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Revisiting The Fifth Element with Sam Sessa · Let's Watch It Again : Film Reviews & Retrospectives

• 00;00;10;24 - 00;00;49;18 Speaker 1 Every 5000 years. Remove the shield when the three planets are in. Eclipse the black hole like a door is open. Evil comes and spreads. Terror and chaos. There's nothing that can stop this. There is only one thing perfect and one achievement in their possession. The only weapon to defeat evil for hours gathered around the earth. 00;00;51;01 - 00;00;59;29 Speaker 2 Here. 00;01;02;28 - 00;01;04;04 Speaker 2 Who are they? 00;01;04;12 - 00;01;30;10 Speaker 1 Hello? Corbett, sweetheart. You got broken because you can't punch my number. I'm a welcome turn at the vigils selected for a mission of the utmost importance. Mission? Save the world is something solid, unbreakable. Good word of the stone. I don't know. And even if I didn't, I wouldn't tell somebody like you. 00;01;31;00 - 00;01;47;08 Speaker 2 There's nowhere else to go. What statement does such? 00;01;47;08 - 00;02;00;15 Speaker 3 So. Thank you for tuning in to a brand new episode of Let's Watch It Again. I'm your host with the most Rob Lee. I don't know if I have the most and it with me as I said in the onset I have Sam says a shout out to saying, how's it going? 00;02;00;15 - 00;02;03;19 Speaker 1 But I'm so excited to be here talking about this movie. Rob Lee. 00;02;04;18 - 00;02;16;06 Speaker 3 This is this is going to be great. And it's funny because when we did the what was it, Terminator two? Yes. I think posed Terminator two. You were like, I love the fifth element. When are we doing that? So now we're here. 00;02;16;24 - 00;02;19;29 Speaker 1 Here we are. Hold on. Hold it. You know, I can do the voice of Ruby Rod. 00;02;19;29 - 00;02;22;21 Speaker 3 Spin it, please. Cobb. 00;02;23;03 - 00;02;26;12 Speaker 1 Dallas. 00;02;26;12 - 00;02;37;22 Speaker 3 Thank you. Thank you. Snaps. It's nice for you that that is that is ten on ten and that was done very well too. And so we're recording this after you did your interactive movie Night. 00;02;37;25 - 00;02;38;27 Speaker 1 A Creative Alliance. Yeah. 00;02;39;01 - 00;02;40;05 Speaker 3 And how did that turn out? 00;02;40;13 - 00;02;52;10 Speaker 1 It was sold out, packed house. Everyone was into it. I've never done one of those before. It was phenomenal. People were so into it. Every time there was a gun shooting scene, you would get out little squirt guns and squirt the crowd. 00;02;52;12 - 00;02;53;05 Speaker 3 Oh, that's great. 00;02;53;05 - 00;03;02;08 Speaker 1 And we were just literally it was like Mystery Science Theater 3000. We're just sitting there riffing on the movie, making fun of it, making jokes, and people were just eating it. It was so much fun. 00;03;02;19 - 00;03;09;02 Speaker 3 That's great. It reminds me of this sort of interactive movie night I went to for the room. 00;03;09;17 - 00;03;10;00 Speaker 1 Okay? 00;03;10;00 - 00;03;24;25 Speaker 3 And it was it was at the trolls and every time it was like this one scene in it. And I didn't know anything about the fandom, right? And I became aware of it from listening to a podcast and they were making fun of it. I was like, No, I need to watch this because they made so much fun of it. 00;03;25;06 - 00;03;46;11 Speaker 3 And it's a scene where you see this lion and the lions prominent in multiple scenes of the painting of a lion. People just throw plastic spoons. That's a part of the fandom. Okay, so I'm like, All right, I need to take this and make that part of what I'm doing. So that's that's great. And in the way that was organized was really fun and just making a statement around just that love of, like, these interactive movie nights. 00;03;46;13 - 00;04;07;14 Speaker 3 Yeah. When me and one of my buddies went there, they handed us these shirts that, like, tuxedos and that sort of thing that's in the movie. And we get spoons when we come in and it's like, all of this is great. Love it. So let's, let's talk about let's talk about the fifth element. I want to talk about the synopses, some of the details because it's 25th anniversary and yeah, we could talk about best scenes and some trivia. 00;04;07;14 - 00;04;07;29 Speaker 3 How does that sound? 00;04;08;00 - 00;04;08;26 Speaker 1 That sounds great. 00;04;09;04 - 00;04;38;08 Speaker 3 All right. Fantastic. So, synopsis, synopses later. And I feel like I want to call this in the 23rd century. A New York City cabbie, Corbett Dallas, played by Bruce Willis, finds the fate of the world in his hands. When Lila Milla Jovovich falls into his cab, literally falls into his cab as the embodiment of the Fifth Element. Lulu needs to combine with the other four elements to keep the approaching great evil from destroying the world. 00;04;38;16 - 00;04;55;18 Speaker 3 Together with Father Vito, Cornelius, Ian home and the zany broadcaster Chris Tucker. Zany Dallas must race against time. That is not good. And and the wicked industrialist ZOG Garrett played by Gary Oldman to save humanity. 