300 years into the future, aliens bring the Fifth Element, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), to Earth, a supreme being capable of saving humanity from destruction. However, when the aliens are killed, it is up to soldier-turned-cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) to help Leeloo and to protect her from those intent on killing her and bringing about the apocalypse.

It is hard for me to believe that Luc Besson, the man who wrote and directed "Leon - the Professional", one of the best movies that I have ever seen, is also responsible for this uneven, clichéd action movie that never quite decides whether it wants to be a comedy or not. It's not that "The Fifth Element" is a terrible film (I would describe it as mediocre, rather than terrible), it's just that with so much talent involved in the making of this film, it should have been much better. Sure, the special effects are incredible (even more than a decade after the film was made), the action sequences are pretty good (but not fantastic), and some of the jokes are funny, but the film is let down by just about everything else.

Leeloo has no personality at all and I question the message that Besson is trying to send through her character. Early in the film it is set-up that Korben Dallas is looking for the "perfect woman", whom he finds in Leeloo. Except "perfect" as defined by this film is a woman who looks pretty but who can't speak English (or can't speak it well), so is more or less incapable of conversation, who speaks like a child and acts like one too, and who needs to be protected (even though she is capable of punching her way out of an "unbreakable" glass case). Furthermore, the overall message of the film, that "war is bad", although something that I agree with, has been used far too many times and feels tacked on at the end. The villain, played by Gary Oldman, dies far too easily, so viewers are cheated of a decent showdown; and no film has ever been improved by the inclusion of Chris Tucker. In this film, Tucker, with his irritating helium voice, seems completely superfluous, so I wonder why his character was included at all.

Luc Besson has written/written and directed so many great films, including "Leon - the Professional", "Nikita", and "Taxi" (the French version, not the American remake). Watch one of those instead, you'll prefer it.

This is my first Blu-Ray, and while my expectations were somewhat high, especially since I'm a former HD DVD exclusive consumer, they were completely met by this presentation. Granted, I'm already a big fan of this movie, which I consider to potentially be one of my favorites. Despite that, I had heard of the issues with the first round of this movie and I'm pleasantly reporting that the "Remastered" version is as pristine as you could hope for in a late 1990s movie transfered to Blu-ray. Playback was via a brand new Playstation 3 using HDMI 1.3 with deep color and displayed on a Samsung 52" 65F series LCD HDTV.

The sound was high quality and cinema-like on a simple Denon system using the disc's 48khz/16bit 5.1 PCM sound via a Toslink optical audio cable. The early ledge scene was particularly pleasant. It was at that point that I knew this would be one awesome ride.

Like many of you, I was lured by the incredible price cuts that Toshiba made during the pre-2007 Christmas season on HD DVD hardware. No regrets, since the movies I purchased are all of excellent quality with the hardware to match. It's just a shame that some sort of unified standard or dual-format standard could not have been agreed upon. I think the HDM market was really hurt by this.

The death of HD DVD early this year left me with a huge selection of clearance HD DVDs, but that only lasted a couple of months. If you're like me, you were spoiled with HD and could not look back. The void had to be filled and I was too bitter to jump onto Blu-ray. One day while browsing my reactivated Live account, I stumbled upon high def downloads via Live. This is what kept me going throughout summer and satisfied my HD desires. They're mostly 720p, but are very high quality and playback begins within moments on my cable internet connection. The HD TV show selection is fantastic, and you get to keep them forever! I highly recommend the Live service! You don't even need to pay for "Gold" access, the "Silver" membership is free and provides you with the ability to purchase and download all the HD content. I'm also accessing HD content via Timer Warner Cable's HD service, which is lacking but is slowly getting better.

I'm still a bit leery of even Blu-ray, as rumors have it, it may be the last physical format. As highspeed internet access is gaining more mainstream subscribers, understandably some believe high-def downloads are the wave of the future; and certainly Live points to this. Thus, I'm being very discriminate with my high-def purchases, focusing on purchasing only movies that I consider top-notch in visual presentation. No, I'm not going to be buying "The Bucket List" on BR, but "Iron Man" and other such top-notch visual rides would suit very well in a top-notch high def format.

... it really is. I have this on 3 different media and this is by far the most enjoyable... the only excuse you need to buy a blu-ray player...

Great movie, great quality! Perfect companion for my PS3 and HDTV. This movie is definitely in my top ten... it's just plain perfect.

Apipoulai!

This movie was great - one of my top five fave's! It's just goofy and far-fetched enough to be addictive, it's got GREAT actors, an interesting plot, and a fantastic soundtrack. I've probably seen the film about 100 times, and it never gets dull. For more information about Leeloo (Milla Jovovich's character) and the language she speaks in the movie, [...]

