The Fifth Element (1997) - Review

The Fifth Element, or El Quinto Elemento, to our Spanish friends, is a really stupid movie.  Like one of those 80s rip-offs of Star Wars that tried to recreate the grand space opera style and failed miserably.  But it actually sort of hits a sweet spot here.  It's either so unabashedly ridiculous that it really works, or it's a purposefully stupid movie; either way, the result is pretty fun.

The plot is kind of dumb and convoluted, but it all basically boils down to a fetch questy adventure movie with some zany characters thrown in.  Bruce Willis is great as always, even though he rarely stretches his acting muscles beyond playing Bruce Willis.  A demanding role, to be sure, but somehow he pulls it off.  Milla Jovovich is usually kind of annoying, but she works okay here.  Gary Oldman is in his 90s OTT villain phase, and he's pretty painfully bad.  But the real show-stealer is an incredibly effeminate Chris Tucker, in a rare non Rush Hour performance as a ridiculous talk-show host.  He's hilarious.  Maybe intentionally, maybe not.  But with that hair it'd better be intentional.

Everything else is fairly standard.  The sets all look pretty good for a sci-fi B movie.  There are some pretty cool alien effects, even if it all IS vaguely Star Wars-y.  The movie isn't anything special by any means, but it's one of those films that makes up for any real shortcomings with pure entertainment value.  Only recommended to those who are into campy stuff, though; this has enough cheese to choke those who are unprepared.  But what do you expect from anything with Chris Tucker?