00;04;56;01 - 00;05;09;26 Speaker 1 I want to be in the room when they're pitching this movie, because how do you get this greenlit in 1997? How do you get this movie greenlit and how do you get this cast? It's an insane cast. 00;05;09;26 - 00;05;15;23 Speaker 3 So there is a little there's a few things in there. I know specifically about Gary Oldman because he does not jam with this movie. 00;05;15;26 - 00;05;17;02 Speaker 1 He doesn't discuss it anymore. 00;05;17;06 - 00;05;17;24 Speaker 3 Now, if. 00;05;17;24 - 00;05;20;08 Speaker 1 You ask him about this in the interview, he will not respond. 00;05;21;02 - 00;05;45;14 Speaker 3 So talking about the cast, this was a May 9th, 1997 film, and this is written and directed by Luc Besson and I put a special note in here for the costume designer to give the drummer some, if you will. Yes. Jean Paul Gaultier, huge fire. Fire. As you know, I said it in the synopsis Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker and Gary Oldman, a few of the people, but those are kind of the main hitters. 00;05;46;22 - 00;05;56;11 Speaker 3 And so going back before, before I move into kind of some of these other bullet points, if you will, but the synopses kind of get it, you know, since you're your historian for this movie. 00;05;56;11 - 00;06;15;25 Speaker 1 I guess, I mean, honestly, this is a movie where the plot is come second to the spectacle. I mean, I love I love a movie. I love two kinds of movies, one where there's just great world building and movies where they just go for it, even if they know they're not going to get it. You know? And this movie has both of those things. 00;06;16;08 - 00;06;33;01 Speaker 3 Yes. And in I think critically, it had some some weird some weird takes about it. It was people were very split and in extreme sides. And but it didn't made money, but it was also a very expensive movie to make, too. Yes, I believe it was the most expensive European movie made at the time. 00;06;33;02 - 00;06;50;05 Speaker 1 Incredible now. But it made a ton of money in syndication. Yes, it did. It was on cable TV for my child my entire childhood. Like it's like once a week TNT or somebody is doing reruns. You know, you talk about let's watch it again. You can pop into this movie anywhere if you like. Oh, the opera singer scenes coming up. 00;06;50;16 - 00;06;58;16 Speaker 1 Oh, my God. Ruby red screaming something. School is about to happen. Like I love that about this. I can I've been in this movie often chunks probably a hundred times. 00;06;58;18 - 00;07;19;16 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's one of those things where it reminds me because of the timing and this is this is going to come up in later and observations. But at least when I mention it, it's another mid to mid nineties kind of like this is a little later towards the nineties, but let's say mid nineties like tough guy leading actor sort of movie. 00;07;19;16 - 00;07;25;28 Speaker 3 Yeah, it gave me vibes of Judge Dredd or even to a lesser extent, Demolition Man. 00;07;25;28 - 00;07;26;11 Speaker 1 Sure. 00;07;26;18 - 00;07;27;25 Speaker 3 Total Recall. Yes. 00;07;28;11 - 00;07;33;13 Speaker 1 But we're getting a little late. We're getting near the end of that run of like that era of moviemaking. Yeah, right. 00;07;33;15 - 00;07;54;27 Speaker 3 Totally. Absolutely. So so here's some what I like to call the section ratings and reception. Okay. So when I IMDB because, you know, you throw the numbers out there and I've recently added letterbox to this mix because Letterboxd if you're going through it, you can just read the reviews. There's a gold reviews in there. Yeah. So this is a 7.6 movie on IMDB dot com. 00;07;54;27 - 00;07;55;27 Speaker 1 Okay, I can see that. 00;07;55;28 - 00;08;02;05 Speaker 3 That's fair. I'm 3.7 on letterboxd and out of five Google 90% of people dig it. 00;08;02;09 - 00;08;05;26 Speaker 1 Of course they do. Is Google nerds from Google reviews. Yeah. 00;08;06;00 - 00;08;24;08 Speaker 3 Rotten Tomatoes, of which I'm taking the consensus from. So Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 6.4 out of ten. And the the consensus is, is visually inventive and gleefully over-the-top. Luc Besson's The fifth element is a fantastic piece of pop sci fi that never takes itself too seriously. 00;08;24;11 - 00;08;26;06 Speaker 1 Sure. Okay, I'm in. 00;08;26;19 - 00;08;31;08 Speaker 3 Yeah, 6.4 in this funny lowest rating out of that group. But I think that they hit it on the head though. 00;08;31;14 - 00;08;44;17 Speaker 1 Yeah, I would say System of four feels a little low. I feel like it should be like with aim to be in like this. It feels like a C movie, like, you know, like in the critical rating. It's just like nobody's going to give this a ten out of ten. No, no. It was not like, you know us on Google reviews. 00;08;44;20 - 00;08;46;19 Speaker 3 Luc Besson's get it. Ten out of ten. Yeah, he. 00;08;46;19 - 00;08;50;11 Speaker 1 Is. He was in his bag in this movie as great. 00;08;51;21 - 00;09;12;17 Speaker 3 So let's see. Do you want to hit Ibisevic? No. Let's go with trivia. Let's hit trivia first. Okay. I want to do those two trivia. It's I've trimmed this down and tried to, like, organize this in a way that is cohesive and that kind of aligns with things. So Luc Besson wrote this original screenplay when he was in high school. 