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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 11323
Released: December 10, 1997 |
| Our Price: $6.99 |
| Used Price: $1.00 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley
Description of The Fifth Element:
Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley
The Fifth Element Reviews:
Luc Besson has made so many great films - choose one of those instead 
2008-10-08 - 300 years into the future, aliens bring the Fifth Element, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), to Earth, a supreme being capable of saving humanity from destruction. However, when the aliens are killed, it is up to soldier-turned-cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) to help Leeloo and to protect her from those intent on killing her and bringing about the apocalypse.
It is hard for me to believe that Luc Besson, the man who wrote and directed "Leon - the Professional", one of the best movies that I have ever seen, is also responsible for this uneven, clichéd action movie that never quite decides whether it wants to be a comedy or not. It's not that "The Fifth Element" is a terrible film (I would describe it as mediocre, rather than terrible), it's just that with so much talent involved in the making of this film, it should have been much better. Sure, the special effects are incredible (even more than a decade after the film was made), the action sequences are pretty good (but not fantastic), and some of the jokes are funny, but the film is let down by just about everything else.
Leeloo has no personality at all and I question the message that Besson is trying to send through her character. Early in the film it is set-up that Korben Dallas is looking for the "perfect woman", whom he finds in Leeloo. Except "perfect" as defined by this film is a woman who looks pretty but who can't speak English (or can't speak it well), so is more or less incapable of conversation, who speaks like a child and acts like one too, and who needs to be protected (even though she is capable of punching her way out of an "unbreakable" glass case). Furthermore, the overall message of the film, that "war is bad", although something that I agree with, has been used far too many times and feels tacked on at the end. The villain, played by Gary Oldman, dies far too easily, so viewers are cheated of a decent showdown; and no film has ever been improved by the inclusion of Chris Tucker. In this film, Tucker, with his irritating helium voice, seems completely superfluous, so I wonder why his character was included at all.
Luc Besson has written/written and directed so many great films, including "Leon - the Professional", "Nikita", and "Taxi" (the French version, not the American remake). Watch one of those instead, you'll prefer it.
My First Blu-ray - Thoughts from a former HD DVD person 
2008-10-06 - This is my first Blu-Ray, and while my expectations were somewhat high, especially since I'm a former HD DVD exclusive consumer, they were completely met by this presentation. Granted, I'm already a big fan of this movie, which I consider to potentially be one of my favorites. Despite that, I had heard of the issues with the first round of this movie and I'm pleasantly reporting that the "Remastered" version is as pristine as you could hope for in a late 1990s movie transfered to Blu-ray. Playback was via a brand new Playstation 3 using HDMI 1.3 with deep color and displayed on a Samsung 52" 65F series LCD HDTV.
The sound was high quality and cinema-like on a simple Denon system using the disc's 48khz/16bit 5.1 PCM sound via a Toslink optical audio cable. The early ledge scene was particularly pleasant. It was at that point that I knew this would be one awesome ride.
Like many of you, I was lured by the incredible price cuts that Toshiba made during the pre-2007 Christmas season on HD DVD hardware. No regrets, since the movies I purchased are all of excellent quality with the hardware to match. It's just a shame that some sort of unified standard or dual-format standard could not have been agreed upon. I think the HDM market was really hurt by this.
The death of HD DVD early this year left me with a huge selection of clearance HD DVDs, but that only lasted a couple of months. If you're like me, you were spoiled with HD and could not look back. The void had to be filled and I was too bitter to jump onto Blu-ray. One day while browsing my reactivated Live account, I stumbled upon high def downloads via Live. This is what kept me going throughout summer and satisfied my HD desires. They're mostly 720p, but are very high quality and playback begins within moments on my cable internet connection. The HD TV show selection is fantastic, and you get to keep them forever! I highly recommend the Live service! You don't even need to pay for "Gold" access, the "Silver" membership is free and provides you with the ability to purchase and download all the HD content. I'm also accessing HD content via Timer Warner Cable's HD service, which is lacking but is slowly getting better.
I'm still a bit leery of even Blu-ray, as rumors have it, it may be the last physical format. As highspeed internet access is gaining more mainstream subscribers, understandably some believe high-def downloads are the wave of the future; and certainly Live points to this. Thus, I'm being very discriminate with my high-def purchases, focusing on purchasing only movies that I consider top-notch in visual presentation. No, I'm not going to be buying "The Bucket List" on BR, but "Iron Man" and other such top-notch visual rides would suit very well in a top-notch high def format.
'smy favorite...
2008-10-03 - ... it really is. I have this on 3 different media and this is by far the most enjoyable... the only excuse you need to buy a blu-ray player...
Exactly what I wanted.
2008-09-27 - Great movie, great quality! Perfect companion for my PS3 and HDTV. This movie is definitely in my top ten... it's just plain perfect.
Loved, loved, loved this movie!!
2008-09-27 - Apipoulai!
This movie was great - one of my top five fave's! It's just goofy and far-fetched enough to be addictive, it's got GREAT actors, an interesting plot, and a fantastic soundtrack. I've probably seen the film about 100 times, and it never gets dull. For more information about Leeloo (Milla Jovovich's character) and the language she speaks in the movie, [...]
