The Fifth Element/Le Cinquième Élément (1997) - Besson's cornucopia of colorful space nonsense

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+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year  

Floating star faces, floating cars and a couple of hype review citations adorn this business-primed poster for Luc Besson's The Fifth Element

From ancient times, furtive knowledge of a fifth element has existed. About 200 years into the future in New York City, aliens attack, as a strong man falls in love with a strange girl, who is this mythic fifth element.

The Fifth Element is written by Robert Mark Kamen (Colombiana (2011)) and great French co-writer/director Luc Besson (The Last Combat/Le Dernier Battle (1983)), built on a story that Besson began as a teenager.
An enormous space opera, The Fifth Element is mildly entertaining for a while, although it can seem impossible to get past its explosive lack of brains.The plot feels immaterial and deeply uninteresting to boot. It functions solely as a thin pretext to launch the film's attack on the senses: Infernal, dumb and loud in every possible way, the film's (lack of) style consists of loaning from other eras and throw them together in typically 1990s postmodernist fashion. This makes The Fifth Element a hideously garish monstrosity visually and design-wise; a good version of something similar would be Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990).
The cast sees a cool Bruce Willis (Grand Champion (2002)) team up with Milla Jovovich (Zoolander 2 (2016)), who is good as the weird Leelo; lastly Chris Tucker (Rush Hour (1998)) is noteworthy as the film's most memorable character. Funny or insufferable, his loud character is obviously sculpted on gay stereotypes, but isn't gay, which is a lack of nerve on the part of the filmmakers and a disappointment.
Watching the cartoonish film, which is made with a youthful, boyish enthusiasm and a distaste for streamlining and seriousness, can feel like wacky entertainment or a futile vacuum. I have felt differently about it, watching it on three different occasions.
What is surely commendable about the film is its great special effects, many of which are made with humor, and its spaceship scenes, - in particular those in the city, - which are impressively well-made.

Related posts:

Luc Besson: Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel (co-writer/producer)
Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in Besson's loose grip  (co-writer/producer) District 13/Banlieue 13/B-13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris (co-writer/producer)

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
The Big Blue/Le Grand Bleu (1988) - Besson's ambitious, overlong diving drama

Watch a fan-made trailer for the film here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 264 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.93 times its cost)
[The Fifth Element premiered 7 May (France) and runs 126 minutes. Besson reportedly began the script, when he was 16. Mel Gibson turned down the lead, when the film was developing with a 100 mil. $ price tag, a development that ended in 1992. Willis took a pay cut to make the film happen. It was the most expensive European movie ever made at the time. 80 workers spent 5 months building the New York models needed. Shooting took place in Iceland, Mauritania and the UK, including London, from January - June 1996. Besson was unhappy that primary photography could not take place in France, where there were no studios of the required size. He also left his wife, who plays the singing diva in the film, during shooting, as he fell for Jovovich; the two later married and divorced in 1999. Gaumont spent somewhere between 1-3 mil. $ on the film's lavish Cannes Film Festival premiere, where it was the opening film, a record at the time. It opened #1 to a 17 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weeks in the top 5, the first of which was again #1, grossing 63.8 mil. $ (24.2 % of the total gross). It was the year's highest-grossing at the French box office, selling 7.69 mil. tickets and held the record as the highest-grossing French film until The Intouchables (2011); it sold more than 3 mil. in Germany, and was the 9th highest-grossing film globally of 1997. It made 108k $ in a 2017 re-release. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. It was nominated for one Oscar; Best Sound Editing, which it lost to Titanic. It won a BAFTA award, 3/8 César award nominations and was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Gary Oldman, who plays the film's villain, has later related that he starred in it as a payback for Besson financing his debut as filmmaker, mega-flop Nil by Mouth (1997), and that he "can't bear" to watch The Fifth Element. Besson returned with a commercial for Chanel No. 5 and theatrically with The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), an epic starring Jovovich. Willis returned in Mad about You (1997, TV-series), Bruno the Kid (1996-97) and theatrically in The Jackal (1997). The Fifth Element is fresh at 71 % with a 6.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fifth Element?

Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel

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Liam Neeson is back at odds with some bad guys in Olivier Megaton's Taken 2

 

Our patriarchal hero of the first Taken (2008) movie brings his sad ex-wife and daughter with him to Istanbul, Turkey, where he is soon forced to face that his old enemies still are out to get him.

 

Taken 2 begins alright, even though Famke Janssen (X-Men 2 (2003)) is not a very warm or exciting actress in this type of film. Liam Neeson (Les Misérables (1998)) struggles bravely with the hoodlums, but then the film seems to get stuck right there up until it ends. - The action scenes are too monotonous with countless sequences through narrow streets and bountiful fist fights.

Taken 2 is written by Robert Mark Kamen (Lethal Weapon  3 (1992)) and Luc Besson (Bandidas (2006)) and directed by Olivier Megaton (Colombiana (2011)). Its main problem is that it's a dull sequel to an effective original film.

