Luc Bessen who also directed this film. "The Fifth Element" is one science-fiction film that doesn't have to be serious.