4k-UHD/Movie Review: The Fifth Element

 

The Fifth Element is the 1997 science-fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich in the leading roles. The supporting cast includes Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James, Tom Lister Jr., and Lee Evans.

The story opens in Egypt in 1914, but the bulk of the movie is set 300 years later, in 2214. The plot follows a futuristic New York City cab driver and former special forces major, Korben Dallas (played by Willis), who accidentally becomes responsible for the fate of the world when a mysterious woman named Leeloo (played by Jovovich) falls into his flying taxi. Leeloo turns out to be the physical embodiment of the supreme being, known as the fifth element, who is destined to combine with four elemental stones to defeat a great cosmic evil that threatens to destroy the universe every 5,000 years. Dallas must protect Leeloo from the evil corporate tyrant Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (played by Oldman) and a band of mercenary aliens, leading to a massive showdown at a luxury resort in space.

The 4K set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a standard Blu-Ray. This release is a collectible Steelbook edition, though a standard 4K non-Steelbook edition is also available. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is very good. I would not say the transfer is as high-quality as some older films have received, but it still looks and sounds quite good, especially if you have a large screen and a decent sound system. The only extra feature included on the UHD disc itself is a short introduction and interview with director Luc Besson discussing the film. The rest of the extras are on the standard Blu-Ray disc and carry over from the original physical media release. There is a ton of behind-the-scenes and making-of material included, which provides a lot of interesting information about the production. One of the most interesting facts revealed is that the movie would not be picked up by a studio until after the massive success of Besson's prior movie, Léon: The Professional. The standard blu-ray also lets you play the movie with a "fact track" that uses captions to insert facts about the actors, the production, particular scenes, etc., throughout the film. 

The movie itself remains a great blend of sci-fi action, humor, drama, and romance. Bruce Willis filmed this movie at the peak of his fame, and he did a great job in the leading role as the sarcastic, down-on-his-luck, but capable hero. This was actually the fifth film in the careers of both Chris Tucker and Milla Jovovich, and both of them were great in their respective roles. Tucker steals nearly every single scene he is in as the very flamboyant radio host Ruby Rhod, a character he modeled as a combination of Michael Jackson and Prince. The film was made just before digital effects took off in Hollywood, so it relies on a unique mix of practical model effects and early digital effects that give it a distinct visual charm. The film is rated PG-13, but it definitely skirts the line with some heavy sexual innuendo and brief nudity. Ultimately, it is a great film that was underrated when it was first released and is worth watching. If you are someone who collects physical media, this release is well worth adding to your collection.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Die Hard 5-Movie Collection

 

This is the five-movie blu-ray set for the Die Hard movie franchise, including the original 1988 film Die Hard, and the four sequels: 1990's Die Hard 2, 1995's Die Hard With a Vengeance, 2007's Live Free or Die Hard, and 2013's A Good Day to Die Hard. There have been a few different iterations of the movies put out on blu-ray, including sets that just had 3, then 4 of the five total (at least to date) movies. I believe there have also been a couple of different versions of the five-movie set as well. Each film starred Bruce Willis as John McClane, an NYPD detective who is thrown into the middle of crazy situations. The supporting cast throughout the franchise included Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, William Sadler, Franco Nero, John Amos, Dennis Franz, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson, Justin Long, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q., Kevin Smith, and Jai Courtney.

Chances are most people who are interested in getting the set are fans of the movies and have seen them all at least once. Pretty much everyone agrees that the first movie, put out in 1988 is iconic, not only because it saw Bruce Willis transition from a TV star to an action movie star, but also was a breakout performance for Alan Rickman (who is probably best known for his role as Snape in the Harry Potter franchise) as the great villain, Hans Gruber. The first film was a movie about a NY city cop who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time in Los Angeles in a building taken over by terrorists. As the franchise went on, the movies took on a larger scale, required more suspension of disbelief, and, at least in my opinion, never really equaled the quality of the first movie.

The sequels were of varying quality. I think there are varying opinions on which is the best and which is the worst of the sequels, but I think everyone agrees that having the 4th movie release with a PG-13 rating for the theatrical version was a big mistake. In all of them, for various reasons, Willis' character is an imperfect hero who ends up in outrageous situations where he has to take down a bunch of bad guys. That part of the storyline never really deviates throughout the franchise, but they manage to pull it off by not having the movies be carbon copies of each other.

The A/V quality varies from film to film. Of course, the A/V quality of the later movies is better than that of the early films; however, each movie received at least a decent HD transfer. There are a lot of extras for each movie. The 4th and 5th movies have the most behind-the-scenes and making-of material, and all of them have deleted and/or extended scenes, at least one commentary track, and other extras (like a gag reel, trailers, and TV spots, etc,) vary from movie-to-movie.

Overall, the Die Hard franchise is meant to be fun, summer-action movies. They do not have award-winning acting and writing, even though there have been many good to great actors appearing (Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Timothy Olyphant, Alan Rickman, etc.). If you accept that, they are fun movies, and for people who are big fans of the franchise, you get a lot of extras to watch (more than the total running time of all the movies combined). For casual fans, this set may be a bit much, however, and you may just want to get the individual movie(s) you like. Ultimately, the first movie is a must-see for fans of Willis or action movies in general. The others may not appeal to everyone, but they are worth checking out, and this set is definitely worth picking up for fans of the franchise. 

