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The Musketeer (2001)
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:3
Rotten:23
Average Rating:3.2/10
Consensus: Hong Kong inspired action sequences take center stage in this latest Three Musketeers adaptation. Unfortunately, the oversimplification of the story and an uncharismatic lead character leave the movie flat.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for intense action violence and some sexual material
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Sep 7, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $26,560,170
Synopsis: Eighteenth Century France. When his parents are slaughtered by Cardinal Richelieu's man, Febre (Tim Roth), the young D'Artagnan is raised to be a musketeer by the loyal Planchet (Jean-Pierre... Eighteenth Century France. When his parents are slaughtered by Cardinal Richelieu's man, Febre (Tim Roth), the young D'Artagnan is raised to be a musketeer by the loyal Planchet (Jean-Pierre Castaldi). Fourteen years later, Planchet takes the now-grown D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) to Paris. There, they discover that the king's musketeers have been disbanded, that Richelieu (Stephen Rea) is plotting to undermine the monarchy, and that Febre is barely under control. So, the upstart D'Artagnan boldly sets out to reinvigorate the musketeers and save the monarchy--while taking revenge on Febre. In this version of Alexandre Dumas' much-filmed classic, director Peter Hyams and scriptwriter Gene Quintano switch focus from The Three Musketeers to D'Artagnan. Lavishly shot on location in France and Luxembourg by Hyams--acting as his own cinematographer--THE MUSKETEER aims for the robust approach and brutal humor of Richard Fleischer's THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. Mixed in are fight sequences that utilize the skill of Hong Kong fight choreographer Xin Xin Xiong, who stages an exciting reprise of the ladder fight from Tsui Hark's ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA. Tim Roth is at his villainous best, and Catherine Deneuve enjoys herself as the queen--whether reigning at court or escaping through the sewers of Paris. [More]
Starring: Tim Roth, Catherine Deneuve, Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea
Starring: Tim Roth, Catherine Deneuve, Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Justin Chambers, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Nick Moran, Jeremy Clyde, Bill Treacher
Director: Peter Hyams
Director: Peter Hyams
Screenwriter: Gene Quintano
Producer: Moshe Diamant, Rudy Cohen
Composer: David Arnold
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for The Musketeer
For the third time in less than a decade, Alexandre Dumas is turning over in his grave.
The images are pretty, and Gene Quintano's screenplay gets everybody from point A to point B, though with no discernible knack for wit or subtlety.
If you're going to do it, you've got to go all the way, and not stint on the action, the acting or the production values.
Seems to be designed on the principle that if one fight is good, dozens must be better.
The movie lacks the one thing that the classic Three Musketeers story can't do without: panache.
Chambers exhibits a negative screen presence that seems to recede into the scenery every time he opens his mouth.
Philip Harrison's superb production design, Raymond Hughes and Cynthia Dumont's wide range of costumes, Gigi Lepage's gowns for Deneuve and David Arnold's rightly thundering score all help bring alive Dumas' romantic, tumultuous world one more time.
As for the action that greatly reimagines 17th century sword fighting, genre fans will be seeing nothing much new.
This is a terrible movie. But it has the strange quality that it seems to have been made by people who were enjoying themselves. Not enough, unfortunately, for the rest of us to enjoy it too.
Regularly if inadvertently, Catherine Deneuve provides The Musketeer with its sole point of fascination.
A jumble of action and motivation, ill-defined characters and action howlers.
The latest cinematic stab at a swashbuckling epic is a useful primer of filmic derring-don'ts.
Often, in the fight scenes, it's hard to tell who is doing what to whom, but since it's all glitz and no content, it hardly matters.
If this is Dumas, there's a 'b' in the middle and an extra 's' at the end.
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