00;09;13;06 - 00;09;30;21 Speaker 3 He had he conceived the story, the story for this movie, and he invented a world of this movie as a child so he can escape this lonely childhood with you he was experiencing. I get that he began writing the script when he was 16 and it would not be released for another until he was 38. So like 22 years later, my. 00;09;30;21 - 00;09;31;18 Speaker 1 Man sticking with it. 00;09;32;02 - 00;09;33;21 Speaker 3 Persistence is not giving up. 00;09;33;21 - 00;09;38;14 Speaker 1 How many boardrooms was he in before this movie got greenlit? I want to know. I mean, this. 00;09;38;14 - 00;10;02;18 Speaker 3 Is because this is another question I have later out of the movies he's done like he's a net point where La Femme Nikita already came out. Yeah. Professional, which I love already came out. Yeah. So it's like, where you at? And he's kind of been in this lane of trying to tap back into this sort of sci fi story, like, was it the valerian kind of deal that had Mila Kunis in it? 00;10;02;18 - 00;10;03;09 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. 00;10;03;09 - 00;10;04;15 Speaker 3 And that was good. 00;10;04;18 - 00;10;11;07 Speaker 1 Yes, I know. Isn't he also like a in hindsight, a vaguely problematic figure? Like didn't he marry like a 15 year old girl or something? 00;10;11;07 - 00;10;13;25 Speaker 3 Yes, he's a little problematic. Yeah. 00;10;13;28 - 00;10;15;16 Speaker 1 Okay. Right. Anyway, back to the trivia. 00;10;16;11 - 00;10;33;15 Speaker 3 So the he made the hero a cab driver or a taxi driver because his father worked a second job as a taxi driver and he did not he did this to support Luc going through art school. So Luc was a cab driver in almost all of the movies. He always has a cab driver. In all the movies that he does is not to his dead. 00;10;33;16 - 00;10;34;12 Speaker 1 That's great. That's cute. 00;10;34;19 - 00;10;38;18 Speaker 3 Yeah. So did the vine language. Let's let's talk about that a little bit. 00;10;39;03 - 00;10;41;14 Speaker 1 They made it they actually made a language to this. They did. For this. 00;10;41;14 - 00;10;57;10 Speaker 3 Movie. Absolutely, they did. And it was so Mila is already fluent in four languages. He is a polyglot. So she picked up another language. So by the end of this movie, they were able to have four conversations, her and Luc Besson, in this like divine language. 00;10;57;14 - 00;10;59;21 Speaker 1 They were having an affair two or three years. 00;11;01;03 - 00;11;05;12 Speaker 3 And I believe he was engaged to the diva. 00;11;06;05 - 00;11;13;15 Speaker 1 Yeah, they went, they like broke it off. Yeah. Because of the Mila. Yeah. But she, Pamela was also like having an affair with someone else on the set. 00;11;13;20 - 00;11;15;23 Speaker 3 This is wild. Yeah, this. 00;11;15;26 - 00;11;17;29 Speaker 1 This is. I'm sorry if I'm getting ahead. No, no, you're good. 00;11;18;15 - 00;11;24;14 Speaker 3 It's not as bad as some of the stuff that was happening behind the scenes. And like Streetfighter, another review I did. 00;11;24;14 - 00;11;25;11 Speaker 1 Streetfighter. 00;11;25;15 - 00;11;25;29 Speaker 3 Yes. 00;11;26;12 - 00;11;26;27 Speaker 1 Okay. 00;11;27;09 - 00;11;34;19 Speaker 3 Because allegedly, John John Cloud was coked out of his mind and him and Kylie Minogue were having an affair. 00;11;34;27 - 00;11;37;12 Speaker 1 Okay, not super surprising, but sure. Okay. 00;11;37;23 - 00;11;43;21 Speaker 3 So, you know, and he's like, okay, I got to squeeze my muscles. What have you just not shown up to set? And so they had to shoot around him not being in the movie. 00;11;43;21 - 00;11;53;14 Speaker 1 Oh, for real. So that's, that's yeah, that's problematic. But wait, divine language sounds like vaguely Italian, right? Yes, it's kind of Italian. It it is. 00;11;53;14 - 00;12;11;26 Speaker 3 And at a point this this is this shows how good it is in maybe how it relates to some of these languages that it's just like this is kind of a derivative of Latin, these kind of romantic languages, because whenever she's speaking at it, I'm not thrown off. I'm like, Oh yeah, she said that. I don't know what she said, but yeah, I'm in the conversation. 00;12;11;26 - 00;12;13;08 Speaker 3 Yeah, that's what it feels like with it. 00;12;13;08 - 00;12;14;10 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 00;12;15;18 - 00;12;29;22 Speaker 3 So at the time, this was the most expensive movie ever produced outside of Hollywood. The most expensive production in Garment's history. And I like to say it like that. At 80 million U.S. dollars, the visual effects budget of the movie was the highest of all time. 00;12;30;14 - 00;12;39;19 Speaker 1 Can we pause here to talk about the visual effects, please? Okay with you? Yeah. So I have thoughts about this. I feel like the visual effects in this movie are very hit or miss. 00;12;39;19 - 00;12;40;02 Speaker 3 Yes. 00;12;40;06 - 00;13;03;05 Speaker 1 So you have some pretty good kind of set pieces, like the taxi scene where he's on the balcony. You're looking down, you're like, okay, not bad graphics for 1997, right? Absolutely. But but then when they at the end of the movie take their ship into hyperspace or whatever it's called, I mean, it looks like a video game. It goes like Star Wars came out like 15 years before this, y'all, and looked way better than this. 00;13;03;05 - 00;13;03;18 Speaker 3 20. 