Product Description
Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with Leon, a stylised thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production of The Professional, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AN EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT THRILLER...
How can one resist a movie featuring sexy Frenchman Jean Reno, the beautiful Natalie Portman in one of her earliest roles, Gary Oldman, and Danny Aiello?

The film centers around the relationship that develops between a beautiful and precocious twelve year old girl, Mathilda (Natalie Portman), and an Italian hit man named Leon (Jean Reno). Mathilda and her family live in the same run down building as Leon and are, in fact, neighbors.

It seems that Mathilda's dad (Michael Badalucco) has run into a problem with rogue Federal Drug Enforcement Agent Stansfield (Gary Oldman) over some missing cocaine. When Stansfield and his crew gets into a shootout with dear old Dad in the family apartment, wiping out her family, Mathilda alone survives. When Stansfield realizes, however, that there were three children in the family and only two are accounted for among the dead, he knows that he has to hunt her down before she denounces him for what he is, a cold blooded, killer cop.

Mathilda turns to Leon for help in her rather precarious situation. Of the two, Leon and Mathilda, it is hard to decide who is the more innocent. Leon gets his hit contracts through an intermediary, a wise guy named Tony (Danny Aiello). Tony always assures Leon that he is holding all his earnings for him, as Leon cannot read and write. Leon is your quintessential killer with a heart of gold. Mathilda, on the other hand, though still a child, is a pretty wily little miss with nerves of steel. It would be difficult to pull the wool over her eyes. Together, however, Leon and Mathilda go on a voyage of discovery, as each finds in the other something that captures the heart.

Notwithstanding this, the film is very much an action film. It is a rip roaring journey, as Leon and Mathilda try to evade Stansfield, the killer cop with no heart and a drug habit that would kill off lesser humans. Some of the situations are absolutely ingenious and a total trip. There is enough action in this film to satisfy even the most jaded of thrill seekers. Luc Besson, the director, has turned out a top notch, first class thriller.

Natalie Portman is luminous as Mathilda, a kid from the school of hard knocks. Her beauty, as well as her acting talent, is evident even at this early stage of her development, and there are a few almost uncomfortable Lolita-like moments in the film. There is even a scene somewhat reminiscent of the rose petal scene in the film "American Beauty", sans the rose petals.

Oldman is positively chilling with his almost over the top, edgy, manic performance. Danny Aiello is terrific as Tony, the smooth talking mob guy whom the viewer knows is taking advantage of Leon's simplicity and trust, enriching himself in the process.

Jean Reno, however, will melt your heart, becoming an almost mythic, romantic hero. I have to wonder why this amazing, sexy actor never made it really big in the United States. He is sensational as the killer with a heart. He also has some high voltage action scenes in this highly stylized film that will take your breath away.

The uncut international version of this film with an additional twenty four minutes of footage is the version to buy. It is definitely a film worth adding to one's personal collection. Bravo! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Bad Bad Bad 5th Element Book
I read this book when it came out with the movie. I think it is the worse book I have read in my entire life. Some of the writing was just letter thrown together. There was not real filling out of the characters from the movie nor was there anything to fill out the missing details of the society that the movie is centered around. I have to say that I think that the money I spent on this book was a waste as is the paper it was written on other than what not to do when writing a tie in novel or any novel for that matter. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they need a negative example. Watch the movie a few times or read the script it is online. Hope this helped.

Forget the novelization, just watch the movie
An ancient secret is needed to save the world, hidden deep in the deserts of Egypt.The movie starts with a prelude from 1914 when the Monascheiwans come to Earth to remove the four Element stones and the Fifth Element because war is coming.The priest in charge of the secret begs the Monascheiwans not to take them, for Evil is coming soon to Earth (every five thousand years) and the weapon of the five elements is needed to destroy the coming evil.The Monascheiwans assure the priest that in three hundred years, when Evil returns, so shall they.

Skip to three hundred years later.Mankind has mastered space travel and the new modern world is built into extremely high structures that loom far above the garbage and fog below.Major Korben Dallas has retired from the military and now drives a cab for a living.His ex-wife left him for his attorney, and he now lives in a singularly tiny apartment in a shady part of town with a cross-eyed white cat.

Priest Vito Cornelius is the priest in charge of the key to the temple in Egypt and the secrets of the five elements.He attends the president and begs that the newly discovered ball of flame not be fired upon, for he knows it is the Evil foretold in the legend.Ignored, the military fires upon the dark planet-like globe, increasing it's size by two hundred percent and wiping out the Earth vessels there to monitor it.Now Cornelius is listened to.The wreckage of the Monascheiwan ship entering Earth's territory is searched and there is just one survivor, a few cells still alive in a metal casing.Technology is such that the being is rebuilt from the few cells, and what the military and scientists don't know is that the woman they have just brought back from death is the Fifth Element from the legend.Escaping and pursued, the Fifth Element, LeeLoo, jumps from the building's ledge and winds out landing in Korben's cab.LeeLoo directs Korben to take her to priest Vito Cornelius, who discovers from LeeLoo that the four element stones were not on board the Monascheiwan ship but entrusted to a Diva named Plavalaguna who is doing is charity performance on the planet Flostan in the Agean system.

