Doomsday comes fairly often on celluloid, the latest effort being The Fifth Element wherein the world is being overpowered by the forces of evil. Only a new element, the fifth (earth, air, fire and water being the four elements), can save it. But what is it? Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a retired major in an elite military force, now drives a cab in South Brooklyn and it is he who is chosen to be part of the rescue operation when he is suddenly confronted with a heavenly body, a laboratory-made woman who falls through the roof of his cab.

Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) is the woman who speaks an ancient language few can understand. How she later learns English is hard to comprehend. But then much of the film is vague. But everyone wants to meet her, the President (Tommy Tiny Lister Jr), Cornelius (Ian Holm), the priest well versed in prophesy, and the agent of evil Zorg (Gary Oldman) who is aided by an alien race. If there is a storyline, it is so faint it vanishes into the blue.

The Long Kiss Goodnight: Regal

Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) looks like a normal mom living in an ideal New England small town with her eight-year-old daughter Caitlin (Yvonne Zima). But this is an illusion. Samantha suffers from what is known as `focal retrograde amnesia' and though her past seems to be catching up with her it is still a blur. That's the focal point of The Long Kiss Goodnight and the one she thought she'd kissed goodnight comes back to haunt her. Actually the focal retrograde amnesia is just an excuse to relaunch this female Bond on a series of encounters, most of them implausible. "Old targets have become new best friends," goes one of the lines in the impressive screenplay in which Samuel L Jackson, who plays Mitch Henessey, one of her earlier contacts, delivers most of them. Others to cross her path are Perkins (Patrick Malahide) and Timothy (Craig Bierko), a Leander Paes look-alike and its action all the way. Of course, the fare is exaggerated, high on action, low on credibility but snatches of Alan Silvetri's music and the one-liners sort of compensate. But in spite of that, the film has few saving graces. One might as well kiss The Long Kiss Goodnight goodbye.ERVELL E MENEZESth¬Ut›ä<¼Tt›lps the film sail through. "Raj Kumar Santoshi's China Gate has no hero as such, yet we're distributing it. Yash Chopra is associated with family films, David Dhawan with comedy. We know that they would make good films, generally," he says, "The chances of a new film maker to make it big are bleak."As are the chances of new ideas. "Action films have a limited run but family subjects could mean a fair run at the talkies anytime," says Choksi, in the midst of signing agreements and talking of the VDIS scheme. Knowledge of the market enables the distributors to make suggestions to film makers on their projects. "We make suggestions but we can't interfere in the project," Choksi stresses.Sometimes that is not such a good thing. His company has been compelled to release and run flops like Sanam and Zameer because "we were involved in the film financially", he says, laughing at his mistake. Laughter that comes easy as instinct makes success. And Choksi has that intangible something. Ram Teri Ganga Maili is his company's biggest hit and Judaai and Border are their latest successes. Check out some of his forthcoming releases: Kirti Kumar's Aunty no 1, Boney Kapoor's Pukar and Venus' Dhadkan and Josh. Despite the banners Vinay Choksi relies on his secret formula: he keeps his fingers crossed, till the release.ANAGHA SAWANTe¬Ut›€7¬Ut›f his earlier films, it has done reasonably well. Sold at Rs 1.75 per territory, Ishq is expected to finish with Rs three crore per territory.Virasat: The scoring point for this remake of the Southern hit, Thevar Magan, was its price. Sold at just Rs 65 lakh per territory, the Anil Kapoor-Tabu-Pooja Batra starrer fetched Rs 2.5 crore in Mumbai and averaged Rs one crore in other centres.BUT the list of flops as usual is longer. This year also saw that fall of the onetime indestructible icon, the Big B.Mrityudaata: Amitabh Bachchan's comeback film was sold at Rs two crore per territory but the film lost more than 60 per cent of its money in all centres.Aur Pyar Ho Gaya: This much-hyped debut for Aishwarya Rai, with music by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was sold for Rs 1.75 crore per territory. Distributors lost over Rs one crore in every territory.Daud: The Ram Gopal Varma-Urmila team set the silver screen ablaze with Rangeela. But Daud which was sold for in the region of Rs 1.60-Rs 1.75 crore per territory lost the race. The film's losses crossed the Rs one crore per territory mark.Hameshaa: Distributors refused to touch this Saif Ali Khan-Kajol starrer despite having G P Sippy as its producer. The Sippys had to release it themselves. In Bengal, Hameshaa didn't even get a release. The estimated losses Rs three crore.Itihaas: This Ajay Devgan-Twinkle Khanna starrer directed by Raj Kanwar came and went in a flash. Sold at Rs 1.75 per territory, distributors lost 50 per cent of their investment on this film.Lahoo Ke Do Rang: Once again distributors lost more than 50 per cent of their investment of Rs 1.25-Rs 1.5 per territory.Mahaanta: Despite being in the making for several years,the producer of this Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri starrer hiked it's price at the last minute. Sold at Rs 1.5 crore per territory, the film was taken off within a week. The other loss-making projects of the year include Himalayaputra, Auzaar, Tamanna, Sapnay, Koyla, Mrityudand, Mohabbat, Prithvi and Ghulam-E-Musthafa.... the list goes on.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.