The Fifth Element 

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Brace yourself, because this is going to be one of the few good reviews of "The Fifth Element" that you're likely to read in the near future. After NPR wondered aloud why the movie's special effects budget wasn't spent on cancer research—or something useful—a lot of my more "sophisticated" friends stayed away, fearing something "Ishtar" or "Hudson Hawk"-like. But lemme tellya, they missed a fun one.

Bruce Willis plays a cab driver in the 22nd century who accidentally stumbles on the one supreme, perfect alien who may save the world from an encroaching fireball of evil. Milla Jovovich (as the regenerated alien) has a dangerously playful intensity that makes her the film's wild card. And who can't help but enjoy Gary Oldman, recasting his character in Besson's earlier "The Professional" as a power-addled Euro-trash-looking slimeball with a curiously Southern twang? He's right out of the school of surreal antagonists, but his interplay with the other sets of evil aliens is as fun as some of the darker scenes in "Star Wars."

Of course, this movie ain't "Star Wars." There's far too many ambiguous plot developments, unexplained motives and breasts for this to spawn many action figures. But if you relax and let yourself into Luc Besson's future, the ride is guaranteed to be invigorating. Some scenes are stunners—from Bruce Willis' perpendicular car chase to the DNA regeneration sequence that creates our sublime alien. My favorite scene, one that has a beautiful blue extra-terrestrial opera singer changing from classical to rave music in a post-apocalyptic tense shift, even borrows from "The Godfather." Action-packed and frequently hilarious, I'm left wondering - what the hell are those other critics looking for?

—Ian Williams

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