The Fifth Element (1997)

Watched bits and pieces.
Watched once before.
Watched 20150301 (Netflix, Instant)
The Fifth Element (1997) Luc Besson. 126 min

Milla Jovovich (Leeloo)
Relevant Links:
The Fifth Element (Wikipedia.org)
The Fifth Element (IMDb.com)
The Fifth Element (RottenTomatoes.com)

An alien race called the Mondoshawans store a powerful weapon on Earth - four stone blocks (earth, wind, water, fire) and a physical being - to help protect it from a great evil that returns every five thousand years. However, due to an impending war of some sort they drop by one day and take it away, promising to return with the weapon when the evil returns.

A Mondoshawan.
Centuries later, the evil arrives, and the Mondoshawans look to fulfill their promise. Unfortunately, a man named Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), wishing to possess the elements, hires some mercenaries to destroy the Mondoshawan ship. Fortunately, the four stone blocks have been stored elsewhere and scientists on Earth recover the hand of the fifth element, which is enough to recreate the element's entire form.

Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis)
Upon resurrection, the element, who we come to know as Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), is frightened and manages to escape. Making her way outside, she eventually jumps and lands into a taxi cab, meeting former special forces member and now taxi-cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis).

One thing leads to another and the remainder of the story consists of action, a bit of despair, a dash of romance, and a hair of hope.

Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman)
20150301: [20150316]
Having watched The Whole Nine Yards (2000) yesterday and Die Hard (1988) less than a month ago, I suppose the natural thing for me to do was watch The Fifth Element. While the three movies are quite different (crime / action / sci-fi), I find - from an enjoyment and overall quality perspective - that Die Hard is the best, The Fifth Element comes in second, and The Whole Nine Yards falls in at third.


Of course, where would the movie be without Milla Jovovich, the beautiful model/actress who plays Leeloo. In addition to an awesome resurrection scene near the beginning of the movie, Jovovich also throws some punches and kicks near the movie's end in a fight sequence that makes you wish they had given her another somewhere in the movie.

In any case, I mostly enjoyed the movie.

Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn Le Besco)
While I'm not sure if I'd watch it again any time soon, I would recommend it to fans of both action and sci-fi movies.

Instant Comments:
What a benevolent, understanding species. "Time not important. Only life important."
"Give me the cash." Ha.
5 points on his license. Haha.

Korben and Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker)
"Perfect"
Leeloo
Instant chicken! "Chicken, good."
"Danko. Domo danko."
Hahaha. "Bzzzzz. Bzzz. Bzzzzz." - Ruby (Chris Tucker)


Apparently the opera is called "Il dolce suono."
"I don't feel right, I don't feel right Korben."
"Oh my God! Oh my God, Korben!"
"Don't move."
The delay on the bomb detector is unreal.

Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and Ruby (and a bomb).
I just realized how most spaceships in movies don't have keys. The characters usually jump in and ask, "Do you know how to fly this thing?" When they should be asking, "Do you have the key?" [20150316: Curious, I tried to do a Google search and there was a Lincoln commercial with the tagline, "Starships don't need keys." The commercial showed a Lincoln MKS with keyless entry (enter a keycode) and ]
"Wind blows, fire burns."

No comments :