The MoFos Top 100 of the 90s Countdown - Redux

I watched Short Cuts long ago at the insistence of a friend who said it was brilliant. I thought he was wrong. I hated it. Even if I was an Altman fan, which I'm not, I don't think I would like it. No vote.

The Fifth Element on the other hand is great entertainment. Love it to pieces. Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich are a great team, and Gary Oldman chews up the scenery, plus the visuals are still terrific. It made my list at #18.

My list:
#18 The Fifth Element list proper #56
#25 Apollo 13 list proper #68

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Well played.

Now ... we have to start a search for the missing fifth element ...

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Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Milla Jovovich.

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“With young girls, nature seems to have in view what in the language of drama is called a "striking effect" as for a few years of her life, she is given a wealth of beauty and charm so that during those years she may capture the fancy of some man to such a degree that he takes care of her for the rest of her life.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

I considered voting for The Fifth Element, but limited myself to one Bruce Willis sci-fi.

Fifth Element is just a pile of fun.
Besson tried to replicate it with Valerian but failed massively... you just can't better FE for creativity and sheer fun.

Showed it to my kids a few years ago and when Chris Tucker exploded on screen they had no idea what had hit them

It's dropped a little over the years in my rankings... I think I'd have placed it somewhere in my top 10 a few years ago... had it in 20th this time around

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The complaints about Fifth Element - that it's weird, and insane and WT-? did we just watch? type reactions, are the very reasons I enjoyed it.

To the other - I'm weird with Altman, I wouldn't call him an all-time favorite director, though he's directed some all-time favorite movies. But not necessarily the traditionally adored ones (among my circle of film friends) - while I like Nashville, it's a 4-star like, not 5 as most have it. I thought MASH was alright; but I can't stand The Long Goodbye, though that might be because it's not Chandler to me, it's all wrong as Chandler - it might be great Altman, but I can't get past the other (and cripes I hate Gould's Marlowe, like nails down a chalkboard hate).

On the other hand, I enjoyed a couple that don't get as much attention, like Images, and while I haven't seen it in ages, I loved The Wedding. I saw it as a teen on HBO, and at first, I didn't think I'd finish with it ("I'll see what this is about, for a bit" kind of thing), but I became completely enthralled with it, and all the storylines and characters... I wound up watching it several more times that month.

Gosford Park and The Player, both excellent.

But my end-all, be-all Altman's are McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Short Cuts. (had to take a look, M&MM came it at #17 on the westerns list, not bad, but would have been better if y'all had swapped its position with Dances with Wolves, McCabe's a better Top 10er, IMO)

for me:

3. Short Cuts
2. Player
1, McCabe

Fifth Element is enjoyable and fluffy and not on my list.

I don't even know what Short Cuts is.

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"Some day this war has to end."
"Wash your mouth out with soap!"

The fifth element is Gary Oldman and the steel plate in his head. Definitely giving Dr. Evil vibes.

i didn't know Gosford Park was directed by Altman. I really like that movie. I only remember the fuss over the screenwriter, who I believe won an Oscar for that movie.

The Player better not miss out!

The Fifth Element was a key movie we watched as teens during the birth of DVD. Even on rewatch it was still a lot of fun. Lots of great lines, Gary Oldman, futuristic New York, multipasses and meat popsicles.

Short Cut would have been top 50 or so for me. I had another Altman film that was a player on my list.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

I just happened to re-watch The Fifth Element last week and I was reminded what an incredibly silly movie it is... but also that it is intentionally silly and does a pretty good job at it.
It remains the best thing Chris Tucker has ever done if you ask me.

I've seen Fifth Element, and a lot of people I know in real life love it, but I just thought it was okay. Better than Barton Fink, but still in the C+ tier. The costumes and effects were great, and I guess nothing's wrong with it. I just never saw a need to see it again.


I have no idea what Short Cuts is.


Seen: 21/44
List: 5/25

I've heard wasabi described in the same way.

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"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel

Huh. I looked Short Cuts up and it seems like one of those incredibly depressing movies billed as a comedy. I love horror comedy, but dramedy doesn't usually work for me.

I had no idea that Sean Penn had a second brother in the business. At first I thought they meant singer Michael Penn.

And now i have "No Myth" stuck in my head.

If that's the case, then I'm sure you voted for the slightly superior one which had better show up on this list and surely it will.

The Fifth Element is just great and highly creative, quirky, funny, and colorful and it has that euro arthouse vibe thing going on. If Bjork was a sci-fi movie, she'd be The Fifth Element. I especially love the universe and atmosphere of the film and of course Gary Oldman is just at the top of his scenery chewing best. Great music and cinematography and of course it's still a great cult classic 30 years later and the special effects look far superior to anything released today. The fact that I can tolerate Chris Tucker's K-K-K-Kor-Korbin-ing and a funny blue lady singing wildly speaks wonder. Luc Besson of course is a solid and distinctive filmmaker.

However, just like The Limey, The Fifth Element did not make my list, but it was on my short list of films to cut and either could have easily made it. Throughout my list making process I was making a conscious effort to only include one film per director on my list and as it is I picked a different Besson film and a different Soderberg film.

Short Cuts is also a great film, but it didn't move me quite as much as some of Altman's stuff from the 1970s and it's quite literally been decades since I've seen it, and I didn't get around to giving it a rewatch.

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Fifth Element feels like a film that was supposed to start a franchise and ultimately didn't. I don't know how accurate that is or if it was always stand-alone. It just felt like they were building up to a sequel, yet we never got one. There was a lot of mythos there they could have explored if they wanted. I guess they didn't.

Remember Judgment Night (this showed in my youtube queue today).

Remember the Judgment Night Soundtrack? Now that was something.