Review: The Fifth Element

     The Fifth Element is, hands down, my favorite science fiction movie. Upon looking at IMDb, I'm disappointed to see that users have only given the film 7.7 out of 10 stars. That's downright heartbreaking (not bad for IMDb standards, but the equivalent of a C+, it deserves better!). The dialogue is creative, the costumes are imaginative, and the kitsch that the film exudes is an aspect that I adore.
     The movie takes place on Earth, very far into the future. New York City soars even higher into the sky; people drive flying cars above the "fog," underneath which is a forgotten NYC. Gary Oldman plays the villain of the film, named Zorg, sporting an impressive American accent. He works for some mysterious man, and conspires to retrieve four mystical stones, which have the power to destroy an evil force, floating somewhere in space. It's vague, and the villain doesn't seem to have much motivation, but it's enough of a problem (meaning, incipient apocalypse) to motivate Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) to come out of retirement for one last hoorah. Meanwhile, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) is cloned from ancient DNA - this "supreme being" has been engineered to save Earth, and she knows where the stones are. Being the kitschy movie that it is, the movie ends happily - Korben and Leeloo save the planet, and fall in love.
     When I watch this movie, I'm not watching for the plot; I just about know it by heart. Instead, I'm taking in the zany costumes and hair colors, I'm relishing the chemistry between Willis and Jovovich, I'm enjoying the playful camera work and the mostly fluid representation of gender. I've seen this movie tons of times, and sure, there is comfort in familiarity, but I never seem to get sick of the kitsch. Leeloo has a moment of crisis as she begins to think saving humans isn't worth it, until Korben starts listing things that are worth saving. "Like love?" Leeloo asks. It's cheesy, but it's heartwarming to the romantic in me. Zorg's temper tantrums, too, are alluring in a way. Zorg is a dangerous man, but not dangerous in the way of Kylo Ren's bumbling, childish fits of rage; he's a cunning villain that knows how, when, and who to strike.
     I could go on for days about The Fifth Element. Sci-fi movies have always intrigued me; the successful combination of the genre with humor and romance only makes me love the movie even more.

Netflix: My Best Friend

     It's been a long, exhausting day, and I can hardly wait to go home, change into my pajamas, and snuggle up with my laptop for a relaxing binge-watching session thanks to my favorite streaming service: Netflix.

     I only recently signed up for Netflix. Previously, I didn't watch much TV, or many movies, and if I did, it was either at a friend's house, or from some seedy website that always left me with a guilty feeling inside. For some reason, the cost didn't seem worth it to me, and Hulu and the other competitors weren't particularly appealing, either.

     One thing that I really appreciate about Netflix is the constant innovation of the service. When I had first heard of Netflix, it was a service to rent DVDs online. Now, you can rent DVDs or stream movies and TV from practically any device (I don't know why I would need Netflix on my Nintendo 3DS, but it's good to know that option is available), and you can share your account with your friends, family, significant others, neighbors... While watching television shows, it automatically skips past introduction sequences, saving you from hearing the same intro theme time and time again, especially convenient while it plays one episode after the other, without the viewer having to lift a finger (the addition of the prompt "Are you still watching?" makes me laugh each time it pops up. Of course I am, Netflix. You know I am.). I can't help but think back to a course on American television that I took while studying abroad in Austria. We discussed Raymond Williams' idea that American television in particular is an endless, confusing flow, a theory that I found laughable at the time. Now, I understand a bit more what he meant.

     Besides the refreshing new features that the website develops, I enjoy the selection of German-language films that are available. Borrowing or buying German-language DVDs is risky; the DVDs are formatted in the European style, which my Mac can read, but my Mac forces the user to choose a format a certain number of times before permanently switching to that DVD-reading-style. This is, of course, assuming that I find the movie I'm looking for, at a cost that won't set me back too much. So far, Netflix hasn't let me down.

     The lack of commercials is perhaps my favorite part about Netflix. The holidays bring my favorite movies to cable networks: Harry Potter marathons, A Christmas Story, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are my favorite things to watch, just not through cable. Commercial breaks seem far more frequent than I remember, and they're longer than ever before. One year, as they cut to commercial during a very non-suspenseful scene in the third Harry Potter movie (perhaps my favorite in the series), I was so frustrated that I broke out the DVDs and continued the marathon on my own. Watching a movie on a cable network has become a chore, one that I need no longer do with my Netflix subscription.

Thinking about all of this, I wonder what the future of cable and other traditional television sources is. How can they compete? Will they, do they need to? The same could be said for movies, as Netflix continues to produce original shows and films. I know I'm not the only consumer who would rather pay less money to watch something new, and in the comfort of their own home to boot. How is Netflix shaping consumer choices? Can Netflix hurt the future of TV and/or film?

Submitted by Wendy Timmons

Movie Night

     About once a week, I get the most mundane emails from my apartment complex. "Office Closure" - "Pay Your Rent Online" - "Emergency Water Shutoff Notice" - so on and so forth. These emails usually get deleted straightaway, without me reading the contents. Yesterday, I got an email that piqued my interest, titled, "Community Movie Night." What a great way to get to know the people in my neighborhood! So, for once, I opened the email. Big, red letters appeared:

FEATURING: ANGRY BIRDS!

     Never mind.

     My visions of seeing a recently released, stimulating movie and discussing it with the people that live so close to me vanished, replaced with the vision of a crowded room, filled with noisy children with no concept of personal space. This isn't the first time I've been let down by the promise of a movie night. As a teenager, my parents and I traveled to Arizona almost every year and we stayed at a resort in Sedona. If memory serves correctly, Wednesdays were the designated movie night, with a projector set up near the edge of the pool for swimmers and loungers to enjoy equally. There, too, the selection of movies was, for lack of a better word, lame: children's movies that barely cracked 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, movies that were so inconsequential that they vanished from recent memory, movies that were easy (and probably cheap) to obtain and show.


     It's because of these disappointing movie nights that I've come to really, really, really enjoy German movie night on campus. My first movie night at my alma mater, Montclair State University, was in 2011 or 2012, and the movie was a classic: Lola rennt (Run Lola Run (1998)). It was also my first encounter with a professor who was head of the German department, and would later become something of a mentor to me, an inspiration at the very least. He tried to begin a discussion afterward the viewing, but the event was so poorly attended (if I remember it correctly, I and three other people, not counting the professor, showed up), that the discussion didn't go very far beyond, "I liked it," and, "It was interesting." Thankfully, German Film Night has grown in popularity at MSU. Here at UMD, German movie night has great attendance, and the films tend to be more artsy than what was shown at MSU, where the movies tended to be pop films.

     Film nights on either campus are simply a delight, and in comparison to the film night at my apartment complex or at that Sedona resort, I appreciate the efforts that the professors put in to choosing films that are intellectually stimulating, well made, and with plenty of useful examples of language or culture. Some professors bring in DVDs or VHSs from home, sometimes they stream the movie from an online source; it's rare that a professor won't be able to find the desired movie, and the lengths they'll go to have always impressed me. Perhaps the discrepancy between campus and living community is the motivation to show the movie. Professors want us to grow, to appreciate art and our subjects, but they also want us to enjoy ourselves while we put in the time to get that extra credit point; business owners want to forge stronger communities, but aren't necessarily looking to give us the intellectually nutritious art films that only a few will appreciate, choosing instead the brain candy that are children's films, which are easily consumable at any age.

     Although I immediately dismissed the email, a flyer advertising the event hangs in the hallway, reminding me each time I walk past; maybe I'll go to the event after all. It is being shown tonight, and I could definitely use the distraction from Inauguration Day and my term paper. Perhaps it will be worth it.