f13.net

Probably the greatest film of all time, right?

I know there have to be some people out there who love it as much as I do, though History has tended to argue otherwise.

Loved the movie as well.

And fuck anybody who didn't.

That pretty much sums it up for me as well. 

Worst. Ending. Ever.

I wouldn't say the greatest, but I do like this type sci-fi film quite a bit. Not to make a straight comparison or anything, but one film I always thought this had similarities with is Total Recall. Both are colorful, and not strictly just sci-fi, but adventure as well.... I wish there were more movies like them.

Best sci-fi movie ever.

You're doing it wrong. The ending is  :heart:.


Well there's always Starship Troopers and Johnny Mnemonic. I don't find that they get the same energy and fun in them though. Starship Troopers is too much of a pisstake, and Johnny Mnemonic is just a genuinely 'B' SF.

I saw Total Recall the first time the other day and was a bit unimpressed. The short story is much better. (Whereas the Johnny Mnemonic short story is godawful)

Love this movie. My favourite moment may very well be the fighting scene while the opera singer performs, but the rest of the movie kicks ass too.

The laserdisc was the reference for audio and color. And then the dvd became the reference for audio and color. And now the blu-ray is the reference for audio and color.

That scene is just perfect.

Count me in the rare few (few-few-few) who likes Johnny Mnemonic. I mean, I can still recognize it's bad, of course.. but the premise and aesthetics are still very cool. Plus, Ice-T and Rollins are pretty good in it.

I watched Total Recall recently too, which is where it dawned on me that there was a similarity. I still like it a lot. Fifth Element is better though.

You forget Dolf! And Dina Meyer!

I love Johnny Mnemonic, but it's mostly with irony. How can you not love Jones, after all. And Keanu's terrible acting is entirely hilarious at one or two points.

Probably one of my top 3 favourite movies.

I too cannot fault this movie in any way and love it unconditionally

You mean the one with Sweaty Willis and the Zombie killing chick ?

Pure Pish.

12 Monkeys was a far better Willis flick. 

First Juno and now this? Looks like we've discovered your hidden weakness.

I liked Juno, and I also love The Fifth Element. Ironwood is just weird :D

I have a terrible memory for movies but The Fifth Element is one of the few that I consistently remember as being a truly incredible movie.  God that was good.  Very few movies are great at everything, it had a great plot, perfect casting, incredible soundtrack, action, humour.  Fuck.

It's great, but never seems to come up in conversation, and I never see it on any top movie lists for some reason.

That reason would be "Chris Tucker".

He fits his role to a fucking T. Who else could have played that character?

It may have been the only movie that I thought Tucker "worked" in. Count me on the list of people who love this movie. Willis is well cast, Oldman is among the best badguy actors ever, and it had both Tiny Lister and Brion James in speaking roles!

Oh, and it had Milla. Which was really all it needed.

That's as maybe but the role itself was entirely pointless and more than a little fucking annoying.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/amongtheomegas/NO_U.jpg)

The Chris Tucker part was originally offered to Prince, but he said no. And yes, Fifth Element is good stuff. I :heart: Luc Besson in general. I just wish he would quit directing kids movies and exec producing Jet Li flicks or whatever, and turn out another movie on the order of Leon or Nikita.

He supposedly wrote a 'Mathilda the Cleaner' script that Natalie Portman thought was brilliant (not that she's an authority, but she was the only one to speak of it publicly) a couple years ago, but it never went anywhere.

Now you're just trolling :-)

12 Monkeys wasn't a Willis flick. It was a flick with people in it. To this day I still don't get why they tapped him for that roll. Shoulda been Kevin Spacey.

12 Monkey was a good Willis flick.

Willis was there to make us assume that there would be a lot of action scenes, and then to contrast his child-like brutality with the psychologically repressed modern world. Willis plays likeable thugs... so he was perfect as the lost and hapless protagonist. Spacey, on the other hand, plays dangerous intellectuals. He would have looked silly behaving with such physical violence, and we would have been disappointed if he didn't actually figure things out by the end.

Agreed. His role in this was why I wanted to see Rush Hour.

I thought the fifth element was  :heart:?  :-P

Seriously, though, the little puzzle with the elements at the end was like something I would have written to end a D&D adventure in 6th grade.

Also for a dude who the movie presents like he's supposed to be some kind of evil genius, the badguy is incredibly, stunningly stupid.

I liked a lot of the other stuff, but the movie just doesn't hold together well for me.

Love it. It rules.

Like I said, you're doing it wrong! The ending is simple and corny and D&D lite. That's the point.

Evil is, as I have heard someone else put it, "a big expanding ball of hot chocolate". Bad guys are grey and have ears. Everyone wears organge plastic. Evil genius has absurd haircut and accent. Milla loves chicken! Bruce freezes the general and the other two and doesn't care. The president is a clueless idiot. The scientists boffins are balding. Everyone is going to save the world, etc, etc.

The point is it funny and fun and good to look at and cheerful. And straightforward. Guy gets girl. The world is saved. Love conquers all, etc.

