The Fifth Element, 1997

That was the tagline for the original trailers, with a huge 5 decked out in a cross between The Borg and a big shiny condo. But, none-the-less, it worked.

Luc Besson has become a force to be reckoned with. Since his fantastic first mainstream film, La Femme Nikita, to the follow-up (kind of), Leon (The Professional)... Besson showed us a very unique vision. He's written pretty much everything he's directed, along with producing. He's got a great, clean style of directing, with fun parallels that tie the movies together perfectly.

Such is definitely the case with The Fifth Element, which came out in a year (1997) that, unfortunately, it could not compete with the larger productions such as Titanic, MIB, Jurassic Park II, Face/Off, Tomorrow Never Dies... among others. Fifth did not make it into the top ten grossing movies of 1997, but who cares. I certainly don't. I mean, Air Force One was in there, and that is one terrible film. (Shudder)

If you're a comic book fan, a number of influences are apparent in this film. For one, Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, was one of the designers of this film. His work is known far and wide... well respected... essentially he's one of the best in the business, and his style is apparent in everything from the taxi's to the spaceships. Another huge influence was Geof Darrow's and Frank Miller's work on Hard Boiled. The future images on both were very similar, specifically the look of the police officers. Very similar.

Around 1997, Bruce Willis was pretty much in limbo. He'd made it huge after Moonlighting. Then Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkey's, Fifth, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense. But inbetween there are some terrible films in there. Sunset, In Country, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Last Boy Scout, Striking Distance, Color of Night, Four Rooms, Last Man Standing... it goes on and on.

But Willis has such a personality... when he's on, he's on better than most actors out of Hollywood. In this movie, it's no exception. He's got a fantastic sense of humor in this film, and his experience with action films comes off strong. This is, besides Die Hard, my favorite role of his.

From the beginning, I've always enjoyed Gary Oldman's work. I know, I know, the man has been typecast as the bad guy. He will always and forever be the bad guy. And I don't care. I look forward to watching Oldman on the screen. Since Coppola's Dracula, he's been on. True Romance, Romeo is Bleeding, Leon, Lost in Space and the recent Hannibal. He doesn't have as much on screen time in this film as I'd like, but when he is on, he's very charismatic and ruthless. Great work.

Ian Holm. This guy has been around for a super long time, and his work has always been top notch. He's a great character actor, ever since watching him in Alien, Time Bandits, Brazil, Hamlet, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ and what should prove to be a fantastic film (and an incredible role), From Hell, taken from the Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell comic book. He's also starring in the eagerly anticipated live action film Lord of the Rings, playing Bilbo Baggins. He's an incredible actor, and he's always done a brilliant job.

Model turned actress Milla Jovovich (also, significant other to Luc Besson for a little while), she's acted in some pretty neat films including Kuffs, Chaplin, Dazed and Confused, He Got Game, The Messenger (Besson's Joan of Arc film), The Million Dollar Hotel and the soon to be released live action film (from the video game) Resident Evil (directed by Paul Anderson). She was good. She's gorgeous... 'perfect', and played her role as such. Too bad she had to get involved with Besson, which is just what happens on the sets these days... I guess.

This is, by far, Chris Tucker's best role. I have not enjoyed watching him in other films, such as Friday, Dead Presidents, Money Talks, Jackie Brown (the first film I've ever walked out of), or Rush Hour. I think he was more original in this role as Ruby Rhod then he was in his other roles combined. His humor is the strictly recycled type, and it gets old in a hurry... but for this film, he was absolutely brilliant.

The cast is rounded out with some other stars. Brion James (of Blade Runner), Luke Perry (who got a star credit for this film, even though he's only in around four minutes of the movie), Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr. (who has a huge list of credits), and Charlie-Creed Miles. They all did fine jobs in this film, rounding out the cast very nicely.

Eric Serra is one of the better, more original composers for film today. He's worked on all of Besson's films, along with GoldenEye and the soon to be released Rollerball and Femme Fatale (the new De Palma film). It's wonderful music that accompanies the drama, comedy and action perfectly.

Thierry Arbogast, the cinematographer, is an absolute genius. People will disagree with me... I don't care. I think his style of work, his clean, quick style has been showcased in a number of incredible films. He's been with Besson since Nikita, and it's obvious that the two men trust each other with a singular vision. He's worked on other Hollywood films such as She's So Lovely, Wing Commander, Woman on Top and The Dancer... but I think his work is truly spectacular when he's working with a director he believes in, such as Besson.

Arbogast's two new films, Kiss of the Dragon (written by Besson), and Femme Fatale (De Palma) should be wonderfully shot films depicting the solid, clear, clean style that is apparent in The Fifth Element.

You can visit the Official Site from Sony, here.

Over all, this film is incredible. It sounds great, it looks great... but the film is lacking in any special features, which is too bad. I would have loved to see some production shots, some art direction, a commentary, anything extra into the making of this great film. But, alas, no go.

Still, you should have this one.

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