Another white vest day for Willis!

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2000)

I've always been a great fan of Luc Besson. With his chic Gallic ideas you can be sure that the presentational style of any his films is always going to be interesting.
Leon is my favourite Besson film because it handles a difficult subject with a steady & intelligent hand, while still offering plenty of explosions & gun fights to keep the action fans content.
The 5th Element, however, is more of mixed bag and I do feel he went a little too far with the ingredients - adding far too much visual candy and not enough dialogue & logic. The final outcome is a rather a mismatch of stylish ideas based on a thin storyline foundation.
For Willis, as our 23rd century cab driver turned galactic hero, its just another Die Hard vehicle. As soon as he dons his white vest you just know he's going to be involved in a load of death defying stunts. So there are no radical acting departures for Willis which is a poor start because once we realize this fact everything else becomes a tad predictable.
Milla Jovovich, as the alien visitor Leeloo, does a good job of a rather dysfunctional character. She doesn't have to do very much apart from mumble some alien speech and come over all cutesy and doey eyed when required.

Ian Holm is grossly miscast as the all-knowing priest. You can sometimes see from his body language & facial expressions how uncomfortable he feels with the dialogue & acting he is given. He tries hard to convince but I think he inwardly knows that this film is just plastic pap with a heavy dose of French mustard.
Gary Oldman plays the fascist yet again, hamming it up like there's no tomorrow (which in this particular film is just as well), just like in Besson's earlier film, Leon. Credit where credits due though, he does seem to be enjoying his role more than the others and you're almost guaranteed a good performance from him no matter how poor the script.
Chris Tucker, however, really does ruin this film big style. He is totally OTT and screams & shouts like a little brat not getting his Christmas treats. The film is loud & garrish enough with him having to add to it, but he does so anyway and makes a real hash of everything around him.
On the whole therefore, the film will be remembered more for its special effects than logical storyline. Besson has gone overboard with the $90 million budget,spending at least 95% of it on the sfx and the other 5% on the story, which is a great great shame.
With a more intelligent script and with perhaps James Cameron or Gayle Anne Hurd producing, then I'm sure this film would have been a real blockbuster rather than the hotch potch we have here.

***/*****