Rating: 
Summary: did they even read the book?
Review: Apparently someone who read the book 5 years ago gave the screenwriter a brief rundown on the plot. Holy [cow]. I really enjoyed the book and this was a big letdown. Huge parts of movie are new, and enormous pieces of the original plot are left out. It would be one thing if the changes made the transition to film easier, (as with Lord of the Rings), but I don't think they even tried. Dumas is not exactly the most daring or controversial writer; I'm not sure why a perfectly good story, and ending, had to be filled up with enough dairy to rival a cheese castle. If you haven't read the book in a while or at all and you do like this movie, or even if you think it was allright, please take the time to read or review the book. Maybe the makers didn't want to spoil the book for that haven't read it, I'm not sure. There's much more satisfaction at the end than an illegitimate child and a duel between two people that were never "boyhood friends."
Rating:
Summary: If you liked the book...DON'T SEE THIS
Review: What an unmitigated piece of garbage. Richard Harris is always wonderful but he's the only redeeming feature of this perverse twisting of Dumas' classic. See the Gérard Depardieu mini-series instead. (If you can ignore the fact that he doesn't look starved in the Chateau d'If, it's wonderful.) Except for Harris the acting is poor. The people are unrealistic and are, at best, caricatures of Dumas' creations. The writer has committed a crime.
Rating: 
Summary: 2 Counts at Once
Review: When I was a young lad I happened on an unabridged copy of The Count Of Monte Cristo. I loved it. When this version and the Gerard Depardieu version of the book became available on DVD I was totally tickled. This - the Hollywood version - is everything I loved about the book when I was young. The betrayal, imprisonment, and escape that was my favorite part when I was thirteen takes up almost half of the film. In the book it was about twenty percent and the remaining revenge part got a bit draggy. They have done a commendable job of streamlining the "gettin' even with the bad guys" in this version; enough to keep my kids watching to the end. They loved the balloon landing at the Count's party. ("Balloon?" you say. "I don't remember a balloon in the book.") Check it out, its marvelous. Nothing offensive here. A cracking good adventure just right for an evening with the kids when you are burnt out on animated features. James Caviezel does a nice job of changing from an innocent Edmond Dantes to the Count and Guy Pearce is sneering nasty chap you will love to hate. The film was made in Malta and Ireland so you will see some beautiful countryside. There is an intersesting alternate scene and a nice feature about Dumas in the extras. I'll continue the rest of this review under the Other Count.
Rating:
Summary: Fun is had by all.
Review: If you've ever wondered where the good adventure films have gone, look no more. The Count of Monte Cristo is a fun romp into a classic Dumas work. Swordfights, escape sequences, and interesting characters played perfectly are sprinkled around this work. Jim Caviezel is perfect in his role: quietly powerful. He manages to go from wide-eyed innocence from the beginning to steely cynicism as he wallows in Chateau D'If for crimes he didn't commit. Dagmara Dominczyk is beautiful and fills the "requirements" needed for Caviezel's romantic interest -- however, the woman needs to learn how to enunciate her words better. Mumbling is not very becoming. In contrast, Guy Pearce's Fernand is a joy to behold. Pearce takes his character to the extreme, much to the audience's delight. Richard Harris's Abbe Faria is also great to watch. My only real quibble with the film is the horrid cinematography during the evening scenes, and in some of the prison scenes. Yes, it is supposed to be dark. But the lack of lighting during the opening sequences and the escape scene dampened the excitement. You can't get excited over a fight you can't see. And I was watching this film on a 36" Sony XBR flat screen. If I couldn't see anything, no one can.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than average action adventure film.
Review: The Count of Monte Cristo is, perhaps, the finest novel of action, adventure, and revenge ever written. Abridged versions often run to 350 pages or more, so attempting to faithfully adapt this sprawling yarn to a two hour film is futile. How close does the director come to the intention of Alexander Dumas is more the point and the question. In this instance, close enough. Edmond Dantes, a sailor, ably played by James Caviezel, is falsely accused of being a Bonapartist, imprisoned in the infamous Chateau D'If, meets and is tutored by the Abbe Faria, who gives him the secret of the treasure of Monte Cristo, and finally Dantes escapes to find the fortune and begin his plan of revenge as the Count of Monte Cristo. This film is highly enjoyable from beginning to end due to the careful attention to story line, excellent acting by all involved, sumptuous sets and costumes, and carefully spaced action sequences. We have some nagging doubts about the credibility of this adaptation and we are not completely comfortable with the resolution, but because so much care and attention have been given to this production, we are willing to suspend our criticism and disbelief. The Count of Monte Cristo is much better than average film fair and is genuinely entertaining from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: WISH I HAD SEEN IT ON THE BIG SCREEN!!!!!!!!!
Review: What a wonderful movie this is. Althought there weren't many well-known actors in this movie, the performances by those in it were STELLAR!! I watched it 3 times as a rental and and I turned it in over a week late. That is how much I enjoyed this movie. I bought it on DVD today. The movie has a subtle message to it about the destruction of revenge. Do yourself a favor, go and get this movie. YOu won't regret it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Sleeper Hit
Review: Great flick for a Saturday night during the winter. The camera work and filmaking were excellent, Italy and France never looked so good from the sea. The actors were good, the novel was represented fairly well, and this movie moves along at a good pace. The classic themes of revenge, adultery, deceipt, redemption, father vs. son, friend vs. friend, lover vs. lover, are all in this movie. While this movie will not win a ton of awards, compared to so much of the low quality movies out there today, this movie definitely receives a grade of "B" or higher. Worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and fun...
Review: If you don't want to blow yet another 4 dollars on a really bad movie, rent Count. It's a fun and irreverent retelling of the popular tale, with James Caviezel doing a great job of going from a wide eyed innocent to an 18th century version of a P. Diddy-player with a vendetta. Pearce is also great as the resident villain who struts around like an ever preening peacock(check out his overly curled bangs too-hilarious). This is just a fun movie that understood how to modernize this tale while simultaneously keeping it's more universally appealing elements....
Rating:
Summary: Watch-able but not good enough to be great
Review: Interesting new version but definitely not exceed or surpass those priors. The version of his former lover and son he never knew are both good. His foes are all too tiny, thin and none of them are good choices for supporting roles. I sincerely think this is it, don't put out another version again, at least not in this century, Amen.
Rating:
Summary: Great for a 2 hour edition
Review: I wish it were longer though... especially the revenge planning part.
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