Rating of
1/4
The Musketeer....so named because they forgot 3.
Indyfreak - wrote on 02/22/19
The Three Musketeers is one of the most famous adventure stories ever written. Unfortunately the singularly named THE MUSKETEER is a very poorly made adaptation of Dumas' classic swashbuckler.
Peter Hyams is a strange choice of director for this material; he's better known for handling action, science fiction, and horror fare. The costumes don't look...terrible per se but the mood is languid and the pacing is slow.
Casting is quite strange as well. Justin Chambers is one of the most wooden leading men since Ken Marshall (the guy from Krull-look it up). Mena Suvari is quite pretty but not very interesting;even the Disney 1993 version had a more interesting love story as chaste as that was. Hands down the best thing about this movie is Tim Roth as the requisite one eyed villain that is always in these movies. He's having a lot of fun.
The strangest revision made to the story is the inclusion of Hong Kong styled kung fu action to the swordplay. This only pays off once and it's towards the end of the film where the hero and villain battle atop opposing ladders. It's wayyy cooler than it sounds but even this is just lifting the iconic warehouse fight in Jet Li's ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA.
