Such a frustrating disappointment

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's France in the 17th century. King Louis XIII is weak and manipulated by Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea). D'Artagnan loses his parents to Richelieu henchman Febre (Tim Roth). A grown d'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) goes to Paris to join the Musketeers. He finds the loyal order disbanded by the deceitful Richelieu. He befriends Porthos (Steve Speirs), Aramis (Nick Moran) and Athos (Jan Gregor Kremp). He falls for the Queen (Catherine Deneuve)'s chambermaid Francesca (Mena Suvari).This version tries to marry the classic French literature with eastern martial arts stunts. The fighting is impressive especially the ladder fight. The acting is muddled with many unfamiliar faces. The story and the construction is messy. Everything is muddy and brown which strips the picture of energy. Other than the fights, nothing is achieved in this new interpretation.

Hmmm... an attempt to combine swordplay with martial arts, a period swashbuckler from French literature with a Hong Kong style of action film-making. An odd fusion of influences, for sure. Many viewers will be turned off by the idea even before the credits roll, but I wanted to give the film a chance before judging it. Alas, this is one of those occasions where the mocking critics are proved right - The Musketeer is a huge disappointment, a dispiriting romp singularly lacking in wit, entertainment or any sense of meaningful narrative. It avoids a one-star rating simply because a couple of action sequences are interestingly choreographed and Tim Roth is good as a vile villain. On every other level the film is an abject failure.Raised by former musketeer Plachet (Jean-Pierre Castaldi) following the murder of his parents, D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) grows up dreaming of becoming a musketeer himself. Unfortunately, by the time he is old enough and skilled enough to go to Paris to fulfil his dream, the musketeers have been disbanded by the scheming Cardinal Richlieu (Steven Rea). Richlieu is busily manipulating events in France, trying to create uneasy tensions between his own country and Britain and Spain, with help from his sinister one-eyed henchmen Febre (Tim Roth). Febre is the same villain who killed D'Artagnan's parents, and his blind eye is a direct result of an injury inflicted upon him by D'Artagnan as a boy. D'Artagnan manages to persuade some ex-musketeers to rise up and fight back against the political plotters controlling the country. Eventually, Febre becomes so drunk with power and bloodlust that even Cardinal Richlieu realises that he cannot control him, so he asks D'Artagnan and the musketeers to stop him. With the life of the Queen (Catherine Deneuve) and a young chambermaid (Mena Suvari) at stake, D'Artagnan attempts one last desperate bid to destroy Febre in his lair.The cast is an impressive one: Rea, Deneuve, Castaldi, Suvari - plus other faces like Nick Moran and Michael Byrne - are all established actors with a good body of work in their back catalogue. Alas, they are almost entirely wasted here - Gene Quinatno's hopelessly muddled script gives them nothing to do, since it's only interested in filling the gaps in as cursory a manner as possible between the action set-pieces. Only Roth does anything remotely three-dimensional with his character. It's peculiarly hard to follow what's going on much of the time, since all scenes involving exchanges of dialogue are clumsily fumbled. The fight choreography is at least pretty good, even if it does look rather amiss in a period swashbuckler like this. The climax, involving an elaborate series of stunts on ladders, is the highlight. Overall, though, The Musketeer is one big, unwieldy mess which never catches fire as a piece of entertainment.

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.

The actor playing D'Artagnan is a weird mix of charisma and banality but this is a thoroughly entertaining movie thanks to the period feel, Tim Roth's dastardly villain, the talent of the supporting cast, the execution of the action scenes, and the wit in the dialogue and certain scenes - alligators in the sewers is a nice, knowing touch. The fact the fight scenes are kung fu with swords is okay. Gene Kelly as an athletic D'Artagnan back in the great days of Hollywood established one template; Richard Lester's two Three Musketeer films with Michael York as D'Artagnan established another, witty, historically accurate template. The Young Guns guys didn't do a bad job and there have been numerous other versions - did I dream a terribly overweight (but still wonderful) Gerard Depardieu as Porthos in one version?So - I've seen many a Three Musketeers film and this does not disgrace itself in their company.But tell me again: how come musketeers - who, er, fire muskets/rifles - are always so great with a sword?