Le cinquième élément

Plot synopsis:
The story's premise is that every five thousand years, in conjunction with a planetary arrangement, a 'Great Evil' appears whose purpose is to destroy life. In preparation for the next appearance in 2263, a group of aliens called the Mondoshawan arrive on Earth in 1914 to extract the only weapon capable of defeating the Great Evil, a collection of four stones representing the Classical Elements and the eponymous Fifth Element that conjugates the other four into organic life. After taking the weapons, the Mondoshawans present a key to a priest and tell him to pass the information provoking their mission through future generations in preparation for the Evil's arrival.In 2263, the Great Evil appears and destroys an interplanetary battleship. When the Mondoshawans attempt to deliver the Elements back to Earth, they are ambushed by another alien race, the shape-shifting Mangalores. Earthly scientists are able to recover a portion of the Fifth Element and use a reconstitution device to recreate it, whereupon it takes the form of an apparently human woman named "Leeloo" described as "the perfect being". Leeloo, terrified of her unfamiliar environs, escapes the scientists and arrives in the care of taxi driver Korben Dallas, a former major in the Federated Army's Special Forces. Dallas then delivers her to Priest Vito Cornelius, the current holder of the Mondoshawans' knowledge. Dallas, Cornelius, and his acolyte David help Leeloo recover, though Dallas is forced out of Cornelius' apartment before learning her purpose. Cornelius learns from Leeloo that the four Elements were not carried by the Mondoshawans but instead entrusted to Diva Plavalaguna, a singer currently performing on a luxury space liner at Fhloston Paradise, and that Leeloo must recover the stones from her. Meanwhile, wealthy industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg has attempted to gain the stones as urged by communication with the Great Evil. After learning that the Mangalores' attack on the Mondoshawans was unsuccessful in recovering the stones, Zorg betrays and kills them, whereupon the surviving Mangalores decide to extract revenge and gain the stones for themselves.Dallas is later met at his apartment by his General Munro, who informs him that he has been drafted into the Army in order to travel to meet the Diva, having rigged the annual Gemini Croquette Contest to allow Dallas to win. Their meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Cornelius and Leeloo. Dallas, learning of Leeloo's need, offers to help, but is knocked out by Cornelius, who steals his winning transportation tickets and departs with Leeloo. Dallas accepts the job from General Munro and travels to John F. Kennedy International Airport, intercepting Cornelius, David, and Leeloo before they board their flight, and escorts Leeloo. The Mangalores and Zorg's assistant are rebuffed by the ticketing agent when they try to pose as Dallas. Cornelius instructs David to prepare the temple and then sneaks aboard the passenger spaceplane before it leaves.On the flight, Dallas meets interstellar radio personality Ruby Rhod, who escorts him for being the contest winner. Upon arrival at Fhloston Paradise, Dallas is taken by Ruby to prepare for the show, while Leeloo waits near the Diva's quarters in order to retrieve the stones from her after her performance. The Diva's show is interrupted by the Mangalores, and the Diva is fatally shot. Dallas learns from her dying words that the Diva has hidden the stones inside her body; after she dies, Dallas extracts them, giving them to Ruby to hold as he defeats the Mangalores and saves the rest of the passengers and crew. Leeloo is able to defeat the Mangalores that attempt to ransack the Diva's quarters. Zorg, having flown himself to Fhloston, fights Leeloo at the Diva's quarters, injuring her and forcing her to retreat. This allows him to take the case he believes contains the stones while starting a time bomb. When Dallas goes to recover Leeloo, Zorg finds the case to be empty. Zorg re-enters the liner just as Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius, and Ruby leave it on Zorg's ship. Zorg is able to stop his bomb; but the defeated Mangalores activate another bomb, destroying Zorg and the liner.The four return to the temple on Earth as the Great Evil rushes towards the planet. There, Dallas finds Leeloo disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role, believing that humans will destroy themselves despite her rescue of them. As the protagonists arrange the stones in the temple to form their weapon, they are briefly baffled by their ignorance of the weapon's operation, but discover that each stone is triggered by the presence of the Classical element to which it corresponds. Dallas then convinces Leeloo to perform her role, embraces her, and kisses her. At this, Leeloo releases the weapon's "Divine Light", causing the Great Evil to become a new moon in Earth's orbit. Later, the President and General Munro go to the reconstitution lab to congratulate Dallas on his successful mission, but he and Leeloo are unavailable, despite the president's assertion that he is in a hurry. Viewers then see he and Leeloo are making love in the resurrection chamber.

Tags: murder, cult, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, satire, action, romantic, sci-fi

Review:
Leeloo it seems was genetically manipulated to be the ultimate weapon against pure evil but her beauty and butt-kicking hide a more fragile nature that Dallas and a host of others will have to step up and help her save humanity.This amazing sci-fi adventure from Luc (Leon) Besson has a little something for everyone.
