Forensic Science Movie Reviews

The critics were wrong!

THE FIFTH ELEMENT is, in the best sense of the word, a classic 'B' movie, a space opera where a prologue vaguely similar to STARGATE leads to a future Earth where traffic jams occur thirty stories above the ground, humanity is ruled by beefy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., and where the Ultimate Evil is served by everyone's favorite villain, Gary Oldman, sporting a Southern accent! If this DOESN'T convince you that this is a 'popcorn' flick, not to be taken too seriously, there is Chris Tucker, sporting a blond hairdo, as the Galaxy's favorite media personality, promoting himself as he hits on his adoring female fans; Ian Holm, as the monk who knows 'the Secret', forced, despite himself, to become an active participant in the adventure; and some of the most ... ugly alien mercenaries you'll ever see, terrorizing a space resort, until they meet their match in Bruce Willis' 'DIE HARD in Space' protagonist! Yippee-Ki-Yay, indeed!

The FX are astonishing, the comedy, broad and sly, the heroics, macho, and as Leeloo, sent to save Earth, Jovovich manages to be both naive and sexy, with broken English and a gymnast's grace.

Bruce Willis is a joy, as always, to watch, and he carries the film with charm and self-depreciating humor, whether dealing with endless phone calls from his mother, driving his sky taxi recklessly (cabbies change very little in the future!), taking on terrorists single-handed, or falling for the exotic Leeloo. When he blows away a roomful of hostage-holding aliens, then asks, "Does anyone else want to negotiate?", you KNOW Besson picked the right guy for the lead!

If you want Profound Science Fiction, watch 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY again...but if you want to kick back and just have fun, look not further...THE FIFTH ELEMENT delivers!

The critics were wrong!

THE FIFTH ELEMENT is, in the best sense of the word, a classic 'B' movie, a space opera where a prologue vaguely similar to STARGATE leads to a future Earth where traffic jams occur thirty stories above the ground, humanity is ruled by beefy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., and where the Ultimate Evil is served by everyone's favorite villain, Gary Oldman, sporting a Southern accent! If this DOESN'T convince you that this is a 'popcorn' flick, not to be taken too seriously, there is Chris Tucker, sporting a blond hairdo, as the Galaxy's favorite media personality, promoting himself as he hits on his adoring female fans; Ian Holm, as the monk who knows 'the Secret', forced, despite himself, to become an active participant in the adventure; and some of the most ... ugly alien mercenaries you'll ever see, terrorizing a space resort, until they meet their match in Bruce Willis' 'DIE HARD in Space' protagonist! Yippee-Ki-Yay, indeed!

The FX are astonishing, the comedy, broad and sly, the heroics, macho, and as Leeloo, sent to save Earth, Jovovich manages to be both naive and sexy, with broken English and a gymnast's grace.

Bruce Willis is a joy, as always, to watch, and he carries the film with charm and self-depreciating humor, whether dealing with endless phone calls from his mother, driving his sky taxi recklessly (cabbies change very little in the future!), taking on terrorists single-handed, or falling for the exotic Leeloo. When he blows away a roomful of hostage-holding aliens, then asks, "Does anyone else want to negotiate?", you KNOW Besson picked the right guy for the lead!

If you want Profound Science Fiction, watch 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY again...but if you want to kick back and just have fun, look not further...THE FIFTH ELEMENT delivers!

It's not clear whether Max takes his advice or not, but Max seems to solve what the number is, only to be attacked by a number of people that want the number. Eventually he is able to escape from all of these attacks only to succumb to his own insanity.

My Comments:
Two friends highly recommended this movie. As was the case with Donnie Darko, it was described as a 'mind trip'. And, as was the case with Donnie Darko, I think this movie fails to fully realize its potential. Yes, the idea that pretty much everything in the universe can be represented mathematically is cool. Also cool is the idea that perhaps there is a single number that holds the key to unraveling all of the mysteries of the universe. But the story used to explore this idea just doesn't cut it.

