The Fifth Element - Nostalgia Critic

One of the weirdest sci-fi action flicks to say the least. How does Bruce Willis fight off singing Smurfs and women wrapped in lasagna? Nostalgia Critic takes a look at The Fifth Element.

The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film directed by Luc Besson and co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen from a story by Besson. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich.

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[algernoonpapadopoulos]

Ruby Rhod parodied social media stars 10+ years before they were even a thing with astonishing accuracy. Incredible character

[ShadyDoorags]

8:00 "You could cut him out and miss nothing."
Yes and no. You didn't necessarily need a wacky character, but the scene itself plays a purpose. It foreshadows Corbin's expertise in guns as well as his military past.
If you'll notice throughout the movie, Corbin instantly knows how to use every weapon he grabs and he practically never loses his cool during any situation, especially the dangerous ones. This first scene gives you a taste of what's to come later. Corbin easily manipulates a guy pointing a gun at him into disabling the gun himself and has a pull-down shelf full of guns he's collected over time. All of this is brought up directly by the general later in a scene that explains why the military tried to assign Corbin to the mission in the first place, so yeah, you technically don't need the mugging scene, but showing is a lot more fun than telling.

[blackmagician]

Milla Jovovich has a lot of fun facts around this film about her. Like when the director was looking for idea of her costume. Milla suggested her character wore something like bandages for easier surgical implications. As hospitals would usually have patients in open garments for easier access for operations and examination. The process that would die the root of Milla's natural hair went awry. As a result of misuse of chemicals. Her hair ended up mostly falling out. So Jovovich spent the entire filming wearing a wig. And lastly for me to add in. Milla was instructed by the director to speak her lines as one run on sentence. Taking breathing pauses only before and after each line she spoke. Not during. This gave more of a alien expression toward the language she spoke.

[Darkmage]

The 5th Element is the quote "lightning in a bottle", but taken to a Galaxy level. It just IS, it doesn't need an addendum. You grasp the characters and the settings, the generals of politics and such. It literally just vibes it's way through and you believe it because everyone in the setting does. Everything is relatively straightforward and understandable and enjoyable. It's not the movie I cite as "my favorite", but it is one of "my favorites".

[MusicDecomposer]

I know you were only talking about 90s future movies, but Back to the Future 2 is another example of a future that’s actually fun and not dystopian.

[GothicZeek]

The Diva was played by a French Opera singer. My favorite thing, is the reactions everyone has to seeing her on the stage are REAL. The cast was not allowed to see her full costume till then.

[rainylupin]

The opera/fight scene is fantastic. Not only does there need to be more techno opera, but we need more techno opera as soundtracks to fight scenes.

[Cloud-zblw]

I love the blue alien singing. It’s one of the most underrated masterpieces in film history.

[vincentmarcellino]

A lot of awesome 90s sci-fi had one thing in common: They weren't trying to make a classic but instead a fun blockbuster. Turns out that when you're not stressing about trying too hard, you make a classic. Independence Day, Men in Black and this

[milestrombley]

Gary Oldman is really good at his job. He may not like the movie, but he won’t get lazy at his acting skills.

[blackfire]

Personally, I think Doug missed out on a commentary about this. Bruce's character was trying to quit smoking and the method used was number of cigarettes issued for the days' use where the filter for each sequential cigarette gets longer and longer, allowing the smoker to ween themself off the habit. Possibly a very plausible stop-smoking method.

[scarletcroc]

I never really had a problem with the “humanity bad” part towards the end, but hearing you explain it does make me realize that it should have been introduced sooner. Still an amazingly entertaining movie

[ismokemadherb]

I absolutely love this movie, I was hoping you’d do a video on it some day, to EVERYONE at Channel Awesome. Keep up the great content and keep up the awesomeness.

[Somanous]

The Mugger at Corben's door is another French movie director so it also served as a fun cameo for French audiences.
Also, Corben moving too fast in the beginning and too slowly in the end makes perfect sense to me. He is simply learning his lesson and seeing the value in her and thus treating her with more care.

[Macapta]

I haver a soft spot for films that just go for it, like even if the idea isn't fully formed but they just commit 1000% to the concepts.

Like the Chronicles of Riddick, its weird and tonally off, the story isn't particularly fresh but the world it takes place is just taken so seriously. From the characters talking lore and politics to the insane architecture of the Necromongers and their weird but cool religion about descending to another plane of existance.

[bigginsd]

I find it kind of sweet that Milla Jovovich has been married to two film directors and both seemed so obsessed by her that they cast her as a genetically perfect being in completely seperate films.

[jacomaniaassuperdriveminion]

Chris Tucker was amazing in this film.

[santinojoshuatorre]

i remember watching this in the theatre when i was in the 7th grade and absolutely loving it.

written by a teenage boy, you say?

Makes sense.

[jtfbreedlove]

Zorg is one of the few villains that never meets the hero, this is still one of the perfect "mindless background fun noise" movies ever.

[ElonlFFF]

I've seen this movie many times (mostly when I was a kid), but I've never given thought about the stupidity of some things. And even now the stupid and silly moments still don't bother me, for some reason almost every moment and every character in this movie just feel like they belong there, that it is just how the world is, that this is all normal. I feel this movie shows one of the most believable sci-fi worlds without the need of having to explain its history and technologies.