Beauty (the gorgeous Jovovich with orange hair even), action and gun-play, excellent acting, amazing visual effects, romance, creative sets and costume design, dynamic and interesting music and a mildly annoying but funny Chris Tucker.
5th Element is hands down one of the best science fiction films ever.I've seen it many times and always want more.
The story has never been seen before : Good has only one weapon to defeat evil; it is composed of four stones representing the four element (water, earth, fire and air) and a perfect creature.
Bruce Willis (one of the best action actors of our time), Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm and Gary Oldman make the suspense even more intense.
this film is pitched uniquely at those who can laugh at life but who have deep down an unquenchable desire for adventure and the romantic.Set on a futuristic earth, where really nothing has changed except the technology, Bruce Willis is STILL John McLane, a has-been stormtrooper reduced now to driving air-cabs for a living...same old premise for him - nothing's changed much since STRIKING DISTANCE, except maybe the yellow hair-rinse.
As the film progresses she assumes the identitiy of the perfect girl any man would wish for and want to protect.The comedy angle is hysterical, the action sequences in your face, and the fx generally impressive if not mega weird at times.
Luc Besson, a creative genius and the director of classic films such as The Big Blue, Nikita and Leon (The Professional) has returned to the genre that started his filmmaking career, sci-fi.
In The Fifth Element Luc Besson realises his life long ambition to make a film based on a story he thought of while still at school, Zaltman Bleros.
Writing and directing the film, he skillfully mixes humour with action and amazing visual effects that put The Fifth Element in a class of it's own.
Stunning performances are put forward by Milla Jovovich, Bruce Willis, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker and Gary Oldman, who returns to work with Luc Besson after playing Norman Stansfield in Leon.
After making heavy movies like La Femme Nikita and Leon, it is somewhat of a departure for Luc Besson to do this comic, pulp, sci-fi film The Fifth Element.
Willis must join with Holm and Jovovich on a mission to recover the stones and find a way to save the world.A lot of the success lies with the man behind it all, Luc Besson.
Singer Tricky is great as Oldman's "Right Arm" and Mathieu Kassovitz partakes in one of the best scenes in the film when he attempts to mug Willis at his apartment.Even with all its camp and fun, Besson keeps it all grounded in drama as any fantasy tale does.
Beautiful settings, great visual effects, Gary Oldman, the beautiful Jovovich or the funny moments from Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker and Ian Holm.
Luc Besson in front (crazy as a loon but boy can he write scripts) and Willis/Oldman in front.For the day, the special effects were top notch.There a joyful innocence about the film which was rare at the time, and even rarer today.See it once.
I thought it was a very fun movie.THE FIFTH ELEMENT is about an evil force coming to destroy the world.
A priest named Cornelius (Ian Holm) seeks the elements to try to save the world while the military sends a the retired Major Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) to find the elements and stop a bunch of alien bounty hunter-like bad guys and a very evil man (and of course very rich) man who is under the employment of the evil force named Zorg (Gary Oldman).And of course, there is the insane but loved radio DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) who gets trapped in the middle of this whole thing and becomes the comic relief of the movie, even though this movie really does not need comic relief.
Bruce Willis did a great job playing his part, and Milla Jovovich was excellent as the sexy but strong fifth element.The special effects were fantastic.
Korben takes her to the priest she names, but he finds that everyone wants her for one reason or another  then he finds that both the army and the priest need him to go on a mission to reclaim the missing four stones and save the Earth from evil.I have seen this film several times and will usually come back to it if I find myself in the mood  but yet I also find myself thinking of its flaws whenever anyone asks me about it.
Bruce Willis delivers the same, great mocking performance that he tried in Hudson Hawk but here he does it in a film that is better structured and less silly than that one and it works a lot better.
Some of the plot has too many ideas or unnecessary elements but most of it is really good and, combined with mostly good performances and stunning designs and effects make for a film that I will watch many times even if I cannot help but see the weaknesses that many others cannot get past..
It's just like a James Cameron movie, way ahead of its time, well, the 90's.The city with the flying cars, floating Chinese take-out, and cigarettes that have the filter backwards, I love this film!
The worlds and locations in this film are just stunning and beautiful, it's like you wish the world looked like that today, but sadly it doesn't look anything close to what the Fifth Element looked like.Overall, this movie gets a 10/10 for originality, creativity, and stunning visuals.
Last night I watched "The Fifth Element" (1997) written /directed by Luc Besson for the first time - somehow I missed it and not being a huge fan of sci-fi, I did not search for it.
Bruce Willis is as good as ever doing what he does best -fighting the bad guys (ugly scary aliens and very bad Gary Oldman with a hairdo you have to see to believe) and saving not just a hotel or one big city or even the great country but the Life as we know it.
