Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (David N. Butterworth)
Date: 20 May 1997 01:13:25 GMT

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
[email-masked]