The Musketeer

This botched swashbuckler is of interest only because it attempts to blend gravity-defying action scenes choreographed by Xin Xin Xiong (who staged Tsui Hark’s recent Time and Tide) into the classic, oft-told Alexandre Dumas adventure. The script by Gene Quintano (Police Academy 3 and 4) takes liberties with its source material of court treachery, chivalry and heroism as former farm boy D’Artagnan (Justin Chambers) crosses paths with the count who murdered his parents (Tim Roth retooling his Rob Roy depravity) and the disbanded, morale-depleted Musketeers. The Jackie Chan-like stunts feel artificial rather than organic in a film forsaken by laughably fake rain, clunky dialogue, chases that stop midstream for no apparent reason and uncharismatic Musketeers. In one scene, D’Artagnan literally rides his horse into the ground. Much the same could be said of cinematographer-director Peter Hyams (End of Days) and this film. With Stephen Rea as Cardinal Richelieu, Catherine Deneuve as the queen of France and American Beauty’s Mena Suvari as the peasant with inexplicable ties to royalty.