Listen to the main theme of the movie here

Cost: 43-45 mil. $

Box office: 376.1 mil. $

= Huge hit

[Taken 2 premiered September 7 (France's Deauville American Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. The budget for the film is double that of the first film (22 mil. $), which was proportionally commercially more successful (226.8 mil. $). Filming took place from October 2011 - January 2012 in Istanbul, including the Grand Bazaar, France and in in LA. The film opened #1 with a 49.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another week and spent a total of 5 weeks in the top 5, grossing 139.8 mil. $ (37.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 37.8 mil. $ (10.1 %) and France with 24.4 mil. $ (6.5 %). The film sold more than 3.8 mil. DVDs and Blu-rays in North America, accruing more than 64 mil. $ more there. Taken 2 is rotten at 21 % with a 4.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Taken 2?

Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in wacky venture

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Co-stars Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz look luminous before a setting sun on the poster for Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg's Bandidas

Two curvaceous latino girls rob banks to fight a corrupt American banker's take-over of Mexican land and gold. The pair becomes a trio, when an investigator from New York joins them.

 

Bandidas is written by co-writer/producer Luc Besson (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)) and Robert Mark Kamen (Taken (2008)) and directed by debuting Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (Marco Polo, TV-series (2014), both).
This investigator is played by Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn (2006)), and country musician/actor Dwight Yoakum (Safe Room (2002)) plays a decent villain in the film. However, the center of Bandidas are its two divine stars: Penélope Cruz (Volver (2006)) and Salma Hayek (Frida (2002)), and they are both wonderful to behold and add to a certain entertainment value that the high-paced, outlandish film undeniably has.
Bandidas is a French-Mexican-American co-production made by two debuting Norwegian directors, and it feels roughly as authentic as a Greek kung fu movie.
Bandidas looks like a soft drink commercial throughout and is packed with all the various elements that its main father Besson obviously believes that a 'real' western must have. But the film comes closer to being a colorful and very silly pastiche of the genre than a real entry into it.

 

Related posts:

 

Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Top 10: The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   

Kon-Tiki (2012) - Heyerdahl's great adventure retold wonderfully

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 19.2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.54 times its cost)

[Bandidas was released 18 January (France, Belgium) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place in Mexico, including in Mexico City. The film only had a small limited release in North America with the results kept under wraps. Its biggest markets were Spain with 4.3 mil. $ (22.4 % of the total gross), Mexico with 3.1 mil. $ (16.1 mil. $) and France with 2.9 mil. $ (15.1 %). The film made an estimated additional 8.7 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Rønning returned with Kubisten (2007, short) and theatrically he and Sandberg returned with Max Manus: Man of War/Max Manus (2008). Cruz returned in Volver (2006); Hayek in Ask the Dust (2006). Bandidas is rotten at 56 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bandidas?

District 13/Banlieue 13/B13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris

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A futuristic, composited image with gun-wielding characters makes up this poster for Pierre Morel's District 13

In the near future of 2010, the worst Paris ghetto, district 13, is walled in. A ruthless gangster boss and a 'regular Joe' now come at odds, and a ticking neutron bomb in the district will also have to be handled!

 

District 13 is written by co-writer/producer Luc Besson (Taxi 5 (2018)) and Bibi Naceri (The Code/La Mentale (2002)) and directed by debuting Pierre Morel (The Transporter (2002, cinematographer)).
Conceived after real-life troubles in the lesser Paris suburbs with hundreds of car burnings etcetera, the new thing in Morel's surface-level topical action movie is parkour: The metropolis is run and jumped through dexterously by the athletic leads, while bullets and enemies fly around right and left. It is these acrobatic action aspects of the film which may attract: The (impressively) practically achieved fight and parkour choreography and the film's cinematography by Manuel Teran (Zorro (1990-1991)), which is accomplished with equal measures cartoonish brutality and elegance.
Unfortunately, the cartoonish atmosphere also hangs over the rest of the film. - The plot is a banal idea, and the characters are extremely forgettable. The script is severely lacking. The editing also seems rushed and leave the impression of a half-way cooked action cake.
A sidenote: District 13 has certain homoerotic aspects, in lieu of any heterosexual romance, which is a bit sweet, although it remains strictly platonic.

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 13 mil. €, approximately 14.1 mil. $
Box office: 11.5 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.81 times its cost)

[District 13 was released 10 November (France) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place in Romania, including in Bucharest, and in France. The parkour scenes were reportedly largely done without wires or CGI. The film opened #16 to a 410k $ first weekend in 151 theaters in North America, where it diminished from there, grossing 1.2 mil. $ (10.4 % of the total gross). France was the film's biggest market with 6.9 mil. $ (60 %). South Korea was the 2nd biggest with also 1.2 mil. $ (10.4 %) and North America was the 3rd biggest. Besson and the stars returned with sequel District 13: Ultimatum/D13-U (2009) by another director, and District 13 was remade as Brick Mansions (2014) with Paul Walker. Morel returned with Taken (2008). Cyril Raffaelli (Human Zoo (2009)) returned in Live Free or Die Hard (2007); David Belle (Ultimate Code (2021)) in Un Monde Meilleur (2005, short) and theatrically in Babylon A.D. (2008). District 13 is certified fresh at 80 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of District 13?

