Rating: 
Summary: What kind of crap is this supposed to be?
Review: Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea), in his quest to become the premier power in France, disbands the king's musketeers and does his best to wipe them out, discretely, of course. One of the musketeers killed was D'Artagnan's (Justin Chambers) father and D'Artagnan vows to avenge his father's death and kill the man in black (Tim Roth). D'Artagnan grows up and begins his quest for vengeance by traveling to Paris and contacting the musketeers. Unfortunately, he fails his test and instead finds himself aiding the Queen (Catherine Deneuve) in a desperate attempt to avoid war with Great Britain. Along the way, D'Artagnan falls in love with Francesca bon Ansau (Mena Suvari) and gradually earns the respect of the musketeers.I quite enjoyed this version of the Three Musketeers, but I would have to agree with other reviewers in that it is not the best version that I have seen. The strength of this movie is the amazing fighting sequences. Whether it is a barroom brawl with the fighters dancing over barrels, an attempt to take over the Queen's coach that leaps from coach to horse to ground, or a winner take all fight on ropes and ladders, the fighting sequences are fresh, original and oftentimes, simply amazing. The costumes and scenery were gorgeous, with the director Peter Hymans' fabulous use of natural light to give the whole film a faded, sepia toned look that really suited the time period. The supporting cast was quite good, including a deliciously evil man in black played by Tim Roth and an understated, yet humorous musketeer trio played by Nick Moran (Aramis), Steven Spiers (Porthos) and Jan Gregor Kremp (Athos). The absolute worst part of the film was Justin Chambers, who, unfortunately played D'Artagnan and was in just about every scene. It is true that Justin, a ex-Calvin Klein model, is quite beautiful, at least he is without that ridiculous long hair that he sported in the film, and it it also true that he is quite athletic and did a fine job on his stunt work, but, sadly, he cannot act and he cannot speak French. This is a major problem in the film and drags the whole work down. With a decent actor in the lead role, this could have been a very memorable version of a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: DITTO DAVID LITTON
Review: Mr. Litton's review is so much of what I would have said, I can only say read his and you'll get my opinion as well. Should have been much better!!!
Rating: 
Summary: What's so Bad?
Review: So many of the review really slam this movie - and for what? Compared to the Disney version, which admittedly has better jokes, this is wonderful. Are jokes that important. It is not sheer Holywood, true, but why is that so bad? People in a big city talk with different kinds of accents. How would an English speaker be able to understand the difference between upper class Paris, lower class Paris, and countrified French? Honest, fun, and sincere. Get it!
Rating: 
Summary: WANTED: NEW CASTING DIRECTOR
Review: It must be awfully hard to mess up a screen adaptation from a great novelist like Alexander Dumas, but here they somehow managed. I hate to sound so cynical, but here goes:
The singlemost thing that really ruined this movie for me was the acting... (or lack thereof) This is what you get when you cast a pretty-boy model who's never acted before and expect him to carry the film in a lead role. The rest of the actors were unknowns or hardly-knowns who didn't perform much better than he did. Even the prestigious roles of Porthos, Athos, and Aramis were demoted down to bit parts and played by extras... Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but were you familiar with any one of those actors who were playing the Musketeers?
What prevented this movie from being a total disaster was the cool action scenes and the magnificent scenery. Still however, it has to be one of the most disappointing musketeer films ever. If you do decide to watch it, just imagine famous talented actors playing the parts and it won't be so bad after all.
Rating:
Summary: Musketeer is the "Attack of the Clones" of swashbucklers....
Review: The Musketeer could have been so good. The locations and sets are so beautiful and there are some beautiful fight scenes. However, those fight scenes are a part of the problem. Wire action is used, but instead of the beautiful grace of Chinese wire actions movies, the action here is a little too speedy and choppy. Also a lot of the fight scenes include moves that seem unnecessarily flashy and impractical--for example, doing a full split on two barrels while fighting a swordsman. Just unnecessary. I think the director wanted the audience to say, "Cool!", but instead they just say, "Huh?" Another bad point is the acting. There are no good performances in this movie. Everyone seems to be reading their lines. All of the parts are miscast. The heros have no charisma, and the villians have no menace. Another thing that really bothered me was that half the actors have American accents and half have French accents. I don't have anything against either accent, but I would like to see some consistency.
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