Korben and LeeLoo must fetch the stones and bring them to Earth before Evil arrives, fighting both the evil corporate magnate Zorg and his army of Mangalore warriors.As they struggle to gain the stones, time is running out for planet Earth, and the entire universe.

I used the same plot summary for the book as I did for the movie, because unlike the movie being made from the book, the book is a novelization of the movie.I don't normally purchase these because too often it's like reading a script.That's what happens to Terry Bisson's novelization.Bisson did not bother to delve into characters or build them any sort of background, they just became puppets of no more than the movie showed.There's no internalized thoughts behind the characters motives or actions. And changing Ruby Rhod's name to Luc Rhod was stupid, not to mention he didn't even come close to capturing Rhod's personality type like the movie did.

The writing is very wooden and uninspired.The characters are only knee-deep, and there's no outside descriptiveness from what you can already see in the movie.Don't bother picking up this novelization, you'll get less from it than the movie.

Okay book for a great movie
I bought this book after having seen the movie, several dozens of times.I was hoping for the book to fill in some gaps and do a little better background info. on the characters, but it more or less follows along almost word for word with the movie.I noticed a few differences along the way in some of the details, but there are definitely not any "major" differences, as some of the other reviews had me believe.

Overall, I love the movie for its unique quirkiness, but was really expecting a bit more from the book, other than a simple copy of the script.

NOT BAD, NOT BAD
A taxi driver, a monk, a D.J., and a supreme being are thrown together into the battle to save earth from Evil, a giant ball of volcanic rock plumeting towards our world.

The novelization contains Bisson's usualrich prose, but the mostly visual film doesn't exactly translate all thatwell to written form.

Most of the humor comes from a wacky narrative inthe style of Douglas Adams.

About half way through the book, extremedifferences from the film appear. It makes one wonder if the studio everupdated Bisson on script changes.

The story itself is fun. The charactersoften goofy. But differences from the film somewhat deter ourinterest.

But it's not all that bad.

Awsome
I loved the movie & loved the book.It is a must read for any fa ... Read more

Product Description
Enjoy the dazzling adventures of film director Luc Besson's Arthur and the Minimoys and Arthur and the Forbidden City together for the first time. Join Arthur as he embarks on a journey to the land of the Minimoys, a tribe of people less than one inch tall, to find his missing grandfather and a stolen treasure. Arthur joins two Minimoy friends on a trip to the forbidden city of Necropolis, where they battle the evil wizard Maltazard. Now a major motion picture brought to life by Luc Besson himself! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on February 24, 2000. The length of the article is 2108 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Desangelado retrato de una santa.(TT: Examining the portrait of a Saint.)(Reseña)
Author: Mario Saavedra
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: February 24, 2000
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 46Issue: 2436Page: 76

Article Type: Reseña

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on January 17, 2000. The length of the article is 1349 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Crónica semanal del mundo.(breves notas)(TT: Weekly chronicle of the world.)(TA: brief notes)(Columna)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 17, 2000
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 36

Article Type: Columna

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on January 2, 2002. The length of the article is 1087 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Películas.(TT: Movies.)(Reseña)
Author: Tomás Pérez Turrent
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: January 2, 2002
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 48Issue: 2533Page: 56

Article Type: Reseña

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on June 1, 1997. The length of the article is 739 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El Quinto Elemento.(TT: The Fifth Element)
Author: Javier Betancourt
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1997
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Issue: n1074Page: p67(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Luc Bondy, Daniel Schmid, Leopold Lindtberg, Benno Besson, Hans Gmür. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 20. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Luc Bondy (born 17 July 1948 in Zurich) is a Swiss theater and opera director. Trained in Paris with the theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq, he received a job in 1969 as an assistant at the Hamburg Thalia Theatre. In a surprise, he took over in 1985 after the resignation of Peter Stein at the Schaubühne in Berlin. He also worked as a producer of both plays and operas at the Salzburg Festival, and in 1985 as a director at the Vienna Festival. He is the director of the most recent version of Tosca, by Puccini, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Both the opera, as well as the director, were greeted by loud boos on opening night though the reception was not generally negative. James Levine, the music director at the Metropolitan Opera likened the production to a 'Hitchcock movie' and the cultural critic for the New York Times, Charles McGrath, felt that the new production was a part of Gelb's mission to transform the Met by emphasizing theatricality. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5537902 ... Read more