The Fifth Element Rating: 75/100

Let me start by saying that although I rank this DVD rather low, the movie fills a quirky niche in my little sci-fi collection. While most movies that portray the future as a bleak and hostile with overpopulation and a general sense of martial law, this movie takes a completely different tack, which in and of itself brings a refreshing and much needed vision to an aging genre.

The movie is directed by Luc Besson (The Messenger), and stars Bruce Willis as Corbin Dallas, a retired military man, now cab driver, who gets pulled into an earth saving situation that pops up every 5000 years. Absolute evil in the universe has come to destroy all life and there is only one weapon powerful enough to defeat it, a fifth element or perfect being (played by Milla Jovovich). The other four elements, of course, being water, wind, fire, and earth. These four elements take the form of "stones" which when coupled with the fifth, make up this weapon. These elements have been protected for the past 5000 years and the knowledge of the coming holocaust is protected by a secret group of priests (the current generation played brilliantly by Ian Holm).

Problems start when entrepreneur-nuveau Mr. Zorg (Gary Oldman), gets involved and attempts to steal the stones so that he can sell them to the evil presence (known as Mr. Shadow). Willis' character gets pulled into the fray quickly when the fifth element crashes through the roof of his cab.

The movie is rather outrageous because it develops a huge number of characters, each with their own agenda. It includes many aliens races which get blended in seamlessly (the Mengalores being the most entertaining as large, ugly, bumbling mercenaries), and has a tongue-in-cheek quality that is woven throughout the film. Willis is his usual great hero self, Jovovich is passable (except in her fight scene, where the disbelief has to be swallowed), and Oldman turns in an amazing performance (it seems that he transforms his appearance for every movie, and this one is no exception). Chris Tucker plays Ruby Rhod, an androgynous radio DJ who bring some unique bits into this one, and Brion James also provides a good deal of comic relief as Dallas' former commander.

The movie falls apart in places. One of note, is a technique which is common to action movies. After a massive gun battle with the Mengalores (in which there are rockets shot at the hero), Dallas finds that he is trapped with his gun is about 9 feet away. Now he has already shot about 8 of these guys, and yet, when they catch him, he holds up his hands and says "You got the wrong guy!" and they don't shoot him. This of course, gives him about 15 seconds to turn the tables again. It forces everybody to try even harder to suspend the disbelief in a movie that is completely fantasy to begin with (a personal pet peeve when scenes are done this badly). For this movie's sake, it doesn't kill the enjoyment or the quirkiness.

This DVD was among the first to hit the market a few years ago, and the price never really came down until recently, but it still is among the pricier choices out there. Since it was among the first, it wasn't packed with much in the way of extras. There is no trailer, and no behind the scenes clips (I was hoping to see the HBO First Look special which described interesting concepts like Milla's character's alien dialect, made up of 600 words, and how she and director Besson, used that dialect to speak to each other on set. Part of the budding romance to follow?). Also I attempted to use the subtitles, but was disappointed with the fact that they didn't come close to capturing the dialog (which you will find with a lot of DVDs). In fact, I turned off the subtitles and used the "mute" feature on my television and found that its captioning was terrific, right down to some of the stutters and sputters of some of he characters. It makes a difference in this movie.

In all, this movie is refreshing mainly because it diverges from the easy path of science fiction visions and feels a lot like a well done, upbeat, music video. It is worth a rental for most, but if you are a fan, I'd wait to see if a special version comes out in the coming months.

Brian Murphy