A great sci-fi action comedy

Rating: 8/10 (4 September 2008)

While this film isn't a master piece it is very entertaining it never takes itself too seriously nor goes it go in for lame jokes or slap stick, the humour comes from the characters and the situations they find themselves in. There is a degree of campness but what would you expect in a film where Jean-Paul Gaultier designed the costumes.
In the prologue, set in 1914, we learn that there is a weapon which is used to protect the Earth from an evil which attacks every five thousand years, when its existence is discovered it is taken away by an alien race for safe keeping, they promise that it will be returned when it is needed. The rest of the film takes place three hundred years later when the evil returns. As promised the aliens return the five elements that make up the weapon, unfortunately they are shot down en route and all that remains are a few cells from the fifth element; a perfect being. Luckily in the future these few cells are enough to recreate the being who turns out to be Leeloo, a red haired girl played by Milla Jovovich. She escapes from the lab and leaps from the skyscraper it is housed in; landing in a taxi driven by Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis). The other four elements, four stone objects, are still missing and are being sought be a priest (Ian Holm) and the evil Zorg (Gary Oldman). The stones are being delivered by another person who will hand them over on another planet in a luxury hotel in orbit. Korbin and Leeloo go there after winning a rigged competition where unfortunately for Korbin he has to hang around with radio personality Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) as part of his "prize".
The film is very stylish and has plenty of action and funny moments, when I first watched it I wasn't impressed with Chris Tucker's character but on later viewing grew to find him quite funny. Gary Oldman was entertainingly over the top as the pantomime villain the other main characters were well played too. It is nice also to see non-CGI monsters that still look good.
If you enjoy science fiction and want to watch some thing that isn't too serious this will is worth watching.