Product: The Musketeer (2001)
Rating: 2.0
Bad movie not redeemed by inventive fight scenes
By any standard, this is a very strange movie. The fight scenes are quite remarkable, but because they seem more appropriate in THE MATRIX or CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON or, even, SHREK, they seem bizarrely out of place in this film. They also make the rest of the film look all that much worse than it would have otherwise. It is worth noting that the fight scenes were the product of Xin Xin Xiong, whose background is in Asian martial arts films.Numerous reviewers have noted the absurdity of the script, especially in that it changes the story of Alexandre Dumas. To tell the truth, the original story isn't so terribly special that some emendation is out of order. The trouble is that the changes that are introduced do not produce a good story. So, it is quite true that one of the great faults of the film is a very bad script.A more serious problem is the acting, especially in several of the key roles. Based on his wooden, monotone performance in this film (an amazing achievement considering all the action in this one), Justin Chambers would have to compete for the title of the world's worst actor. The only other thing I have seen him in was THE WEDDING PLANNER, in which he was the most irritating element as Jennifer Lopez's would-be Italian fiance. He was bad in that, but he is far, far worse in this film. Tim Roth is a talented guy, but has anyone noticed how many bad films he is in? And how many ham roles he gets? Basically, his role in this film is essentially a rehash of his Oscar-nominated role in ROB ROY. Stephen Rea is more or less wasted as Cardinal Richelieu. The portrayal of Richelieu in films has always perplexed me. He is almost universally portrayed as a villain, and yet he is easily one of the most important figures in French political history, providing important national leadership at a time of crisis in the monarchy. Certainly he was not any more ruthless than many other strong national leaders in the seventeenth century. Mena Suvari is not cut out for costume pictures, and while she seems perfectly in her element in AMERICAN BEAUTY and the AMERICAN PIE films, she just doesn't belong here.The film did look good, and whoever was in chart of art direction did a bang up job. But good looking sets and great fighting sequences cannot in themselves make a good picture. Not a very successful film at all.