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THE
MUSKETEER (2001)
Reviewed
by Phil Mills
Young
D'Artagnan (Chambers) dreams of becoming a Musketeer just like
his father and trains with him daily. When Cardinal
Richelieu's ruthless follower Febre (Roth) comes to collect a
tax from D'Artagnan's father, he refuses and both he and his
wife are killed. The boy vows vengeance but decides that
the best way to honour the family name is to follow his dream
and become a Musketeer. After many years of training he
goes to Paris to apply but finds that the Musketeers are
currently suspended thanks to a devilish plan by the Cardinal
to instigate war between France and England. It's up to
the skillful D'Artagnan to prove his worth so he can join the
Musketeers and unite them against the Cardinal.
As
you can see from this short synopsis, very little remains of
the original characters and story created by Alexandre Dumas
for this remake so that a solo D'Artagnan can become the main
hero. This may have worked if Chambers had been able to
carry the role and the script had a little meat to back him up
but sadly it all goes down like a bit of a wet fish.
Chambers' poor line delivery is only outdone by some of the
cheesy dialogue he is given and the love story he plays out is
so emotionless that it will have you feeling embarrassed for
the actors. Roth and Deneuve are given cameos to add
recognisable talent but have so little to do that it hardly
seems worth their while whilst the director makes the most
heinous of crimes and allows all involved to speak in English,
French and American accents that doesn't exactly do wonders
for the realism of the film.
Hung
Yan Yan (credited here under his Chinese name of Xin Xin Xiong)
really adds the only muscle to the production that made
audiences want to see the film. For HK fans he is best
remembered for his outstanding work as stunt double for Jet Li
in the 'OUATIC' movies and it is apparant that he has fond
memories of this time as he draws upon their choreography for
inspiration. Sadly, Hyams' directing really spoils some
of his more enthralling ideas by placing the scenes in dimly
lit rooms. We understand that this helps him to hide the
stunt doubles but do you really need to obscure the action to
a point where it becomes an irritation?
It's
always common for a popular style of action to become overused
in mainstream cinema and it looks like 'Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon' has really ignited the latest flame
in Hollywood. I'm not convinced that this kind of action
is suited to all styles of movies and is only inserted here to
try to breath new life into an aging story that is poorly
updated. 'The Musketeer' is just about watchable as an
adventure film, if only thanks to the Yan Yan's input, but is
nowhere near as exciting as the trailer implies.
Rating:
 
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