the fifth element [1997]

i can't remember if i wrote about this flick before or no. no matter. i have a fondness for this movie for reasons i can't quite fathom myself. i mean, it is pure goofy pulp and the director, i think talented as he is, luc besson, created a mess of of picture. but it is a gorgeous mess. and it stars bruce willis, who i think is an underrated actor, and the fantastically lovely milla jovovich. plus costumes and set designs by a famous fashion designer [i can't remember who at the moment] that bring to mind the costumes and set designs of another sci-fi fantasy, roger vadim's barbarella [1968], and if you love the latter movie your sure to at least like this pic if only for its visual gumption.

if you want more than visuals than i'm afraid besson and co. can't help you. there's nary a plot to be found. rest assured, i looked. jovovich is supposed to be a supreme being, the fifth element, to save the world. what's that you say? oh that's laughter? fine. don't believe jovovich is the supreme being than all you have to do is gaze into her eyes and stare at her manic panic red hair. that'll make a believer out of us all.

still, everyone is game in this pic and i think realize that they are not remaking christopher marlowe. there was something in the air during the late '90s when sci-fi movies were revisions of kind. starship troopers [1997] took robert a heinlein's novel as source material but somehow forgot to add heinlein's fascist state. instead we have a boneheaded action/adventure caper of future soldiers against giant bugs. what little socio-political climate is either placed into the background of the pic, such as the frequent newscasts during the run-time of troopers, or the bald reality of a unisex army where both men and women behave like meatheads wired on meth. the sci-fi movie still hasn't recovered from these intrepid works.

element is a fun time watching all the same. will the world look and behave as it does 250 years from now as this movie suggests? i don't care. i won't be around to judge. but there's something rather visionary about how besson managed to refresh and make new fritz lang's metropolis [1927] with its hi-rise buildings and flying cars. that might be worth a watch of itself.

oh yes, it's april, national poetry month. what am i doing about it? nothing. at all. geof huth writes on his blog he is celebrating international poetry year. let me declare it international poetry span of our lives. why not. we are all in it for the long haul. don't need no stinking month to tell us how central poetry is in our lives. as geof writes: 'poetry is a cupcake.' it's that delicious.