The story isn't necessarily full of holes, it just doesn't make much sense. The biggest problem is Max's headaches, if that's what they really are. I'm guessing they are supposed to be hyper-severe migraines that result in him hallucinating at times. Max also seems to be somewhat paranoid, though his paranoia seems to be somewhat based in reality. In the end, the headaches just turn into an excuse to kill Max off without actually dealing with what the consequences would have been if someone had actually discovered the 'almighty number' that solves everything. It was really disappointing and much shallower than I think most people want to believe. Yes, it had potential, but all of that potential rested in Max actually doing something with the information he discovered. Instead, Max takes a drill to his head and kills himself. Whoopee.

I'm sure defenders of the movie will turn around and say, "But consider the budget. They really couldn't do much beyond what they did." Well, that's probably true. But if they had a better story, they could have gotten a better budget.

As for the acting, Sean Gullette was pretty good. Once again, the big problem here is the headaches. Even though Sean Gullette plays a convincing, introverted mathematician, I don't think even he really knew what to do with the headaches. They don't seem to have a basis in reality (i.e., no one has ever had anything like this before), which make them hard to portray convincingly. So, yes, Sean's performance was pretty good, but considering the story didn't make a lot of sense, he didn't have much to work with. The rest of the cast was for the most part bearable, with the exception of Pamela Hart (Marcy Dawson from Lancet Percy). I'm guessing she only has minimal experience acting, because she didn't seem to be doing it in this movie.

Overall, the concept was cool, but the delivery was wanting. The incorporation of the migraines, if that's what they were, was a copout for a story that wasn't going anywhere. Whether this was because of a non-existent budget or a bad story doesn't matter to me. Perhaps I was expecting a real 'mind trip', but what I got was just a dull, throbbing in my temporal lobe. Not recommended.

If you like number patterns buy a book by Wolfram, and if you are interested in religion read the Bible.

Not to mention his increasing drug problems. Then the Kaballah come in. They want a number to unlock theit text. Max finds the number for *both* and finds that he is wanted by both. And his life is at stake. These people will stop at nothing to get the number. Then he does something drastic to make sure no one ever knows...

This independant black and white film is masterfully done. Well acted and well scripted. You will get chills and thrills when watching this movie. The commentary tracks are very informative as well.

See it today!!! NOW!

The interesting stuff in this series has already been said. Go watch T2 again. Leave this turkey on the shelf where it belongs.

I've heard people complain about the ending but I liked it. Not what I thought was going to happen (it also breaks a Hollywood screenwriting rule by taking the fate of the story away from the protagonist/hero--but, hey, we didn't come to see John Connor, did we? So who is the real hero here?).
It also fun to see winks at the earlier films. Arnold's Terminator showing up at a Chippendale's show, the traumatized psychologist from T2 getting traumatized again, etc.
The Terminatrix is coldly beautiful and I hope they actually make a robot like her someday (just don't give her a gigantic Death Star-sized laser cannon for a right arm and we'll get along fine).
Why wasn't Edward Furlough on board for this? He probably STILL looks like a kid.

The DVD is worth seeing for a scene that should've been in the movie: the hilarious "Sgt. Candy Scene." Why was this cut? It would've provided one of the biggest laughs in the movie, as well as explained a few details for the first two movies. Thank God for DVDs.
For everyone quibbling that this isn't up to the first two movies: "Talk to the hand."

Anyway, I defy anyone to show me another 55 year old who is this buffed, this muscular, and this awesome! And in the Terminator movies, what really counts here is the combination of special effects and terrific action sequences, which certainly is where the producers have invested most of the effort, energy, and funding. And while I personally was not as impressed with this effort as I was with the superb production values evident in T-2, there is no doubt that this roller coaster ride of an action flick, which includes an eye-popping and heart-pumping sequence with fire trucks racing through the city streets, will enjoy a wide audience and have a lot of success just based on such pyrotechnics. Yet, having said this, in some ways the only continuity with the first two terminator films is the presence of the big guy himself. In this sense it is less a sequel than it is another episode in the Terminator series, and there is a difference.

The story is set ten years after the closing of the second movie, with John Connor (played here by Nick Stahl) now a young adult living on the margins of society to avoid detection, existing without an apartment, a telephone, or credit cards. He finds himself being hunted by the T-X, the most advanced model of the Terminator series, a prototype designed with cutting-edge capabilities including being disguised as a female. The T-X is superbly underplayed by the fetching Kristana Lokken, being programmed as a murder machine that dispatches anyone it comes across en route to its intended prey, the clever young John Connor. Enter our boy AHNOLD, an obsolete T-101 model originally programmed as a hunter-killer, but now sent back to rescue Conner so he can prevent his murder so he can survive to become the adult who somehow keeps sending Arnold back to rescue him. Got it?