This has great performances from Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman, and while it's not in the same league as Leon the Professional (also directed by Luc Besson), there's a lot to enjoy here.

WARNING
I'm not reviewing the movie (plenty of those around) but the disc content itself!!! As seen on my Philips 60", 1080i HDTV. And heard on My Polk Audio speakers powered by my Luxmann 400 Watts(RMS) Amp.

-Video- 8/10 Film grain can be seen in wide angle shots
-Sound-(Dolby 5.1)- 9/10 Nice dynamic range. Explosions and gun shots loud. You will want to compress sound for late-night viewing or if your sound system is limited.
-Extras- 2/10 Anecdotal notes at bottom of screen during playback.

I still have the DVD version of this. Why? While the video quality is definitely superior, the sound quality is nearly unacceptable. The audio transfer was mixed at too high of a level, so certain effects (like the loudest pulse in the intro credits) clip at -0dB. I'm not sure how they let this blu-ray out the door.

The movie is otherwise excellent. Sadly, the sound quality on the blu-ray really gets in the way of the experience.

Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50
Running time: 2:05:53
Movie size: 37,710,600,192 bytes
Disc size: 38,946,438,756 bytes
Average video bit rate: 27.88 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (up-converted from 16-bit master) English
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps 16-bit English
DD 5.1 French
Subtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish / Portuguese / Chinese / Thai
Trivia Fact Track

well after purchasing a 58"samsung plasma hdtv, and playstation for the blue ray,,, I had to get the 5th element blue ray as my first purchase. Wondering how much of a difference there would be from the std dvd, I can tell you that it is just beyond words. Now enough people have talked about the movie here so I am not going there, and they mention lots of other movies that "may" be better but one thing is for sure,,, how many times can you really watch 2001 a space od???? This one you can watch over and over again and still find it very entertaining. You just can't seem to get tired of watching it like those "classics". And chris tucker?, no one, and I mean no one could do what he did in this movie, it was just down hill for him after this role. just a must have DVD

"In a word, perfect"

No I am not talking about the perfect being, but about the remastered version of The Fifth Element on blu ray.
The first release was marred by horrible video transfer and sub par audio. The people cried out, and out voices were heard. Sony even offered to exchange the old ones for the better one.
This copy as perfect in every sense of the word. Awesome 1080p video, uncompressed audio, and a great movie.

Bruce willis, milla Jovovich, chris tucker, gary oldman, all do excellent in their parts. But the special effects are MIND BLOWING. I don't agree with the movie critic who called this "the star wars for our generation" when the movie was released in theaters, but it is one of my favorite movies of all times.

If you own a blu ray player, I call this a must buy, blind buy. Meaning that if you have no idea what it is about, it's still a must buy.

I'm a big fan of this movie. I've lost count of how many times I've seen 5th Element. Seeing it in Blue Ray was like seeing it for the first time. There were so many details I never noticed before. A must buy for your collection!

I received it in good condition and in a timely manner. No problemo. Happy with it.

This is a classic sci-fi movie with all the trimmings: great looking actress, tough guy actor, action, adventure, great video and sound effects! And the story is decent to boot. The video and Dolby TrueHD sound track is stunning, one of the better transfers to BD out there. This is a very nice edition to a Blu Ray collection and is a one of the better ways to show-off your home theater system.

NOTE,this review is for the 2007 "Remastered" Blu Ray Disc of The Fifth Element,NOT the 2006 release that's now out of print,the way to tell if it's the Remastered version is the new release says 2007 on the Blu Ray case!!! This 2007 Remastered Blu ray is the one to get because there was problems with the earlier 2006 version!!! This new one has awesome picture and sound that only Blu-ray Disc can deliver,though it's lacking in the extras(just a trivia track and a few trailers)department,a bit of a bummer(so keep your Ultimate Edtion 2-DVD superbit(which is no sloutch either) set if you have it for the extras),but it's still a heck of a Blu Ray Disc!!! Recommended!!! two thumbs up!!! A+

I have started the painful process of replacing some of my standard DVDs with their Blu-Ray equivalents. I have purchased six titles I did not already own in standard format and have experienced a mixed bag of quality. I really wanted to see a really good Blu-Ray example. The Fifth Element was actually the first disk that I thought warranted replacement since I knew that it had outstanding visuals in its standard DVD form and therefore might have the potential to transfer to Blu-Ray very well. I got lucky - with earlier reviewers reporting that there was an earlier blu-ray release that was unremarkable, which reviews I had not read until after I ordered this remastered version, I was thrilled with this version. I have a 4 month old 61" 1080p DLP HDTV with a PS3 as the blu-ray player, so any graininess or poor encoding shows up pretty easily - but this disk is nearly flawless in all of its visuals - only the "extras" come up short on quality - as seems to be typical even in standard DVDs. But this disk's picture is clear as a bell throughout and so is the soundtrack. This contrasts with other blu-ray disks like "Total Recall," "Gattaca," and even "Stargate: Continuum" (although probably the second best disk I have) which seem to be spotty in overall quality. But this one definitely "rocks" visually throughout - I highly recommend it as a demonstration of what the difference between standard and HD can and should be.

