FILM: The Fifth Element (8/10)

Why did I watch it?

A friend gave me this to watch after I had watched Blade Runner and mentioned that having previously seen neither, I had always mixed the two up. Problem solved.

What's it all about?

Set in the future, Bruce Willis stars as a taxi driver (of the flying variety, naturally) accidentally caught up in an almost farcical battle to save the Earth from evil. Faced with a thousand year old prophecy coming true, Korben Dallas (Willis) helps scared and almost-nude alien Milla Jovovich defend Earth by racing evil magnate Gary Oldman in the search for four prophetical elements.

Should you watch it?
Don't let the premise put you off. Yes it's surreal and almost ridiculous but Luc Besson's near fantastical sci-fi adventure is an enjoyable ride with bags of style to spare. Production design was handled by a pair of French comic book creators and costumes were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier.

Willis and Jovovich are instantly likeable as the leads, Oldman plays the wonderfully over the top enemy and Chris Tucker injects another dose of craziness every time he appears as the extravagant motor-mouth radio host Ruby Rhod. Besson creates some great scenes, visually, Leeloo (Jovovich) going out onto a window ledge and giving the audience their first view of the futuristic city and musically, the Diva's opera edited together with an action sequence.

Enjoyable and amusing sci-fi romp with a great cast.

BOOK: Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur, Bernard Cornwell (6/10)

The final book of Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy finds Arthur still battling the invading Saxon armies, while struggling to keep the peace within the kingdoms of Wales and the South West of Britain.


As with each of the previous books, the story is a combination of epic battles and shield walls, mixed with the magic of Merlin and the contrasting religions of Paganism and Christianity. However, the description of the epic siege at Mynydd Baddon does feel repetitive coming off the back of the similarly epic battles at Lugg Vale in The Winter King and Thames Valley in The Enemy of God. That said, Cornwell manages keep to the rest of the story interesting enough until it's end when the reader is at last rewarded with discovering how the main protagonist and storyteller Derfel ends up a Christian monk. Across all three books I enjoyed the story in between the battles more when Cornwell's portrayal of the familiar historical characters was given chance to come across.


Looking back, the trilogy is an interesting and more realistic take on the often romanticised Arthurian legends, with a grand scope that Cornwell manages to do justice to.