00;13;03;18 - 00;13;25;26 Speaker 1 Years before. Oh, my God. Yeah, right, right. And and however, the little sparks that assemble on top of the elements, like, you know, I would it's not terrible given that it's 1997. I was like, you guys spent how much money on CGI in 1997? And this is like post T2, which looks, I think at times more real than this thing does. 00;13;26;06 - 00;13;42;01 Speaker 3 Yes. And I think like the practical effects, like dudes in rubber suits, a person in a robot suit, those were kind of like, okay, this is like a blending of something that's anachronistic because, you know, at the beginning and I won't want to talk about that a little bit. 00;13;42;08 - 00;13;42;18 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00;13;42;22 - 00;13;55;07 Speaker 3 Like those feel better than when we get kind of a little too much of the visual effects. It's like the filmmaking approach is a little odd. Agreed. Because you're, you're, they're leaning on that a bit much and they're not up to snuff. And to your point, they're not consistent. 00;13;56;05 - 00;13;58;22 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's all over the map. But the CGI on this. 00;13;58;27 - 00;14;12;13 Speaker 3 Especially in that one scene where they're at the train station before they kind of like train the chase kind of segment sets up. And one of the guys comes there, he's like, I'm Dallas. Corbin is clearly the aliens, and his face is like, it is this pulsating. And I was like, This isn't good. 00;14;13;15 - 00;14;14;14 Speaker 1 No, it's bad. 00;14;15;01 - 00;14;16;22 Speaker 3 Just give him a different mask. It's just. 00;14;16;22 - 00;14;17;03 Speaker 1 Yes. 00;14;18;14 - 00;14;27;05 Speaker 3 So let's see. Even you're gonna love this. Even as Luc Besson went way over budget, he did not allow financiers to come on set. He's like, You can't see anything. 00;14;27;09 - 00;14;31;01 Speaker 1 The bankers are locked out. Everybody's locked out. No studio execs, nobody. 00;14;31;28 - 00;14;52;07 Speaker 3 So Willis ad libbed the line. Look, lady, I only speak two languages, English and bad English. So it's great. It's great, I think. And when Corbin first meets Lila, she starts talking to him and the divine language. Luc Besson didn't tell Bruce Willis. Milla Jovovich just got, let's say so his reactions were real. 00;14;52;08 - 00;14;54;07 Speaker 1 Oh, I love that. I love when filmmakers do that. 00;14;54;07 - 00;15;06;08 Speaker 3 That's great and it's on the back end. It's probably almost like a rub, right? Because in in Die Hard, they didn't tell friggin Hans Gruber that we're going to we're just going to let you fall for real. 00;15;06;08 - 00;15;07;00 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00;15;07;02 - 00;15;20;23 Speaker 3 At the end, yeah. The same thing happens later. The wonder on Bruce Willis, his face. When the diva sings, it's real. He never knew that seeing her in costume. Okay, so when she comes out, it's like, oh, oh, knee pain. Or how they say going for a while. 00;15;20;23 - 00;15;22;05 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a tight shot. Yes. 00;15;22;05 - 00;15;27;02 Speaker 3 Like, Oh, you're not here for this. Yeah. What are we doing again? What movie that I signed up for. 00;15;27;11 - 00;15;27;28 Speaker 1 It's great. 00;15;29;11 - 00;15;30;29 Speaker 3 The movie was supposed to be a trilogy. 00;15;31;26 - 00;15;32;11 Speaker 1 Okay. 00;15;32;20 - 00;15;33;29 Speaker 3 And except it. 00;15;33;29 - 00;15;36;08 Speaker 1 Kind of bombed. Yes. In. 00;15;36;15 - 00;15;53;06 Speaker 3 And Besson had three scripts and condensed it into one, which I think in this this is actually I'm questioning and I'm going to interject right here. Does would this work better as a series like not like a long series, like a mini series? 00;15;53;07 - 00;16;00;28 Speaker 1 Absolutely. Six episodes, Netflix or HBO. I would be on this. Yeah, it could easily be six one hour episodes because because I. 00;16;00;28 - 00;16;13;10 Speaker 3 Think if if you extend it out, you can do some of that worldbuilding a little bit more and kind of like tighten up certain areas. For instance, when you're in the beginning of the movie, I don't remember the beginning. This like in the 1940s I think. 00;16;13;10 - 00;16;19;29 Speaker 1 Was Indiana Jones here? Well, is that Luke Perry? Oh, right, right. Yeah. I was reminded of just how good looking Luke Perry was. 00;16;20;22 - 00;16;21;02 Speaker 3 All right. 00;16;21;07 - 00;16;26;13 Speaker 1 Yes. Oh, my gosh. These like and it's. 00;16;26;21 - 00;16;28;14 Speaker 3 I don't think he's credited in the movie, by the way. 00;16;28;24 - 00;16;34;16 Speaker 1 Luke Perry. Yeah, he is. He gets the credit to be okay, but he's only in it for like, what, 6 minutes, 7 minutes? 