Most sci-fi films try to break new ground with special effects and visual eye candy, but The Fifth Element created a whole new concept in the genre: the art-action science fiction.While this film has many flaws, particularly in the flow of the plot, visually, it surpasses most sci-fi films I have ever seen.
Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, and Ian Holm all produce the necessary passion for their deep characters and the splendid dialog.
The story, the action, and the comedy were very enjoyable; all the more so because they were not ruined by previews.The script writers did not feel it necessary to insult the audiences intelligence by explaining every situation.Chris Tucker got a little annoying, Milla is HOT, what's up with Luke Perry even being credited, and Gary Oldman, of course, plays a delightfully psychotic villain.If nothing else the final fight scene is a must see/hear..
But the skilled Korben Dallas has fallen in love with Leeloo and decides to help her to retrieve the stones.I have just seen "The Fifth Element" maybe for the fourth or fifth time (last time was on 16 February 2002) and I enjoyed this film the same way I did fifteen years ago.
The special effects are excellent; the story if funny and entertaining; Chris Tucker steals the movie with his gay character; Bruce Willis is excellent in action films; and Milla Jovovich is impressively gorgeous.
("The Crow", for instance.)  The regular "theatrical" trailer wasn't much better but it got my interest up.The movie itself was good the first time I saw it but a little hard to understand because of the way some parts were edited.
/ DTS) at high volume!The story is a little bit 'basic' (A mission to save the world)but I still liked it.The characters were good in that they fit into the plot very well but some people may find them "silly" or "stupid".It's probably because they don't "get it".My rating system:* = Dumb -- Forget it.** = I would wait for it on HBO if I were you.*** = Go watch it in the theatre**** = GREAT!
Chris Tucker with his freaky voice, the heavenly Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman plays "Zorg" great and Bruce Willis...what can i say about him...i'm a big fan !
I had sooo many deja-vus while watching THE FIFTH ELEMENT that I gave up trying to guess the hodge-podge of films Luc Besson was "inspired" by.
And it's somewhat sexy but when the Tucker character arrives, the whole sexiness of the movie collapses.Watching Tucker, as effeminate as he is in this film, making out with any women that comes his way was, to my surprise, repulsive.
Though I love Science Fiction, it surely must have more stinker movies than any other genre, the most annoying kind of sci-fi stinker for me is the one that poses all over the place and forgets to include a good story, i.e; The Fifth Element.If you're a Luc Besson fan you'll doubtless love his obsession with style over substance, you'll love his 'hilarious' and 'quirky' character caricatures and you'll go all wet at the 'fabulous' over-the-top wackiness of his story situations.
It's not that I can't like this sort of stuff (the other kind of sci-fi stinker is the way too serious one, like The Phantom Menace) but it's just the way Besson does it, self-consciously smirking to himself, I don't know, maybe its just a French thing.There are good things here, the futuristic cityscape is beautiful, the best since that seen in Bladerunner, and a colorful counterpoint to that film's gloomy vision.
Bruce Willis isn't too bad here, doesn't stretch himself too much but does a decent job of being the straight man amongst all the crazy stuff.On the other hand, Gary Oldman hams wildly as the villain as usual, that joke isn't funny anymore, Chris Tucker - likewise.
So in other words, ifyou love awesome, "Star Wars"ish science fiction movies, watch"The Fifth Element," but if you are also looking for a film withperfect performances as well as effects, try "Star Wars"instead, and avoid "The Fifth.
Speaking of annoying, I don't even need to elaborate on the character of Ruby Rhod, who--by the way--simply walks out of the pyramid at the end of the movie, presumably to a slow, fiery death (there I go filling in the gaps on my own).I'm not a big fan of science fiction anyway, but there are some sci-fi's that I like.
The first third of the film is good and you think it's a decent sci-fi/action movie you'll enjoy.
Such a shame as the character is completely unnecessary to the plot and without his ever present shrill campness that only a teeny mind would find amusing, and then surely for only 60 seconds, the film would be much better.Plus points, Bruce Willis in laconic form, nice glimpses into the future, like the Chinese Takeaway, Milla Jovovich and Ian Holm are also well cast and add to the film..
Even The Phantom Menace has more plot and credibility than this.Europeans like to criticize Americans movies, but when a French director comes up with his version of a Hollywood sci-fi movie, it accomplishes absolutely nothing.It can't be categorized as sci-fi, since the science is as good as a Duck Dodger cartoon, and there lies another problem, since The Fifth Element tries to be funny like the cartoon, but it is not even remotely that.
I'd always had the impression that THE FIFTH ELEMENT had been set in the far flung future which caused by the oft shown clip of the heroine crashing through the taxi roof ( Very similar to the scene in PULP FICTION also starring Bruce Willis ) so imagine my surprise when this movie starts of in the deserts of North Africa in 1914 .
