The Musketeer
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Movie Reviews of The Musketeer
Movie Review: Not Bad, Not Bad At All...
Summary: 3 Stars
Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea), in his quest to become the premier power in France, disbands the king's musketeers and does his best to wipe them out, discretely, of course. One of the musketeers killed was D'Artagnan's (Justin Chambers) father and D'Artagnan vows to avenge his father's death and kill the man in black (Tim Roth). D'Artagnan grows up and begins his quest for vengeance by traveling to Paris and contacting the musketeers. Unfortunately, he fails his test and instead finds himself aiding the Queen (Catherine Deneuve) in a desperate attempt to avoid war with Great Britain. Along the way, D'Artagnan falls in love with Francesca bon Ansau (Mena Suvari) and gradually earns the respect of the musketeers.I quite enjoyed this version of the Three Musketeers, but I would have to agree with other reviewers in that it is not the best version that I have seen. The strength of this movie is the amazing fighting sequences. Whether it is a barroom brawl with the fighters dancing over barrels, an attempt to take over the Queen's coach that leaps from coach to horse to ground, or a winner take all fight on ropes and ladders, the fighting sequences are fresh, original and oftentimes, simply amazing. The costumes and scenery were gorgeous, with the director Peter Hymans' fabulous use of natural light to give the whole film a faded, sepia toned look that really suited the time period. The supporting cast was quite good, including a deliciously evil man in black played by Tim Roth and an understated, yet humorous musketeer trio played by Nick Moran (Aramis), Steven Spiers (Porthos) and Jan Gregor Kremp (Athos). The absolute worst part of the film was Justin Chambers, who, unfortunately played D'Artagnan and was in just about every scene. It is true that Justin, a ex-Calvin Klein model, is quite beautiful, at least he is without that ridiculous long hair that he sported in the film, and it it also true that he is quite athletic and did a fine job on his stunt work, but, sadly, he cannot act and he cannot speak French. This is a major problem in the film and drags the whole work down. With a decent actor in the lead role, this could have been a very memorable version of a classic.
Movie Review: Some good ideas -- they just don't all belong in one movie
Summary: 3 Stars
On the surface, "The Musketeer" has a good central idea: Take Dumas' classic swashbuckling tale and add a touch of modern Hong Kong wire work to the action. Described like that, it's easy to see what was intended: Soaring, even transcendant action, battles that are as much dance as they are combat, and a shot in the arm to a nearly dead genre.It didn't quite turn out that way.
It has been said that too many cooks can spoil the soup, and here, we see too many ideas doing the same. "The Musketeer" rolls together too-little wire work, a grubbily accurate recreation of the period (which means the film is so dark that you miss much of the action), a special focus on D'Artagnan over the rest of the Musketeers, a stellar cast (Tim Roth as Fabre is better than the rest of the film combined) and a script that was clearly intended to ignore almost all of the above assets, putting the focus on the poorly lit and poorly shot action. (Seriously, did anyone immediately understand what happened to Fabre at the end?) Toss in a lead played by an underwear model who can't pronounce his character's name, and you've got big trouble right here in Paris city.
Done well, audiences can forgive much of the silliness of swashbuckling films (they did so as recently as the Antonio Bandaras "Mask of Zorro"), but in a film like "The Musketeer" scenes of soldiers repelling down a tower to get at D'Artagnan instead of, I don't know, just CUTTING THE ROPES become maddening instead.
A film that desperately wants to be "The Matrix" instead comes off as yet another tired film attempting to cash in on the craze for Hong Kong-style action it helped create.
Not recommended for fans of the original work or Hong Kong-style action. A rental suggestion for diehard fans of swashbuckling stories.
Movie Review: Old-fashioned melodrama with Hong Kong-style action scenes
Summary: 3 Stars
THE MUSKETEER
(UK/Germany/Luxembourg - 2001)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Super 35)
Theatrical soundtracks: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDS
In 17th century France, a young would-be Musketeer (Justin Chambers) struggles to prevent a plot by Cardinal Richelieu's villainous compatriots to plunge the country into all-out war.