00;16;34;27 - 00;16;51;16 Speaker 3 And then you have the friggin robot that's used like later, I believe in think like Star Wars episode one that same like robot setup is used, the gold robot that comes in there with the key. Oh, that same gear, the same technology that frame is used in, like the Phantom Menace. 00;16;51;24 - 00;17;13;26 Speaker 1 Oh, interesting. I thought those you know, I apologize if I'm taking on too many tangents here, but the what they called the Mundo Shamans, she wins manager wins those duck aliens. Yeah. Yeah, right. I mean, it looks like they like that giant space ducks. Okay, robot space ducks. I can't take it seriously. It's hard to take him seriously. 00;17;14;17 - 00;17;15;20 Speaker 3 It's a few of those things. 00;17;15;22 - 00;17;26;10 Speaker 1 How did they come to be such an advanced species? If, a, they move this slowly on foot and have literally no defenses on their starships, be like, was the fifth element like the only weapon that they owned? 00;17;26;27 - 00;17;36;17 Speaker 3 I think so. I think that's all they had because it's literally just waddling. It's like the yeah, I'm going to make a reference to another movie as Batman returns when the penguins like they're real people. 00;17;36;17 - 00;17;37;03 Speaker 1 In those scenes. 00;17;37;06 - 00;17;39;01 Speaker 3 Yeah, that's how slow they're walking. 00;17;39;01 - 00;17;39;19 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00;17;39;22 - 00;17;41;27 Speaker 3 And I say you deserve to get crushed. 00;17;42;07 - 00;17;49;07 Speaker 1 You know? I mean, yeah, like Daffy Duck trapped in Carbonite or something. It's like, what is going on here? Yeah. And it, it's just a. 00;17;49;07 - 00;17;55;28 Speaker 3 Shame because it kind of looks like look kind of cool and it did disturb like the, you know, it really disturbed Luke Perry's car. What is this? 00;17;56;03 - 00;17;56;28 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. 00;17;57;06 - 00;18;12;15 Speaker 3 But yeah, you're not you're not expecting to see that in like I believe it was like 1941 is when that scene is set. But also I think it's going to this notion of like flesh it out into a series, I think that doesn't feel like it doesn't fit in. 00;18;12;15 - 00;18;17;04 Speaker 1 We need backstory. Yeah, we need backstory to the backstory. We need a little bit more alien backstory from them. 00;18;17;05 - 00;18;34;09 Speaker 3 Yeah, because if you're looking at that, it doesn't really connect to anything really well in the future. You kind of have this lazy sort of this many years and this indefinite period in the future where this greed prophecy dot, dot, dot, that's when it starts. That's me sort of thing. Like, I don't really care. 00;18;34;19 - 00;18;35;25 Speaker 1 About this here. 00;18;35;26 - 00;18;36;09 Speaker 3 At all. 00;18;36;20 - 00;18;50;02 Speaker 1 Because by the time we get back to that setting, yeah, I've kind of forgotten about what happened in the beginning right? I'm like, Oh, I was supposed to remember that they took these little rocks out of the pyramid that they were raiding or whatever. Like what? Yeah, it's hard to make that connection. 00;18;50;13 - 00;19;09;07 Speaker 3 So I think if there were like, to your point, like, you know, six episode kind of Netflix, Hulu, whatever, it would work and that budget wouldn't feel as crazy because you're looking at like, you see like a Game of Thrones or something along those lines. It's like this is a 30 minute episode. So, you know, it could work. 00;19;09;07 - 00;19;10;29 Speaker 3 It could be it could be worthy of a reboot, maybe. 00;19;10;29 - 00;19;17;17 Speaker 1 Totally. Also, note one one of those space ducks gets trapped in the pyramid. 00;19;17;17 - 00;19;18;16 Speaker 3 Those duck dodgers going. 00;19;19;03 - 00;19;30;21 Speaker 1 To get stuck in the temple. Right. Gets shut in, locked in. Why isn't that thing still there when they open it up in the future rule? What happened to that disintegration? Somebody beat space metal. 00;19;30;21 - 00;19;33;00 Speaker 3 Space metal. I don't know. Yeah. Okay, go. 00;19;33;00 - 00;19;33;14 Speaker 1 On. Go on. 00;19;33;14 - 00;19;36;22 Speaker 3 Please. I recently watched A Predator, so everything just explodes from. 00;19;36;22 - 00;19;38;27 Speaker 1 Oh, okay, that's fine. It was self-destruct mode. 00;19;38;27 - 00;20;00;05 Speaker 3 Yes, absolutely. It is a this I was going to say his goose is cooked. He's going to duck. So it doesn't work. It doesn't work. That's quite work. So initially conceived to be a trilogy according to the Ultimate Edition DVD. Now, you're going to love this. I think Prince and Michael Jackson were sources for inspiration for Ruby Rod and both were considered for the role. 00;20;00;05 - 00;20;01;17 Speaker 3 But Prince was the first choice. 00;20;02;04 - 00;20;19;20 Speaker 1 Oh, I've heard this. Yes, yes. Can you proceed? Here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. It would not have been as good with Prince. No. As Ruby Rod. He would have taken himself way too seriously, know he would not have gone for it in the same way that, like young hungry Chris Tucker went for it. Chris Tucker This was the archetype for Chris Tucker. 