One of those rare moments I totally agree with lamaros.

12 Monkeys was a Gilliam flick.  Bruce wanted desparately to be in a serious movie where he wasn't some one liner action hero.  Gilliam said, "Sure, but I can't pay you" and Willis said, "OK I'm in".  And that, dear friends, is movie making history.

PS Alien is the best movie ever.  Ten times better for the awesome Director's commentary.

Yes.

Have you seen Angel-A? It's something I missed and still haven't got around to seeing.

I'm with Ingmar. I got to the end of that movie and thought "WTF did I just watch?" It wasn't just the ending, though, it was its inability to combine the elements (no pun intended) of comedy, space opera, action flick, and message movie. It was utter chaos and completely disjointed. From the love for it that I see here I can only conclude that it just wasn't for me.

"The four elements... earth, air, fire, and water.  Together, they combine to form the strong fifth element.  Boron."

Question: You're developing a weapon that is supposed to save the universe, and can only be fired at the thing that is supposed to destroy it.  Do you come up with a trigger that is mindblowingly hard, or one so simple a collection of idiots can figure out how to work the damn thing?

I don't think the badguy was ever supposed to be a supergenious.  Just clever and dedicated to gaining power no matter the costs.  He just happened to be the CEO of some ubercorp.

Chris Kattan.  Harvey Firestein.  Nathan Lane.

n/m.

I guess you just like the movie or you don't.

Those guys would have been pretty funny, but the one thing they lack and that Chris Tucker had is that they couldn't convincingly command and make all of those bimbos swoon, like he did. He manages to be flamboyantly gay and pimp-ish at the same time.

No, haven't seen it. In his defense, some of the stuff he's served as writer/producer for has been pretty worthwhile. Wasabi was awesome, and District B13 was fun. And to fag up this thread with Star Wars, because hey it's me, I understand that Fifth Element prompted Lucas to offer Besson the director's chair for one of the prequels. But Besson said no, because he knew he'd never have any real freedom with the movie. Which is, of course, completely true.

Alright, I'll concede this one.

Your choices were actually just kinda bad.

The role was unreasonable and insane and needed someone not totally ugly. Your list is unreasonable, insane, and pretty ugly, except for where it's totally gay.

In other words, it needed a comedic black guy. Tracy Morgan, if he weighed a shitload less could've done it, probably. The woman cast would've needed to be shorter though. So really, that just leaves Chris Tucker. Ok, Dave Chapelle maybe too, but he wasn't famous enough yet.

In other words, there isn't a white man available for the job. But Heath Ledger could've pulled it off. :why_so_serious: I think he was 16 at the time though.

Tracy Morgan is too stoned-out. I can't think of anyone else that is so... Excitable?

Dave Chapelle could have done it, he does over the top really well, but I think he would have stolen the show?

I was a Luc Besson fan before The Fifth Element, and I was less so afterwards. It's just another corny, mediocre sci-fi flick that benefits from a huge budget and the director's talent.

I first saw it in French in a French cinema. With three children (not mine) in tow. They loved it, because it's a children's movie. Not a film for adults on a messageboard to speak of as the greatest sci-fi flick of all time because, fuck it, it's not.

The guys claiming it was were probably 12-16 when it came out.  That tends to taint one's view of things.

27 at the time. I claim it to be the greatest fun sci-fi popcorn flick of all time. You want to talk serious Sci-fi? Then I'll look at movies like Blade Runner, Dark City, etc.

Fifth Element is essentially a comedy, and thier's nothing wrong with that.

So you join the Ironwood pile of people with terrible taste in movies, then?

Or do you just not understand fun? What's your favourite SF film? Or favourite comedy? Generally you seem a sensible chap but I can't understand anyone who doesn't love Fifth Element, so I'd be interested to see what you prefer.

(I watched part of it in french the other day. Dubbed. Yeah dubbing is enough to ruin anything for you...)


Because people go around saying stuff like "greatest SF film ever" while only having watched it once, 11 years ago, right?

This. I love the Fifth Element though surprisingly I didn't care for it all that much when I first saw it. I think I went in expecting Leon and/or Nikita, and got well...the Fifth Element. Once I put my expectations aside and just let myself have fun I came to love the movie.

BTW, speaking of Dark City, has anyone picked up the director's edition that recently came out? Is it worth it?

This movie has Milla's tits, Oldman Hitler, people being blown to bits, and decent chaps being unjustly frozen to death... How could this be a kid's movie?

See equilibriums thread.

It took you to get to the end to see that?! This was The Last Boyscout set 400 years in the future. Check brain at the door kinda stuff. Metropolis is that away -->

Does anyone really need any other reason? It being a great movie is just a plus. :P

I don't remember if Milla showed her tits in Ultraviolet, but even if she did, theres no way it made up for it.

Good point... MONORAIL?!

Ultraviolet produced projectile vomting in 7 out of 10 lab rats.

In related news, 3 out of 10 lab rats are both blind and deaf.

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/99701/chris%20tucker%20what.jpg)

(Just found this pic, had to post it. Sorry for the resurrect. :P)