The Musketeer
2001
Director: Peter Hyams
Action director: Hung Yan-Yan (credited as Xin-Xin Xiong)
Stars: Justin Chambers, Tim Roth, Catherine Denuve, Stephen Rea, Mena Suvari
This is the latest in a long series of unrelated movies based on Alexandre Dumas' classic novel. It is the story of a young man named D'Artangan (Justin Chambers) who comes to Paris with hopes of becoming a Musketeer (king's special guard), only to find the Musketeers in disarray after political manuevering by the evil Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea) puts their leader in jail. After rescuing the Musketeers' leader, D'Artangan discovers that Richelieu (along with his henchman, Fabre, played by Tim Roth) has much more devious things in mind -- an assassination of the Queen (Cathrine Denuve) among them -- and sets out to try and stop him.
The Musketeer has been blasted pretty harshly by critics, and I will agree that there are some problems in the movie. For starters, the script is almost laughingly bad in parts, full of hammy and heavy-handed dialogue, and it seems to inhibit the actors. A lot of them just look bored. Tim Roth played a similiar character in Rob Roy but there's little similarity between the two performances. There's little to distinguish Fabre besides some bad one-liners and a cheesy eye patch, which I guess is supposed to make him look more threatening or something. Mena Suvari's character also seems pretty superfluous, providing the mandatory romantic subplot and damsel in distress at the end.
At any rate, the techincal aspects of the film are also flawed. Peter Hyams' movies have a dark look to them, and while that look worked for science-fiction like Outland or horror like The Relic, in The Musketeer it just makes things hard to see. When you combine this with the typical MTV-style editing (too fast and close-up) present in most Hollywood action films as of late, some of the fight scenes turn into a real mess as well. I am going to say this again -- it does no good to bring over Hong Kong talent if you are going to film them (or their actions) in the wrong way.
Still, I did enjoy The Musketeer enough to warrant a mild recommendation for it. Why, you might ask? I went in expecting a cheeseball, no-brain matinee action movie and that's what I got. Sure, the movie is pretty awful in parts, but when it works (such as during the final Once Upon a Time in China-inspired fight), it does its' job pretty well. This is nothing worth rushing out to see, but it should make for a decent rental. Let's just hope that Hung Yan-Yan gets some better quality material to work with in the future.
RATING: 6