00;20;19;20 - 00;20;38;21 Speaker 1 For every role that came after. For Chris Tucker for like what, five years? Yeah. Like he was basically playing a more toned down version of this character in rush hour in like the whole, like the eyeballs that just bulge out of his head, you know, the high pitched screams, the eyes getting really excited by that. But that was Chris Tucker's thing. 00;20;38;21 - 00;20;58;24 Speaker 1 And he's like, what, 21 in this movie or something? And I don't know how I think of all the actors that they tried and got on this movie. I understand, like Gary Oldman, Bruce Willis, like, whoa, okay, great big scores for you guys. But like convincing a no name at the time actor Chris Tucker to dress up in is a drag. 00;20;58;24 - 00;20;59;08 Speaker 1 I don't know what. 00;20;59;08 - 00;21;06;13 Speaker 3 Is kind of dry. He's a he's in super androgynous in the future so that's a whole then have things come back. It came back several times. 00;21;06;19 - 00;21;17;22 Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah. To dress up like that, to act like that, to talk like that, to scream all the time. Like, how do you get someone to do all these things? I'm very impressed by that. Yeah. And looking at the. 00;21;17;22 - 00;21;31;27 Speaker 3 Timeline, right, there is a funny observation I have for you later that I think you're going to enjoy. But this is this is coming two years after like he probably read the scripts of around the same time they did for this. And Friday. Oh, wow. It's Friday is only five. 00;21;31;28 - 00;21;32;14 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00;21;32;14 - 00;21;38;29 Speaker 3 So this is after Friday, but I think in the same year's rush hour. Okay. So this is like kind of that are like the initial rush hour movie. 00;21;39;07 - 00;21;43;04 Speaker 1 Chris Tucker, he steals every scene he's in. Yeah. And he's only in it for. 00;21;43;04 - 00;21;51;05 Speaker 3 Like that nice little chunk of the movie when they're which I forget when they're on the boat. I was like, Oh, this isn't a spaceship. Those literally were my mind when. 00;21;51;05 - 00;21;57;10 Speaker 1 Yes, like, what's that like an hour into the movie when he comes in, like, it's we're deep into it at that point. Yes. 00;21;57;10 - 00;22;11;04 Speaker 3 I'm still see, Jean Paul Gaultier personally checked the costumes of 500 extras used in one scene, just like, look, you're not showing my threads wrong. No, this is going to be right. 00;22;11;15 - 00;22;12;24 Speaker 1 JPG Initials. 00;22;13;03 - 00;22;15;17 Speaker 3 It's like everyone has to smell like this. He's just pretending. 00;22;15;17 - 00;22;17;15 Speaker 1 Everyone is. 00;22;17;16 - 00;22;33;11 Speaker 3 Credible. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that this movie has is really cool. It is. It's like Luc Besson is calling in favors, but also the the esthetic for it, the color layout, all of those things is very distinct and I believe it really works. 00;22;34;01 - 00;22;53;25 Speaker 1 Absolutely. Every time you see like Ruby Rod or even Bruce Willis or I mean, those costumes are iconic. How many movies from the mid nineties came out and had such a distinct look that you can buy not one, not two, not three, but like four different Halloween costumes from now. Yeah. And were considered to be flops at the time. 00;22;53;27 - 00;22;54;06 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00;22;54;08 - 00;23;02;08 Speaker 3 Like the Lulu costume is the one that you know Pops but I think she has like two of them though. Yeah. The all white bands and the one with the and. 00;23;02;11 - 00;23;04;11 Speaker 1 The tank top. Yeah, the white tank top. Yeah. 00;23;04;11 - 00;23;05;28 Speaker 3 With the, the orange. Yeah. 00;23;06;06 - 00;23;09;11 Speaker 1 And you've got Ruby Rod which I now own. 00;23;10;10 - 00;23;10;29 Speaker 3 Yes you do. 00;23;11;11 - 00;23;17;26 Speaker 1 I'm going as Ruby Rod for Halloween. Yes you should. And you can also get Corbin Dallas outfit. Yeah. At least one. 00;23;18;11 - 00;23;31;22 Speaker 3 I will say Tommy Lester's did not fit at all. He's he's a he was a oke of a man. His his that outfit. No, no. Whenever I watch a movie, I'm like, who's the biggest guy in it? And how can I steal their costume? And I was like, I don't think it's going to work. 00;23;31;23 - 00;23;32;28 Speaker 1 Yeah, no, that was weird. 00;23;33;05 - 00;23;39;13 Speaker 3 No. JPG Sorry. So Mila beat out 3000 other actors who auditioned for the role? 00;23;39;13 - 00;23;53;12 Speaker 1 Lily Lu Someone sat through 3000 auditions for that. Oh, my God. Yeah, they're Muppets because it's a passion project. Absolutely. So he was probably like, it has to be. Is it perfect? Is the poor thing, is his life. Yeah. 00;23;53;12 - 00;23;57;07 Speaker 3 And she was only 22, by the way. Wow. Yeah. So she's a child as well. 00;23;57;08 - 00;23;57;19 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00;23;58;17 - 00;24;04;04 Speaker 3 Now, this is really interesting for me. John Renaud was originally the choice for Corbin Dallas. 00;24;04;22 - 00;24;05;11 Speaker 1 Really? 00;24;05;11 - 00;24;07;03 Speaker 3 Yes. It's just a French movie now. 00;24;07;05 - 00;24;09;11 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a very different movie if that happens. 