The Big Blue/Le Grand Bleu (1988) - Besson's ambitious, overlong diving drama

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An almost hypnotically pretty, original French poster for  Luc Besson's The Big Blue

The Big Blue is a nature-themed romantic drama that was great French director Luc Besson's (Léon: The Professional/Léon (1994)) third feature film, and, despite many people's high praises for it, I find it quite awful. Perhaps they feel so because of the oceanic serenity that it cultivates or the obviously lovely dolphins that are central in the semi-authentic story, but although I am fascinated with ocean life and adore dolphins, it just isn't my cup of tea.

The story concerns two very different boys in Sicily, who become friends due to their common passion for diving. As adults, they compete in the Diving World Championship as well as for a girl.

It starts out really well with B/W-scenes from the boys' childhood. After that, we are asked to stomach an excessive amount of very smug and self-satisfied Jean Reno (The Pink Panther (2006)), and literally hours of extremely good-looking Jean-Marc Barr (Baby Blues (2008)), an at the time 28 year-old man who must have been able to sleep with just about anyone he wanted, playing a man here who doesn't know A THING about women, and seemingly hasn't ever been with one. His acting goes beyond the annoying, as he seems to flirt bizarrely with Reno in countless scenes, and doesn't so much act as differentiate the cuteness with his Bambi-eyes for most of the film, (which gets old with me after about 10 minutes, wherein I fully admit that he's adorable), - whenever he isn't crying, which he also does on more than one occasion in The Big Blue. On top of this, his character, who needs to carry the movie, is morally reprehensible; addicted to extreme diving, the man truly has a very unhealthy preference for fish over people: SPOILER To underline this, at the movie's end he chooses to dive with dolphins in the dead of night instead of taking care of his pregnant, desperate girlfriend...!
The diving scenes seem endless, and they don't come close to balancing with the cliché sex scenes that seem to have found their way into the story for commercial purposes, or in order to justify even more dolphin appearances perhaps.
The awfully overlong film is the result of a script by Besson, Robert Garland (Tootsie (1982)), Marilyn Goldin (Sweet Revenge (1976)), Jacques Mayol - who is the real life basis for the lead Mayol character, - and Marc Perrier (Subway (1985)). It feels a bit as if the 5 writers came up with a huge list of scenes and simply decided never to get rid of a single one.
Rosanna Arquette (Growing Up (2008)) and Barr have the film's main romance, and they are both extremely photogenic here. Arquette in general lights up the picture tremendously, SPOILER although her character's moving from the US to Europe based on an unconsummated fling is another hard-to-believe element in The Big Blue.
 The best thing about the film is probably its photography (by Carlo Varini (The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004))) and the often very beautiful locations. There is also a well-done floating-in-bed-effect towards the end (see a still of it below), and it seems clear that real personal feeling and heart is pumping behind the film. It causes a few laughs, which also helps it from being a complete fluke. 
Finally, though, there's the film's music... Two scores exist for the movie; the original's Éric Serra (The Lady (2011)) European version score and Bill Conti's (Rocky Balboa (2006)) US version. I saw and heard the European version with Serra's score, and I thought it absolutely the worst-sounding 1980s keyboard-dominated, languid aberration that I have ever heard accompany a movie. I find the film an overly self-indulgent, mishandled, tedious, super-sentimental splash.
The Big Blue is included in the French 'Cinéma du look' movement of its time: A more visually striking, referential French wave, which was less reliant on narrative and substance than look and style, which certainly seems true for The Big Blue. The wave was made up of the early films of Besson, Leos Carax (Boy Meets Girl (1984)) and Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva (1981)).

Related posts:

Luc Besson: Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel (co-writer)
Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in Besson's loose grip
District 13/Banlieue 13/B-13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris

How long can you stare at this photo of Jean-Marc Barr's face? 1 minute? 2 minutes? If you answer 168 minutes, then you might enjoy The Big Blue

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. FRF, equaling approximately 14.2 mil. $
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ - North America only
= Uncertainty - but likely a box office success
[The Big Blue premiered 11 May (France) and runs 168 minutes (there also exists in 132 and 118 minute versions.) Filming took place in Peru, Greece, Tennessee, the Virgin Islands and New York, Italy and France, including Paris from June 1987 - ?. The story differs widely from the real lives of Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, who are the inspirations for it. Maiorca considered the film a poor caricature and did not see it publicly in his native Italy until 2001, when Mayol had died from suicide after a bout of depression. The film was a huge hit in France, where 9.1 mil. paid admission and it played for a year; if the ticket prize was 3 $, this would amount to 27.3 mil. $. It was also successful in other European markets, where it has also been re-released several times, but unfortunately the grosses are not made public. It opened #12 to a 1.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where its release was considered unsuccessful. The film was nominated for 8 César Awards (France's Oscar) and won 2. Without a world gross, I can't ascertain the film's theatrical hit/flop status. Besson returned with Nikita/La Femme Nikita (1990). Barr returned in Le Brasier (1991); Reno in La Femme Nikita, and Arquette in a TV movie, a video short and an anthology before she returned to the big screen in Black Rain (1989). The Big Blue is fresh at 62 % with a 5.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Big Blue?