Without doubt the worst performance belongs to Chris Tucker who nearly brings the fim down Like the cast THE FIFTH ELEMENT is very uneven .
This is one wild science-fiction ride that is generally fun to watch until Chris Tucker enters the film near the end.
However, calling Milla Jovovich's character ("Leeloo") a "supreme being" is not only blasphemous but just plain annoying.However, if you enjoy wild effects, strange characters and a very fast-moving, action-packed film you'll like this, even if the story is stupid.Bruce Willis does a nice job with his low-key role of "Korben Dallas," an average type of Joe who drives a cab in futuristic New York City.
Even when the special effects are good the acting is very bad, every actor make his work like a clown, maybe the only one who do some decent work is Bruce Willis.
With a very poor script full of brainless concepts i really can't understand why many people hate Battlefield Earth, when this movies have less science fiction and more stupid things than any other film I ever seen..
This could have been a great sci-fi movie, (and it is as far as great special effects),  but the addition of  ridicule scenes that the director probably tried to pass as funny really make you wonder how Bruce Willis put up to make  this film ($$$ of course).
After Luc Besson's 'The Professional', which is a great film, and after seeing the 'Die Hard Trilogy', which are some of the best movies around, I had high expectations because of the clashing of Bruce Willis and Luc Besson.
Whatever was intended, the visuals overpower everything except Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker, who look like they know eye candy when they see it.***** The Fifth Element (5/7/97) Luc Besson ~ Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Gary Oldman.
Milla Jovovich, more than anyone, makes her mark as a real kind of 'breakthrough' role (i.e. I never really heard of her before the movie and for a while I thought of her as the '5th element' chick in high school).
I would probably take her work in this film over her other Besson collaboration in Joan of Arc, as here she takes herself seriously for what she is, and it still ranks as one of her very best performances so far in her decade long career playing roles like this.The rest of the cast, however, is a bit more hit or miss, though a little more hit than miss.
Terry Gilliams visions are always great as I also loved Brazil and his Monty Python stuff.Bruce Willis is the star of the movie but Milla Jovovich blows everybody off the screen.
There were certainly some things that were really odd to me that don't really warrant explanation, I still scratched my head about, (like what was the deal with Gary Oldman sounding exactly like Billy Bob Thornton>) but ultimately chalked up to eccentricity.There wasn't even anything universally wrong with the script; I thought that it was a very basic, but fun story, and I liked the fact that notorious badass Willis wasn't so much living up to his reputation until we approached the end of the film.
I think the director, Luc Besson (who is himself annoying), made one of the most annoying films in history in "The Fifth Element." The acting, the special effects, the music, all guaranteed to set your teeth on edge.
which has been completely wasted on this ridiculous, woefully misplaced piece of rubbish.Who'd have thought that someone capable of creating a perfectly pitched, wonderfully crafted thriller like 'Leon' could show such an astounding clumsiness in putting together the mess that is the Fifth Element.The sets are just bad, the music is for the most part irritating, and the costumes designed by an over excited Jean-Paul Gaultier add an off-putting campness to a film which never seems to know what it's doing.
Gary Oldman who has some pointless, camp South American accent, overacts his way from one dreadful scene to the next.The only thing that Luc Besson has successfully done is to show, with a painful, two hour blow, that a big budget certainly does not ensure a decent film.Awful from start to finish.
The story is horrible, the music terribly mis-placed, the comedy is just dumb and the characters are lame.Ok, so the "Fifth Element" is this alleged "perfect being" (Milla Jovovich)?
He helps her find Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) to bring the five elements together to defeat the evil.This is a great looking sci-fi movie from director Luc Besson.
(stop doing tripe like Resident "will work for food" Evil films would be a good start).Sci-fi fans will obviously get the point that the support cast features Ian Holm (Alien) and Brion James (Blade Runner), which off sets the annoying and painful turn from Chris Tucker as zany, insecure DJ Ruby Rhod (is Besson having a pop at world DJs here I wonder?).
Well, THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a movie by Luc Besson.
Bruce Willis was ok, but poor Milla what-ever-her-name-is was totaly awful.I believe Chris Rock, oh, I mean Chris Tucker (they are like twins) is in this movie.
Come to think of it, isn't watching Bruce Willis act one of the bad and nasty things in the world?We need movies that do not build to stupid, sappy endings and do not take themselves seriously in that endeavour..
Milla Jovovich is very good-looking in this movie.The special effects are great here.
With plenty of beautiful special effects, sights, sounds, story, perfectly chosen actors and Eric Serra's fitting score, "The Fifth Element" is pure sci-fi fun at the movies, the likes of which haven't been seen in a long time."The Fifth Element" is simply an extravagant tale of good vs.