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 Director
: Luc Besson
Starring
: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Milla
Jovovich.
Picture
2.35:1, DD 5.1, Dual-Layer, Keep Case
Running
Time : 121 mins
The
story:
There
is no future without it.
Egypt
1914: four sacred stones are collected from a tomb by an
alien race known as the Mondoshawan. These stones have been
kept in this tomb and protected by priests who understand
the significance of them, but they are no longer safe on
Earth. The Mondoshawan vow to return with the stones in
300 years when they will be needed to protect against the
evil that threatens to obliterate the Earth every 5000 years.
300 years later and evil is on it's way. The Mondoshawan's
are returning to Earth with the sacred stones but their
ship is attacked and shot down by another alien race, the
Mangalores, who want the stones to trade for weapons. Now
only the fifth element (Milla Jovovich) can save Earth from
evil. With the help of cabdriver Corben Dallas (Bruce Willis)
she must seek out and return the stones to the tomb before
evil descends upon us.
The
summary:
The
Fifth Element is a Sci-fi spectacular that was heralded
more for it's artistic values than for plot originality.
The bottom line is creativity here and with it's stunning
sets and OTT camp costume design (take a bow Jean-Paul Gautier),
as far as the eyes are concerned, this is nothing short
of breathtaking. The action doesn't let up for a minute,
the whole film becomes one futuristic roller-coaster ride
into the future. So, with the talented Willis and Oldman
on the respective sides of good and evil and the sexy Jovovich,
this is surely a classic for all to see? Not quite. Whilst
I appreciate this film is intended as fun, and is not to
be taken too seriously, there are some glaring flaws that
distract from an otherwise good film. The Sci-fi clichés
are bareable, we can take the laughable aliens and even
the plastic tape on Oldman's head (why?!) but Chris Tucker?
That's asking too much. Even being extremely generous in
my words, Chris Tucker has THE most annoying role seen in
any film to date. Obviously written as a humourous role,
the camp DJ only succeeds in relegating the film down to
average, which is a shame. In truth, this film gets better
the more you see it, so give it that second chance.
As
you would expect with the costume design for Jean-Paul Gautier,
there are vibrant rich colours abound and they all transfer
wonderfully to DVD. The sound is a little disappointing,
but whilst it's not the highlight of the disc, it doesn't
do it much harm. The extras are superior to the region 1
release with a trailer, making-of documentary, cast &
crew and some stills.
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Extras:
*
Trailer - The bewildering
theatrical trailer that told us absolutely nothing about
the movie.
*
Searching For the Fifth Element
- An in depth 'making-of' documentary showing behind the
scenes action, interviews with cast and clips from the film.
An excellent inclusion that prompted us to opt for the region
2 version of this DVD. 22 mins 15 secs.
*
Cast & Crew - The
usual text-based biogs on the cast & crew.
*
Photo Stills / Teaser Trailer -
Hidden on the disc are 4 stills and the teaser trailer from
the film. To access these, go to the main menu, highlight
the chapters icon and press the down arrow. All the highlights
now disappear. Press enter - this will reward you with the
first still. Now press (in order) Left, Right & Up to
view the other stills. Now press Down and the teaser trailer
will start!
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