DVD/Movie Review: Sin City

 

Sin City is a movie from 2005 that is an adaptation of a very dark and violent graphic novel by Frank Miller. It was mostly directed by Robert Rodriguez, but a portion was also directed by Quentin Tarantino and a portion by Frank Miller. It stars Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, Alexis Bledel, Jamie King, Benicio del Toro, Elija Wood, Carla Gugino, Nick Stahl, Josh Hartnett, Powers Boothe, Devon Aoki, and Brittany Murphy. It tells essentially three separate stories that overlap and intersect occasionally with each other. It starts out with Bruce Willis, one of the city's honest cops saving a young girl (who later in the movie grows up and is played by Jessica Alba) who has been kidnapped by the son (Stahl) of a corrupt senator (Boothe), then shifts to the story of a brute played by Micky Rourke who is on a revenge mission against the killer of his "true love," a hooker played by Jamie King. Then, there is a story about the boyfriend (Owen) of a bartender ( Murphy) who is being harassed by a corrupt cop (del Toro) taking out said cop.

The original DVD release was very bare-bones. The only extra is a short behind-the-scenes featurette. The movie, like the graphic novel, is very violent, with beatings, dismemberings, and everything in between, but manages not to show a lot of blood by showing the blood basically as bright white against the black and white that the movie is (mostly) filmed in. There is also some nudity, mostly from Carla Gugino and Jamie King, but also have characters in various states of undress or skimpy outfits (including Alba, Rosario Dawson, and Devon Aoki), and a lot of swearing. Basically, this is something you are going to watch if you are in the mood for an action movie and you do not mind very violent action movies. It is definitely not in the vein of the superhero comic book adaptations that Marvel and DC have put out since this was released. It is much more in the vein of Kill Bill and Watchman. Chances are, if you like those, you will like this. But, if you hate movies like those, you probably are not going to be into this one either.

DVD/Movie Review: The Sixth Sense

 

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment in the main roles and Olivia Williams in the main supporting role. Donnie Wahlberg has a brief but pivotal appearance at the beginning of the movie, and Mischa Barton (who would later go on to star in the hit series The OC) has a small role toward the end of the movie. It was actually Shyamalan's and was a very surprising hit and ended up being his breakout hit. It also saw a shift in Willis' career from action hero to taking on more dramatic roles. In it, Willis stars as a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe, who is attempting to help a young, troubled boy named Cole (played by Haley Joel Osment). He is the only child of a single mother (played by Toni Collette ), who is trying to figure out how to help her son. I will not go into too much detail for the handful of people who may not have seen it by now, but if you are aware of Shyamalan's other movies, there are twists in this one that you may or may not see coming. In fact, it was probably this movie that led him to get overzealous with the plot twists in his subsequent movies, which got more and more silly over the course of time (at least for a while).

The DVD extras include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as trailers and TV spots. A good amount of material. The picture quality of the DVD (at least the initial release) is okay, but not great, even when upscaled playing on a 4k TV with a 4K blu-ray. But, given the initial run of the DVD is now over twenty-years-old, that is not surprising. Overall, the movie is excellent. It is a blend of a drama and jump-scare thriller (not really a horror movie per-se). It is well written and very well acted, all the actors, especially Osment being so young, doing a wonderful job in their roles. It is definitely the best of Shyamalan's movies that I have seen (I have not seen some of the more recent movies like Split and Glass yet), and it is definitely worth checking out.

Blu Ray/Movie Review: Armageddon

 

Armageddon is pretty much the quintessential Michael Bay movie, a lot of action but totally unrealistic and even more non-sensical. The basic premise of the plot is that a killer asteroid is headed toward Earth. NASA determines that a team has to be sent to the asteroid to destroy it, by drilling a hole into it and planting a nuclear bomb to blow it apart. The government uses the design for a drill created by an oil driller named Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis). Instead of the logical thing, having Stamper's drill team train the astronauts how to use the drill, they decide to train the team of drillers, who are, to say the least, not even remotely qualified to be astronauts, to go up to the asteroid and drill the hole. Again, totally, stupid, but if you can suspend your disbelief, it works.

There is a strong cast including Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Jason Issacs, and William Fichtner. The members of the drilling team are pretty much lovable losers, and the astronauts are hard-nosed by the books types that don't want them there. Of course, the inevitable conflict between the team members as well as the threat of the asteroid intensifies throughout the movie.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. The extras are sparse, however. The trailers and the video for Aerosmith's song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", which was probably as popular as the movie itself. The video quality is upgraded from the Criterion Collection release, but the extras are a big downgrade.

Overall, the movie is what you would expect from a Michael Bay summer blockbuster. Lots of action and heroics, but nothing that you would expect to have a deep conversation about. The acting in this is much better than some of the Transformers movies (especially the various sequels), which helps offset the completely stupid plot. The romance story between Affleck and Tyler's characters was not really needed but was okay in the grand scheme of things. So, if you are looking for an action movie that you can kind of just turn your brain off and enjoy, this is a good one.