00;24;09;11 - 00;24;13;15 Speaker 3 Okay, that's post the professional would be Gary Oldman. 00;24;13;19 - 00;24;19;02 Speaker 1 You know, I guess I mean, my first thought was maybe he's too old for that. But the preschools was around the same age at the time. 00;24;19;02 - 00;24;24;01 Speaker 3 I think he's I think Bruce Willis is a little younger, but, you know, both unfortunate hairlines so yeah it. 00;24;24;01 - 00;24;26;16 Speaker 1 Was Bruce Willis is here in this movie is tragic. 00;24;27;00 - 00;24;31;16 Speaker 3 Because it's not his and it's not good but him him is blond it works. 00;24;31;22 - 00;24;32;28 Speaker 1 Yes, it does. Yeah. 00;24;33;25 - 00;24;42;24 Speaker 3 Uh, let's see. So this is a really interesting, weirdly interesting thing. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker and Gary Oldman are all left handed. 00;24;43;10 - 00;24;43;20 Speaker 1 Hmm. 00;24;44;08 - 00;24;44;16 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00;24;45;06 - 00;24;47;09 Speaker 1 I think that was part of the audition process, I'm sure. 00;24;47;09 - 00;24;59;20 Speaker 3 So, yeah. Like, what are you going to pick this up with? With hand? Are you going with. You can't be. It's just the. So what happened was Luc Besson brought in 2999 audition that were all right handed just to get to Milla. 00;25;00;13 - 00;25;02;21 Speaker 1 Must be left handed. 00;25;02;21 - 00;25;07;22 Speaker 3 So Corbin Dallas in the villain John Bettis Emmanuel ZOG how French is that name. 00;25;07;22 - 00;25;09;25 Speaker 1 It's great until you get to Zurich. 00;25;10;07 - 00;25;15;14 Speaker 3 It this is it's just you're an alien. You're you're you're from a long line of dogs. 00;25;15;14 - 00;25;17;06 Speaker 1 Yeah. Prowl a prowl line. 00;25;17;06 - 00;25;39;25 Speaker 3 The problem is, August, they never meet in they never communicate in any way. They are aware of each other. Zorc continues to work for his company and ZOG knew that Corbin won the contest, but they are unaware of each other's involvement in the main plot. Getting the stones. The only time that they appear in the same scene with each other is at the end when Corbin flees towards flagstones. 00;25;39;25 - 00;25;47;11 Speaker 3 Hotel hanger while Zig is just returning from it and they pass and they kind of look at each other. But that's it. Just a couple of frames together. 00;25;47;11 - 00;25;51;05 Speaker 1 I love that. I love that they don't even need to be in the same room at the same time. 00;25;51;29 - 00;25;55;19 Speaker 3 They're able to, in some instances for Gary Oldman, just shoot scenery. 00;25;56;07 - 00;26;08;09 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's he's also he's such a great actor that you can just go tight on his face and like that blood starts dripping down his forehead and you're like, what is going on? That, that, that one thing. 00;26;08;13 - 00;26;20;18 Speaker 3 District is I think it happens twice. It happens to Zawe, but it happens early in the movie when they realize it's a super threat or what have you. And yeah, I say this is gross, but also that is marmalade. 00;26;20;22 - 00;26;22;18 Speaker 1 And it's not blood. It's clearly not. 00;26;22;18 - 00;26;40;07 Speaker 3 Blood. Can I get a biscuit or something? And it's gone. It's gone because you're right. Lastly, Luc Besson stated in several sources, among them his own production diary, that the fifth element is a representation of love, life, art, and the fifth element is the symbol of life. 00;26;40;14 - 00;26;57;03 Speaker 1 Can we just give a quick time check? Because I want to know if Captain Planet came before or after this movie, because if it. I understand Luc wrote this when he was a kid, but I find it just a little too coincidental that earth, air, water, fire, and then heart. 00;26;58;03 - 00;27;17;29 Speaker 3 And I can say this one, Captain Planet was was was before in term, but I don't know when it was initially written. However, we're recording this right on the 21st of September. So it's Little Earth, Wind and Fire that could kind of like fall into this area. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Try to deadpan it as much as I could. 00;27;18;06 - 00;27;26;29 Speaker 3 Oh, Glasgow dead band. A shout out on that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. 00;27;26;29 - 00;27;29;17 Speaker 1 So I'm a one too. 00;27;30;00 - 00;27;56;27 Speaker 3 So I'm going to go on to observations and questions and then we'll keep an eye on like one fix and what works, what doesn't work. Then we wrap up on some favorite scenes. So I want to talk about some observations and you know, feel free to kind of throw in here. But one of the observations and I kind of touched on a little bit earlier is this movie more of a spiritual sequel, speaking the same language of a demolition man or Judge Dredd. 