Hoping to ring the changes on Alexandre Dumas' famous novel, director Peter Hyams (CAPRICORN ONE) and screenwriter Gene Quintano (COMIN' AT YA!) combine swashbuckling melodrama with newfangled Hong Kong action techniques, though Quintano's half-hearted script fails to bring anything new to the table EXCEPT its action set-pieces. Former Calvin Klein model Chambers is blank but athletic, and he's overshadowed by spirited co-stars Catherine Deneuve (the Queen of France) and Tim Roth (the villain), alongside Mena Suvari (AMERICAN BEAUTY) as Chambers' potential love interest.
Hyams' strives to recreate the grime and squalor of the period through careful lighting and décor, though a number of scenes unfold in near-darkness, undermining their dramatic effect. The movie is redeemed, however, by the work of action choreographer Xiong Xin-xin (Yang Hun-hun), a Hong Kong movie veteran with numerous films to his credit (SKINNY TIGER AND FATTY DRAGON, BLACK MASK, TIGER ON BEAT, WONDER SEVEN, TIME AND TIDE, etc.). He's best known for his recurring role in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series, which may explain why the climax of THE MUSKETEER - a showdown between Chambers and Roth in a room full of stepladders - is basically a replay of the climactic sequence from the first ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991), one of the greatest action set-pieces ever filmed.
Movie Review: Musketeer is the "Attack of the Clones" of swashbucklers....
Summary: 3 Stars
...in many ways. Just like Lucas' epic, this movie has many strengths, including beautiful costumes and scenery, a nice score, some great action scenes, and a fine supporting cast. But it also has similar flaws: two miscast leads with limited acting ability, and poorly written and directed dialogue throughout. There's just no chemistry on screen between the hero and heroine, and so much of the dialogue sounds choppy, anachronistic, overly formal and unnatural. That being said, this is an absolutely GORGEOUS movie to look at. The conscious use of subdued, natural lighting throughout makes you feel like you've stepped right into a 16th century Dutch painting. Because of that sparse lighting, I'm sure this movie wouldn't look that good on VHS, but on DVD, this nice crisp anamorphic print looks wonderful, especially on a widescreen TV. The set designs and costumes are superb, and the lush cinematography of both urban and rural landscapes is breathtaking. As far as the action scenes, well, it's an interesting experiment at mixing Hong Kong action with traditional Western swashbucklers. A couple of the action scenes are fantastic, particularly the thrilling, creative swordfight on the ropes hanging down from the castle tower---wonderfully imaginative and well-filmed. Then again, the final ladder scene is completely ripped off from Once Upon a Time in China, and there are a couple places in the movie where the hero performs some slightly wire-assisted leaps, and those really just look out of place. Like Attack of the Clones or Phantom Menace, this movie will always be a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I can't say it's a great movie overall, but there were undeniably some VERY talented people involved in making this movie.Movie Review: A mixed bag......
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie does have your typical cinema standards: Action, plot, and romance. However, somewhere along the way the movie actually drowns itself in its own plot. Also, the character development (especially D'artagnon) is very weak. For all the great fighting and stunts D'artagnon pulled off, and then seeing his sluggish and over-fed supposed mentor...I had a really hard time believing in his character. It was never showed anything about his upbringing or training to attain the skills he possessed...that added to the difficulty I had in believing. The one thing that threw me off was, again, a lack of any attempt on the part of Justin Chambers to sport a French accent; it just seemed strange how a man born and raised in France could have such a keen American accent, much like his love-interest.Now, the fight scenes did warrant some merit. Finally, swordsmanship was shown for what it actually was-- a martial art. Sure, they more than likely didnt go to those extremes in reality...but it did liven it up a few notches from your standard Musketeer fight scenes. To the guy who asked why they didnt just cut the ropes when they were fighting on the towers: Kinda hard to cut thick rope in the middle of a swordfight isn't it? The Musketeers were (to the best of my knowledge) the Green Berets of their times. Highly skilled and very adept at their craft. I think Peter Hyams and Xing Xing Xiong brought that out ten-fold.
All in all, it wasnt a bad film. There aren't as many fight scenes as you'd think. If you've seen the previews...that's pretty much it. Wait for the DVD or VHS to come out and save a bunch of money in the end.