A must own movie.

Looks good but not great on Blu-ray, just not the best transfer I've seen.
But still, you have to add it to you Blu-ray list as it still looks much better than the normal DVD version.

So go buy it..........

I've long been a fan of this film. Luc Besson's really got a masterpiece here. Lots of familiar faces here. Chris Tucker's performance is among his best. But, this review isn't so much about the film's content, as it is about the BD presentation.

I saw the first release of this film on BD at a friend's house. It was no better than my copy on DVD. However, in this second spin, Sony stepped up and set the ship in the right direction, going back to the original source material.

With the choice of uncompressed PCM or Dolby TrueHD audio, the sound is every bit as good as it was in the theater originally. The picture, all I can say, is absolutely stunning. This is what I'd call a reference title for showing off BD.

For those who may care, we're playing it on a new Sony BDP-S350 (picked both up yesterday), which is cabled via a monoprice hdmi 1.3 cable to our Onkyo TX-SR606 AV Receiver, and in turn via another monoprice hdmi 1.3 cable to our Samsung LN46A650 tv.

If you like stunning color and cool audio and have the home set up to go with it then get this movie. It is so much better in 1080p.

I have seen this movie at least 20 times over the years. I liked it when it was new and it is one of those few movies I can enjoy again and again once in a while. Could not resist the urge to buy it last night.

Glad the new bluray version looks like it is susposed to- apparently the old version was not as nice from what others say.

I watched it last night on my plasma and thought the movie looked great in 1080p and sounded quite nice as well.

This movie has a great story as far as being creative goes. I get a laugh every time I see Chris Tucker scream like a girl when they are getting shot at in the hotel. This is just a good movie. The special effects were pretty good for the year it came out as well.

We could use a new movie with a great story and a little humor like this one has. One of my favorite movies of all time.

The story is outlandish but that is what makes it so cool. This was money well spent although I wish I had bought it from amazon and saved ten bucks.

I had never seen this film before, but had bought it a while ago. It was sat in my DVD drawer... (Yes I have a DVD drawer) It was constantly calling my name, begging me to stick it in my PS3 and enjoy the ride I had heard so much about. How disappointed was I when I was given a movie, that at times even lost itself when it came to what it was about and how it was meant to present itself. It has been billed as a Sci-Fi, action thriller. At times it became a slapstick comedy and others it became a romance movie set in the future. I'm not sure whether she's cursed, but Milla Jovovich has a knack at appearing in over hyped, yet terrible movies. Need I mention the first two Resident Evil movies or the travesty that was Ultraviolet?

The basic plot outline is that in the year 2214 the very existence of life itself is threatened by Evil. Want to know what evil is? It can only be described as a spherical object that absorbs everything mankind throws at it, and it's growing. The only thing that can stop it is the combination of the four elements along with a person who's the fifth element.(hence the movie name) In this year the fifth element is a woman who's created through the remains of a destroyed spaceship. When she's created she goes on the run and finds herself in the unlikely hands of, you guessed it. Bruce Willis, otherwise known as Korben Dallas. He's going to help her achieve her destiny and save existence. They are faced with obstacles, however, in the form of a money hungry "Art Dealer."

Yes. The plot is that weird. You would have thought that along with the strangeness of the plot it will have created a quirky, but gritty action movie. Instead it became a mess and from one moment to the next it simply didn't know what genre it wanted to belong to. If this was a movie trying to take itself seriously, then it failed. If it was meant to be a comedy then I have to admit it succeeded in making me laugh. Apart from the odd cool action sequence, this movie was simply ridiculous and failed to hold my attention. I struggled through it and I'm wondering who I can write to, to get my time back. I expected better from Bruce Willis and I have to be honest, I didn't expect anything more of Jovovich.

Stay away.

Yes, I called this movie ridiculous, which is one of the reasons why it is so brilliant! Essentially, it's a 23rd century version of "Die Hard" meets "Airplane."