AHNOLD must also save the comely young Kate Brewster, an old friend of John's who The T-101 has been programmed to recognize as an older Conner's future main squeeze. Kate is played well by the ever more attractive Claire Danes, who has a terrific future in the film industry, never mind with young John Connor. So the stage is set for yet another protracted series of uneven battles between the mismatched terminator models, with the T-101 attempting to fend off the T-X while keeping the two youngsters alive in the process. As with the previous movies, there are wonderful one-liners, and some gutter humor that we find ourselves laughing along with despite our better natures. I enjoyed the tongue-in -cheek repartee, which is often witty and funny, and this adds a valuable dimension to this film so often missing from other action-fantasy films. All in all, this is a great evening's entertainment. After all, he told us he'd be back! Enjoy!

The interesting stuff in this series has already been said. Go watch T2 again. Leave this turkey on the shelf where it belongs.

I've heard people complain about the ending but I liked it. Not what I thought was going to happen (it also breaks a Hollywood screenwriting rule by taking the fate of the story away from the protagonist/hero--but, hey, we didn't come to see John Connor, did we? So who is the real hero here?).
It also fun to see winks at the earlier films. Arnold's Terminator showing up at a Chippendale's show, the traumatized psychologist from T2 getting traumatized again, etc.
The Terminatrix is coldly beautiful and I hope they actually make a robot like her someday (just don't give her a gigantic Death Star-sized laser cannon for a right arm and we'll get along fine).
Why wasn't Edward Furlough on board for this? He probably STILL looks like a kid.

The DVD is worth seeing for a scene that should've been in the movie: the hilarious "Sgt. Candy Scene." Why was this cut? It would've provided one of the biggest laughs in the movie, as well as explained a few details for the first two movies. Thank God for DVDs.
For everyone quibbling that this isn't up to the first two movies: "Talk to the hand."

Anyway, I defy anyone to show me another 55 year old who is this buffed, this muscular, and this awesome! And in the Terminator movies, what really counts here is the combination of special effects and terrific action sequences, which certainly is where the producers have invested most of the effort, energy, and funding. And while I personally was not as impressed with this effort as I was with the superb production values evident in T-2, there is no doubt that this roller coaster ride of an action flick, which includes an eye-popping and heart-pumping sequence with fire trucks racing through the city streets, will enjoy a wide audience and have a lot of success just based on such pyrotechnics. Yet, having said this, in some ways the only continuity with the first two terminator films is the presence of the big guy himself. In this sense it is less a sequel than it is another episode in the Terminator series, and there is a difference.

The story is set ten years after the closing of the second movie, with John Connor (played here by Nick Stahl) now a young adult living on the margins of society to avoid detection, existing without an apartment, a telephone, or credit cards. He finds himself being hunted by the T-X, the most advanced model of the Terminator series, a prototype designed with cutting-edge capabilities including being disguised as a female. The T-X is superbly underplayed by the fetching Kristana Lokken, being programmed as a murder machine that dispatches anyone it comes across en route to its intended prey, the clever young John Connor. Enter our boy AHNOLD, an obsolete T-101 model originally programmed as a hunter-killer, but now sent back to rescue Conner so he can prevent his murder so he can survive to become the adult who somehow keeps sending Arnold back to rescue him. Got it?

AHNOLD must also save the comely young Kate Brewster, an old friend of John's who The T-101 has been programmed to recognize as an older Conner's future main squeeze. Kate is played well by the ever more attractive Claire Danes, who has a terrific future in the film industry, never mind with young John Connor. So the stage is set for yet another protracted series of uneven battles between the mismatched terminator models, with the T-101 attempting to fend off the T-X while keeping the two youngsters alive in the process. As with the previous movies, there are wonderful one-liners, and some gutter humor that we find ourselves laughing along with despite our better natures. I enjoyed the tongue-in -cheek repartee, which is often witty and funny, and this adds a valuable dimension to this film so often missing from other action-fantasy films. All in all, this is a great evening's entertainment. After all, he told us he'd be back! Enjoy!