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Erkki

I don't see what everyone sees in that movie ...

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I really like The Fifth Element. I don't think it stands out for its story, and sure Corbin Dallas is kind of a weird dude, but the movie just sits as such a unique vision of a sci-fi / future fantasy setting. Every time I watch it I feel like I see something new in the design of the world. It's very colourful, I think it uses the 90s movie colour palette in a way that doesn't appear gaudy as the years go on. It's easily one of my favourite movies. Also, there are so many characters where you can tell the actors are having a ball of a time performing them.

 

Yeah, I rewatch it occasionally because it's incredibly fun, even though I could nit-pick it to death if I wanted to.  It's a movie I just decided I could ignore all it's problems and enjoy anyways.

 

Also!  People should go back and watch Heavy Metal and see how many similarities there are between the first story in it and the Fifth Element (for good reason, Besson was a fan of some of the artists who worked on both Heavy Metal the magazine and movie and I'm pretty sure at least one of those guys worked on the Fifth Element). 

 

Speaking of overrated classics, I have an incredibly strong nostalgic affection for Heavy Metal, but I do not think it holds up well for people watching it for the first time now. 

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The reason Die Hard is a classic is because without it, it wouldn't have given birth to Carl Winslow to create the timeless show Family Matters. Therefore we would not have had Urkel and then Zeusthecat would have never existed in the first place.

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Speaking of overrated classics, I have an incredibly strong nostalgic affection for Heavy Metal, but I do not think it holds up well for people watching it for the first time now. 

 

I believe there are a good few years between us, and Heavy Metal was released well before my time, I will tell you that Heavy Metal is my favourite movie.

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I'm surprised by that!  And it's good to know.  I've shown it to a few people over the last decade, and rarely got a really positive reaction from anyone who was a first time viewer. 

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I love the turn this thread is taking. If anyone has a catchy title for "classics I don't like" I'm willing to change the title. :)

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The Fifth Element is a weird movie. I don't like Bruce Willis (he always has a rapey vibe, I think that's just his face), and I think the movie is pretty bad. I loved it as a kid, but watching it again in my early twenties (it pains me that I am no longer in my early twenties) I was severely disappointed. 

 

I think it's a classic because it's one of the few scifi movies outside of star wars with a relatively wide appeal. 

 

I saw The Fifth Element for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. It's certainly weird, but the sets and costumes are amazing and Mila Jovovich, Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker all turn in fantastic performances. It's a really fun movie.

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I saw The Fifth Element for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. It's certainly weird, but the sets and costumes are amazing and Mila Jovovich, Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker all turn in fantastic performances. It's a really fun movie.

 

And Bruce Willis, while not winning any Oscars, at least seems to be having fun as Corbin Dallas, which is good, because Bruce Willis not enjoying his role has been the end of many otherwise good movies. Hell, him having fun is literally the only thing making Hudson Hawk watchable... except for maybe David Caruso's weird mute spy.

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I've always wished that instead of Star Wars, the science fiction film that became a timeless phenomenon was The Fifth Element. What a weird world that would be!

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I've always wished that instead of Star Wars, the science fiction film that became a timeless phenomenon was The Fifth Element. What a weird world that would be!

 

I always think about Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy capturing the hearts and minds of mid-century fantasy-reading audiences, rather than Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, myself.

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I've always wished that instead of dozens of Iron Men and Avengers and shit, we'd get four sequels to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Curse you, Robert Downey jr.!

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Are Marvel movies considered "good"? I don't like them at all, but half of that is due to my complete apathy towards super heroes in general. 

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Are Marvel movies considered "good"? I don't like them at all, but half of that is due to my complete apathy towards super heroes in general. 

I think they are considered "fun" which usually just means a bad movie with well made action sequences and CGI.

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I think they are considered "fun" which usually just means a bad movie with well made action sequences and CGI.

 

As I understand it (as someone who doesn't like them), they're popular more for their character banter than their action sequences, but "fun" seems like a generally accurate description.

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It's both.

And fun doesn't mean bad. It just means fun.

I say this a someone who is just generally uninterested in superheroes. I think they be dumb, yo.

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As I understand it (as someone who doesn't like them), they're popular more for their character banter than their action sequences, but "fun" seems like a generally accurate description.

I hope its not the banter, people like lame one liner after lame one liner?

 

There are plenty of 80s action movies I like watching that I would call fun, but I know are bad movies. Commando for example.

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Sure, bad movies can be fun! I'm absolutely not arguing against that. I love a lot of movies I'd classify as bad.

 

I'm just saying that when someone uses the word "fun", it does not implicitly or inherently have the word "bad" skulking around in its shadow.

 

Also, yes, I love lame one-liners. :3

 

Some of the movies are not good, though. Like the second Avengers movie. It was just kinda crummy all around. Still enjoyed the flashy bits, but the plot (what little there is for a dumb superhero flick) and the characters were just way weaker. Actually liked Ultron as a villain, he seemed all right, but the heroes just weren't up to their usual snuff.

 

I feel like I'm going into too much detail for this thread. C'est la vie!

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Marvel movies tend to have thin and unsophisticated plots, "snappy" dialog that does not try to feel genuine (nor beautiful), and a major proportion of their appeal is purely production value. I don't think it's fair to call them "bad" for that, though. Low-brow seems more to the point. If you think the superhero genre is bad in general, then that's probably a defensible opinion – but in the context of this genre you don't like, I think Marvel movies tend to be well above average.

 

I would absolutely call Iron Man a good movie. I would call Batman & Robin a bad movie. I think The Matrix Reloaded had some well done action sequences and CGI, but I absolutely wouldn't call it "fun" (nor "good").

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Yeah, low-brow is a really good way to put it. I've used that before and it seems to appease people who'd otherwise use the word "bad"!

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Yeah, I put good in inverted commas because I didn't know the right adjective. I think 80's action movies are more fun. Commando is one of my favourite movies of all time. Seeing Arnie being Arnie and slaughtering hundreds of guys is just so much fun.

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