A menagerie of outrageous action with tongue-in-cheek humour that adventure film enthusiasts will find within, many, many verbal and visual spoofs of sci-fi, action and thriller genres and, in each new viewing, is bound to evoke memories of earlier works of each of those genres or movies that they had not seen prior to or between viewings; coupled with stunning and subtle direction, as well as cinematics that were overwhelmingly good for the mid '90's.

Many of the background effects, if not noticed in past viewings, were almost subliminal, but hysterically funny if you watch the movie and pay particular attention to the ambient foley effects of unexpected cartoon-ish sounds in the background. For instance, the cliched female of Eastern Bloc-ish origins, Major Iceborg's truncated militaristic head-nod that has a quiet brief "wsht-wsht" sound for the up and down nod.

It is also propelled by a surprising soundtrack (considering that it's a spoof) with beautiful and evocative operatic, new age and middle eastern music punctuated with neo high-tech rhythms and synthesizers.

Rounding the movie out is the stellar cast. I'm not certain if director Luc Besson incited the group to behave in such a fashion, but the actors masterfully use body, face and hand signals that actually seem to display the core of each CHARACTER as they were portrayed in the final script; each with an extensive array of humour as well as seriousness called for in each scene; Willis's eye rolling, Holm's reluctant hero's stutter, Gary Oldman's sinister leer and a full range of Milla Jovovich's persona, ultra-sexy, tiger-like smouldering glare or that of a vunerable, terrified damsel in distress.

Literally stealing almost each scene he's in, Chris Tucker plays an over-the-top, ultra-wealthy, ultra-vain super-celebrity, complete with eccentric and freakish hair styles and costumes and an ever-present
entourage [...]-kissing yes-men who look only slightly less outlandish.

Even thought his character is clearly a heterosexual womanising narcissist, his voice, dress and behaviours are so effeminate that the incongruity itself -- coupled with Tucker's biting wit, sarcasm and the juvenile, over-indulged whining and puling -- make him even funnier.

So, for all of you viewers who thought it was silly: you were right! It IS silly and rightfully so, but in combination with the amazing effects, direction and score, give it another chance...

To quote the research done by Wilipedia:
"...it was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 in the Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing category, losing to Titanic, but it won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. It was nominated for seven César awards and won three for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design. Visual Effects Society voted The Fifth Element the 50th most influential visual effects of all time."

I love the look of this flim on blu-ray and on a plasma tv. It's such a beautiful film to watch from start to finish because it is so visually STUNNING. The sound is crisp, especially when the Diva sings and I watched this twice through, once with the popups on and that is really cool as you playing the movie, little facts would pop up and tell you about a scene, an actor, or some trivia. So for fans of the film (like I am) its kinda cool to watch the movie that way. But it is also cool just watching and immersing yourself into the film. I swear Luc Besson made this movie with Blu-Ray in mind. And now its only $14?? That is a STEAL at that price.

By the way, I decided not to review the movie itself because I only recommend this purchase to those who have seen the movie, and who are fans, and those of you that own a blu-ray player. I just wanted to base the reiview on the Blu-Ray DVD and this one got tons of extras to explore, but it is worth the purchase just on the visually stunning scenes alone. Do not purchase if you do not have a Plasma or LCD Television. This movie is meant to be seen in 1080p (I would even give you 1080i or 720p, but no lower).

Awesome movie. For VHS this is the best presentation. Widescreen with Dolby surround (if you have Dolby Pro Logic). If you done't have DVD yet, I would recommend this version of the movie only.

Great price and fast shipping. Product was wrapped and perfect, what more is there to say?!

Sci-Fi films generally get a bad rap. Since I've seen a lot of really horrible Sci-Fi films I can understand why. 'The 5th Element' is certainly Sci-Fi cheese in all its hyper-colored optimistically futuristic glory. But what sets 'The 5th Element' apart from the flock is its great character portrayal, wonderful story and great acting performances.

Story-wise, the '5th Element' takes several liberties with its science and technology, which many critics panned, however one must remember that this is Science Fiction. I found the film very charming in its stretches of technology and I had no trouble suspending disbelief.

