Product: The Musketeer (2001)
Rating: 2.0
At least they had accents!
Well most of the Musketeers in this film did anyway, except for the leading male hero of the film, D'Artagnan! I had no idea this film would be so dull considering that Peter Hyams (2010, Outland) directed it and Tim Roth (Rob Roy, Reservoir Dogs), who is totally wasted here, starring as the bad guy, Febre. The film is just not exciting and I found myself not really caring about the hero's revenge or much of anything else after a certain point. First of all, I have no idea who Justin Chambers (leading man/hero, D'Artagnan) is but I do know he turns out a dull and uninteresting performance in this film. It doesent help that he resembles Chris O' Donnell who played the same character in "The Three Musketeers" with Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland. That movie may have been silly but at least it was entertaining. I would like to see the DVD feature of "Casting Justin Chambers" to find out what they were thinking. Even the one thing that I thought would save "The Musketeer", the fight sequences, were not as exciting as I thought they would be, but they did keep me awake. I had heard the fight choreography compared to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" somewhere - my answer to that is: go rent "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". The finale sword fight on ladders between Roth and Chambers (their stunt doubles) is of course the highlight of the film but it's over before you know it and I'm still not quite sure how the bad guy died, I'm assuming by sword. I expected Roth to carry the film but that was asking too much. He is still the most exciting character in the film but that isnt saying much, considering the competition. Actually, I was thinking he might use one of those ladders in the final fight to climb out of the movie! Mena Suvari (American Beauty) plays the love interest for Chambers. There is no reason why they should be together except he's the best looking guy around and she's the only girl in town and they dont waste anytime putting her in a bath tub again either. My favorite part is when she is shot in the chest almost point blank range when "taking one" for the Queen and in the next scene, she's fine. The weird part is I didn't feel much sympathy for her when she was shot. Actually, I felt more sympathy for D'Artagnan's horse when it fell over from exhaustion. It doesent help that the whole 3 Musketeer "All for one..." thing is done in a tired predictable fashion in movies. Its definitely getting old seeing french Musketeers with american accents! Now the Musketeers are flying and sticking to the ceiling and it still didnt help that much!*Trivia: The guy that wrote the screenplay for "The Musketeer" also wrote "Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol" - Think about it.