Title: The Fifth ElementRating:PG-13
Released:1997
Format: Blu-Ray
Version: A very bare bones edition with no special features at all.
Run Time: 2 Hrs and 2 min
Purchased: I forget, but I think I bought it at Best BuyPrice: Let's say $15
Plot According to imdb.com: Two hundred and fifty years in the future, life as we know it is threatened by the arrival of Evil. Only the fifth element can stop the Evil from extinguishing life, as it tries to do every five thousand years. She is helped by ex-soldier, current-cab-driver, Korben Dallas, who is, in turn, helped by Prince/Arsenio clone, Ruby Rhod. Unfortunately, Evil is being assisted by Mr. Zorg, who seeks to profit from the chaos that Evil will bring, and his alien mercenaries.
Plot According to Allen: Alright so there is this giant ball of evil out in space that is slowly coming towards Earth and the only way to stop it is with these magical stones. In a race for the stones it is Bruce Willis versus Gary Oldman, just try and guess who is the good guy and who is the bad guy (hint: Oldman is the crazy and creepy looking guy.) Along his way Bruce has the lovely Leeloo fall into his life and she becomes the key to the whole saving the earth thing. So really it's a love story.
In all honesty I have always had a soft spot for the Fifth Element. From it's vibrant colors and vivid environments to it's rich history and of course wonderfully simplistic story it really is a perfect movie. It is Sci-Fi enough to satisfy any nerd, action packed Bruce Willis with a dash of a half naked Milla Jovavich for the guys that encapsulates a really beautiful love story for the ladies. Yeah that's right that movie that features Bruce Willis digging through the chest cavity of a blue tentacled singer is a love story.
The action really is minimal in this movie, but it is perfectly timed to keep the pace at perfection. Yes Chris Tucker is annoying as Ruby Rhod but you know what? If the biggest complaint I can come up with is that a minimally used side character is mildly annoying but still entertaining I'm gonna go ahead and let that one slide on Allen's scale of awesomeness.
There is no real debate here - this movie belongs in your movie collection and your collection is not complete until this is there. The only real debate is if you want to have this on Blu-Ray or DVD, and honestly even the bare-bones special feature free version that I have on Blu-Ray is a must own for your Blu-Ray collection though I am a little worried that the good folks at Columbia will try and hit me up for a double dip by releasing a special collector's anniversary deluxe edition with an entire second disc full of awesomeness and a somehow even crisper transfer that will run about $35 just to trick the early purchasers into buying two copies of the same movie.
AND I WILL BUY IT FOR IT WILL BE AMAZING!
Final verdict: 5 out of 5
Another good review, concise and striaghtforawrd. Gotta' disagree with both Melissa Houck's (saw her comment on facebook) and your' opinion of Chris Tucker in this, though. Tucker was spectacular. The filmmakers wanted weird, and they got the best weird performance out of Tucker. The pacing of his performance was perfect, starting out as just kind of weird and culminating in the minute long scream at the climax of the action sequence. This movie without Tucker would be like a PB&J without the jelly.
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