When 'The 5th Element' first came to Blu Ray it was flawed by a horrible transfer that left the picture very soft and out of focus. Luckily the the studio that brought us the Blu Ray heeded the complaints of many fans mad remastered it. I am happy to say that the remastered version of the '5th Element' Blu Ray is one of the most impressive catalogue transfers I have ever seen. The picture is crisp with an impressive amount of detail. From the pores on skin, the fabric on clothes and the minute details of the film sets, everything literally 'pops' out of your television. The colors are rich and vibrant, blacks are deep and natural. There is a fine amount of film grain that doesn't detract from the picture, however during certain scenes it gets rather noticeable. All in all this remastered Blu Ray breaths new life into this film; this is how the film was supposed to be, and probably how it was presented in the theater. I must say that for a film made in 1997 the special effects don't look too shabby in High Definition (as is the case with quite a few older films). I was really impressed with this Blu Ray and I highly recommend it to fans of the Sci-Fi genre, of this movie, and for Blu Ray owners looking for a stunning presentation of what Blu Ray can really do. Compared side by side to the standard DVD version and the differences really become apparent.

As far as the audio is concerned this Blu Ray comes with PCM 5.1 audio which more than serves the purpose of this film. My surround sound set was buzzing aplenty during action scenes.

Sadly, the '5th Element' comes to Blu Ray with a very bare bones package. The only special features we get are some movie trailers and a Feature Length Trivia track that reveals info about the film while you watch. I would have really liked a commentary track and a making of featurette, but this disc is still well worth the price tag.

Excellent movie made better !

Yes, it is sometimes possible to take perfection
and push it even further, God pemits...
A Keeper for any Collector.

For those of you who have not experienced high-def, in this case Blu-ray, you do not know what you are missing. This film is one of the best references for what high-def can do: sound, color and motion brought together to give the viewer a sense of presence equaled to, and perhaps better, than in a movie theater. As for the film itself, it is one of my favorites, entertaining and mildly engaging, the sort of Saturday afternoon fair I loved as a child only much much better! Don't miss it, better yet own it!

Alright, there are hundreds of 5* reviews on this badboy so no need to re-invent the wheel here. I just want to say that having 2 disks, one for the movie itself and the other for all the extras is brilliant. Even previews are housed on the second disk so you get the original in its pure, unadulterated form right off the bat.

Still the extras are awesome! Of note would have to be the interview with the woman who played "The Diva" a character I always wanted to know more about. Who would have thought she was a weird, semi-narcissistic chick who thought just a wee bit too much of her role in the film? I never would have known had this not been so evident by her interview! Yay!

Brilliant extras have me giving this edition 5 stars. (That and Chris Tucker's hilarious performance, of course!)

This is really annoying! How is a customer supposed to know what people think of a Blu-ray release, when Amazon puts zillions of reviews from the DVD versions on the Blu-ray product pages!?

Amazon, time to clean up this mess. Guess what??
A Blu-ray release of a movie is a different product than the DVD release of the same movie!!!

This movie rocks. you can't beat Chris Tucker's performance. I wacth this over and over.

this film was really beautifull, now with Blu-ray it becomes a work of art. I'm glad to be able to buy Blu-ray DVD's in amazon even from portugal. The only thing that is not so good is the fact that the subtitles are in brasilian insted of being in portuguese. never the less it is great to buy on AMAZON

Amazon tends to blend reviews together- so first let me note I'm talking about the standard DVD Ultimate Edition of the movie.

This is one of the most instantly quotable, most visually memorable, frenetic space operas ever committed to film. I recently re-watched the film with my fiancee. The first thing I noticed was that the film is still as fresh as it was at release- absolutely nothing about the film shows its age (though it's not exactly old anyway). The second was just how consistently good this film is. Both of us were constantly saying, "This next scene is my favorite scene" only to correct that when the next great scene came up, and so on, and so on. The ultimate realization is that virtually every single scene in the film is funny, relevant, and drives the plot forward- and that's what a great film is made of. Seeing "Tiny" Lister in his turn as the President of Earth should be enough of a clue as to just how off-beat and funny this film is.

What do you get in the Ultimate Edition? Not much really. The star of the package is still the film itself. Nothing has been re-edited or re-mastered or re-anything in the film, but then again, nothing at all needed upgraded anyway. There are lots of featurettes, including dissections of all the characters with interviews and even some screen tests (men may want to note the drool-worthy screen tests of Milla Jovovich). A good selection of documentaries are also included, and most notable is the feature talking about the visual design. The sets and futuristic aspects of the film are as much of a character as Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) and crew. "The Visual Element" goes all the way back to the roots of French artist moebius to tell exactly how the designs came about- film students need to give this documentary segment repeated viewings.

Now go out and get this movie! Go! Bzzzz! Bzzz-zzz! (...you need to see this movie)

This movie is just damn fun to watch. Bruce Willis is the typical action hero who is basically unstoppable, and the movie is definitely cheesy at times, but this movie is just an overall fun experience.

I'm very happy with the high quality of the disc. This is one of my favorite films and to see it in such sharpness and clearness was like seeing it for the first time. This is one of many I plan to buy.