00;27;56;27 - 00;28;11;10 Speaker 3 And I think to an extent total recall. Which which one do you think if there were two pack right were back in DVD land. Right. Yeah. Or if we're watching two movies, double play, what is the accompanying movie with this one. 00;28;11;19 - 00;28;31;16 Speaker 1 I'm going. I'm going. If I'm in Blockbuster in 1999, I'm going for this. I'm going for a total recall. Okay. Because they both are, you know, Space Odyssey's world building. We really kind of don't know what's going on for a good chunk of it. Yeah, I get that total recall is like, just like. Can I believe the narrator at all. 00;28;31;16 - 00;28;47;05 Speaker 1 Yeah. Versus this is like, yes, you can believe him. This is coherence actually happening. But I think they're just both so far out there that if I'm doing a if I'm doing a night of just weird assed sci fi from the nineties, like I'm going for those two movies as my point. Where are you at on this? 00;28;47;05 - 00;29;10;22 Speaker 3 I'm I'm going to go with this in Demolition Man, because there is a fair amount of quirkiness that, you know, I don't understand. The three seashells in Demolition Man. Yes. So I kind of like that. And you have this like I know that Bruce Willis, his character, is of that time, but he's played like he doesn't fit in, which is very similar to John Spartan. 00;29;10;22 - 00;29;12;01 Speaker 1 Totally. You're totally right. 00;29;12;01 - 00;29;14;05 Speaker 3 I don't remember the name. I just pulled it out. John Spartan. 00;29;14;08 - 00;29;19;24 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's great. That's a great pull. And they both have such a great sense of humor and they're so self-deprecating. 00;29;19;28 - 00;29;20;08 Speaker 3 Yes. 00;29;20;18 - 00;29;24;04 Speaker 1 So I'm going to change my pick. I'm back with you. I'm back with you on that demolition man. 00;29;24;04 - 00;29;36;03 Speaker 3 It works. And you have some of those corn, I think he says, heads up when he kicks off. Wesley Snipes, head of this frozen. Is this ridiculous? It's like, come on, guys, you are just you're just working with Arnold Schwarzenegger's writers from Predator. 00;29;36;07 - 00;29;46;25 Speaker 1 I mean, it was, what, like 15 years of, like, catch lines after, you know, the I'll be back and all that. Like what you say after you kill the bad guy. Mm hmm. 00;29;47;13 - 00;29;55;17 Speaker 3 I need to. I need to work on minds, though, because I feel like there is a place for me to have a, like, action movie under the guise of being a podcaster for workshop. 00;29;55;17 - 00;29;57;04 Speaker 1 It for workshop. I mean, I'm there for it. 00;29;58;15 - 00;30;16;22 Speaker 3 So why why was the Indiana Jones esque intro not really discussed heavily? Like when people look at the best scenes and talk about the best scenes, are you doing the research on what scenes? Pop It's usually not that one, and I think because it's visually and tonally so different than the rest of the movie. 00;30;16;22 - 00;30;17;01 Speaker 1 Sure. 00;30;17;09 - 00;30;25;24 Speaker 3 And it's not bad. It just is just different. And I think it sparks curiosity for me. So that's why I'm like, why wasn't that really a bigger thing? 00;30;25;29 - 00;30;32;17 Speaker 1 Probably because it comes so early in the movie as well, and then it's gone and then it's almost never referenced again until the last 5 minutes of the movie. 00;30;32;25 - 00;30;37;13 Speaker 3 So literally there's like 15 minutes of sand because you get like the first ten and then like the last five. 00;30;37;13 - 00;30;49;25 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's that's it. Like, yeah, it would be like Star Wars, except the only spent 10 minutes on tattooing with Luke and then you're gone forever. See it again, you know, although all the other sequels have come back anyway, that's another. 00;30;49;25 - 00;30;51;16 Speaker 3 It's a lot of saying in the sequels. 00;30;51;16 - 00;31;12;15 Speaker 1 It's pretty much like, why are we back attached? We there's like a thousand planets in this galaxy anyway. Sorry. Hey, I love seeing Ian home. Yeah, this movie. Absolutely. Who also plays Bilbo Baggins in Lord of the Rings? He does? Yeah. And in this movie, did you notice where at one point he says the fifth element is precious? 00;31;12;15 - 00;31;16;09 Speaker 1 He does. He does nice, great, great foreshadowing. 00;31;16;21 - 00;31;35;04 Speaker 3 And I like because I recently watched what, like the original Alien, I was like, Oh yeah, you it's like I did that connection a real quick. Yeah, because it's like sometimes you see like an older actor, you're like, I know you from this. Yeah. Like I don't like Alien. Wasn't my reference point for him. It was the fifth element. 00;31;35;16 - 00;31;35;25 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00;31;37;08 - 00;31;46;24 Speaker 1 So why is he named Vito Corleone s or whatever his name is? Like, it's like, where are we? Like in The Godfather. Who? Vito Cornelius. It's Vito Cornelius, the priest. I'm like, What. 00;31;47;04 - 00;31;48;16 Speaker 3 Can we talk about? The lack of sideburns? 00;31;49;06 - 00;31;51;14 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, that's. That's, yeah. 00;31;51;28 - 00;32;02;11 Speaker 3 For whatever. Whatever. They're following the faith that they're following it really. It leads to cones because his mans is wearing a coconut spiral cone. It's like headgear was weird in this movie. 00;32;02;14 - 00;59;34;20 Speaker 1 Yeah.