THE FIFTH ELEMENT
A film review by Ferruccio Barletta
Copyright 1997 Ferruccio Barletta
I've just come back from seeing "The Fifth Element". This movie is a perfect example of what happens when Hollywood spends a lot of money on sets and props but doesn't want to waste money on talented writers or actors. This movie really couldn't decide whether it wanted to be an action-adventure movie or a comedy.
The story plodded on for two hours with a lot of scenes that were obviously thrown in so that Bruce Willis could do his "Die Hard in Space" bit. I really liked the Die Hard movies but, throughout the entire film, Willis seemed like he was too bored to really put any effort into it. And his performace was the best one in the movie.
The many attempts at comic relief came across like three stooges bits. They usually elicited groans from the audience rather than laughs. Except for Willis and the girl, every character seemed very cartoon-like. I would not have been the least bit surprised if Roger Rabbit was in one of the scenes. Every single major character was very clearly Good, Evil or incompetent.
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's boring, unimaginative, boring, unexciting, boring, stupid and most of all: BORING! The only positive thing I can say about it is that it has reasonably good music.
This movie might just be bad enough to become a cult classic.
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