The Musketeer (2001)

Dártagnan (Justin Chambers) undergoes a revenge against the man dressed in black (Tim Roth) who murdered his father . Fourteen years later he goes out from Gascogne along with Planchet (Jean Pierre Castaldi) and confronting plunders and bandits on the trip to Paris . He meets for the first time worthless three musketeers , Athos (Kemp) , Porthos (Steve Speirs) and Aramis (Nick Moran) and get their swords crossed up . DÁrtagnan and the three Musketeers cross swords with the lackeys of scheming cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea) and first Mister Treville (Michael Byrne) , head of the Musketeers . They try to help king Louis XIII (Mesguich) who is negotiating a treatise with Duke of Buckinghan (Jeremy Clyde). Meanwhile , Queen Anna (Catherine Deneuve) and Francesca (Mena Suvari) are kidnapped by Febre and closed in his castle .

Mediocre version of the classic swashbuckler by Alexandre Dumas whose novel has been adapted a dozen times approximately . Attractive costumes , haunting french locations , fast paced and contains scrumptious action scenes with bounds and leaps in 'Matrix' style . This is primarily and middling made due to some blatant miscasting . Justin Chambers as Dártagnan and his co-star acting as the Queen's seamstress are never convincing as French citizens during the reign of Louis XIII . D'Artagnan did really exist , his name was Charles de Batz and was called D'Artagnan when he arrived in Paris probably because he was coming from the south-west of France where the movie was partly shot and where is the little city of Artagnan . Lively musical score by David Arnold , habitual in James Bond films . Dark photography by Peter Hyams , usually cameraman and filmmaker ; being filmed in south-west of France on location in Castle , Cassaigne, Gers, Castle Miramont-Latour, Gers, Midi-Pyrénées, and Auch, Gers, France . The motion picture was regularly directed by Peter Hyams . He's an irregular director with hits (Relic, Outland , Capricorn one , Timecop , Sudden death) and flops (Sound and thunder , End of days).

Other versions about this classic are the followings : 1921 mute rendition by Fred Niblo with Douglas Fairbanks ; 1935 adaptation by Rowland V Lee with Walter Abel and Paul Lukas ; 1948 the classic version by George Sidney with Gene Kelly , June Allyson , Van Heflin , Paul Lukas and Lana Turner ; 1973 amusing version by Richard Lester with Michael York , Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch ; 1993 modern adaptation by Stephen Herek with Charlie Shen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt and Chris O'Donnell , among others .

Fmovies: I dissent from the negative comments based on comparisons to the novel, or earlier " Three Musketeer" movies. This movie has no pretense of remaking the novel, or earlier movie versions ( the Michael York/Raquel Welch version is a classic). It is, at most, a modest "prequel", designed to capture young action viewers, and romantics ( Justin Chambers/ Mena Suvari); dirty old men ( Mena Suvari); and Deneuve fans (as all men ought to be).

Mena Suvari is wooden and ornamental, but Chambers here is at least as good as Heath Ledger in "A Knight's Tale". Deneuve is excellent as always. Tim Roth is a definitional villain, although Stephen Rea is a weak Richeleau. Lesser knowns as the other musketeers , and the French actor as " Planche", add spice.

I am a sucker for swordfighting movies, so loved this one.

There are many worse choices in your video store.

I for one don't understand how people can rate this as a 4 or less and then say Eraserhead is a masterpiece. The whole reason the movie was called "The Musketeer" is it pretty much has no relation to Alexandre Dumas' classic novel. The 1973 Three/Four Musketeers is about as close to the book as we're going to get. This movie the acting is hampered by really stupid dialog. It made George Lucas movies look literate.

The action is great, but completely out of historical reality, then again its a movie, not a documentary. Entertaining? Yes, I thought so. Not as much as seeing Oliver Reed and Micheal York. As bad as the lead was, he was Oscar caliber compared to the absolutely useless Chis O'Donnell in the 1993 version. Given a choice between the 1993 version and this movie, I'd take this one.

If you want a good swashbuckler, stick to Errol Flynn, or even Mask of Zorro. If you want Musketeers see the 1973/74 version. Better yet, just pick up the book.

The Musketeer fmovies. The thing is that "The Musketeer" is not only the absolutely worst adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel's I have ever seen. What is more for me it's also a very strong contender for being called one of the worst movies ever. Actually this rubbish has nothing to do with classic Dumas' "Three Musketeers".

For unknown reason screenwriters changed simply everything and in the result they got silly and laughable story filled with numerous plot holes and anachronisms. Dialogs look like they were written by a modern teenager and somehow characters development was totally forgotten. No one cares about movie's characters, they're uninteresting and pathetic while the whole movie is emotionally flat practically all the time. Poor direction leave room only for pointless action with ridiculously made in Eastern style fight scenes sometimes mixed with silly jokes. Add to all this horrible acting and most likely you'll get a well-deserved position in your all-time worst list. Absolute waste of 40 million dollars as well as your precious time and money. Avoid it as a plague.

2 out of 10

I'm a huge Dumas fan and watch every one of the adaptations but I missed this one originally. Just caught it on netflix and it's nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be. Yes, the lead is a little off and there isn't much chemistry between him and Mena Suvari who isn't at her best either. The wire based fight scenes look dated and there are a few scene pacing problems.

But overall this was quite fun. There *is* chemistry between the Queen and D'artagnan thanks to Catherine Deneuve who exudes star quality in every scene she's in. There are some nice performances from most of the character actors, the original 3 musketeers are great, and the humor if not the plot is very in keeping with the book.

I first thought this was a made for TV movie because of the credits at the beginning so I wasn't really expecting much and this definitely beat my expectations. The movie looks good and aside from a few characters most of them seem fairly real, the balance between schtick and too- serious was handled well.

Overall, too many faults to be a classic but definitely enough class and fun to be very entertaining. Recommended for fans of period movies and the tongue in cheek dramedy.

If you are a fan of swashbuckling, this is not a film to miss, as long as you are able to overlook the bad acting and the obvious Asian influences in the fighting.

I have seen worse films. Most definitely. The rating of 4.2 is much too low for this movie, I think a 5.5 to 6 is more appropriate. It's not a great movie by any means, but it does have it's moments.

The opening swordfight in the resturaunt is the best in the movie. At least it was the most believable with the exception of the barrels. I found the ladders and some of the ropeplay in the Versailles to be much more unrealistic. However I tend to like movie due to the sophistication of the choreography, because I am involved in fighting choreography too.