The Fourth Musketeer

Alexandre Dumas's "The three musketeers" is a perennial classic with an amazing story, adapted for the screen in different countries and languages. I've never seen a bad version and couldn't imagine a British production not doing it justice. And how wrong I was!

The idiots (it must be a whole bunch of people, not only the director) turned Monsieur de Tréville into Trévillé, i.e., pronounced "trevileh". Then the actors are totally miscast: Milady was given an annoying Spanish accent, fast talking and impossible to believe in a seduction scene. Among the musketeers the worst miscast is Porthos, who was supposed to be extremely strong. Instead the actor impersonating him is smaller than the other two musketeers and with bad teeth. Rochefort is given a lisp (or is this specific to the actor?). D'Artagnan's father is meeting his son after not seeing him for two years in the same position - at the table - as when he was giving him a speech before he left for Paris. There is no single view of a Paris street, all scenes are filmed inside (with the exception of the duel which is placed in a nondescript backyard) in exactly the same setting (meeting with Treville, father-son discussion, etc). Done on the very cheap.

The action reaches up to one tenth of the novel (the duel with the Cardinal's guards) and then stops brusquely, making me for a moment believe the movie was actually part of a series.

So bad ... I cannot believe some investors put their money in this film. The director should be banned at least for ten years ...

PS What I cannot understand is how the movie can have an overall rating of over 4 when there is no individual rating over 3? The real rating, taking into account the reviews, should be slightly above 2.

So slow and boring. Truncated fight scenes and re tells a story we all know without bringing anything new. Really boring. When it ended it felt like I had watched a preview and the real film was about to begin. Don't waste your time watching it, buying it or renting it.

Not badly done for a low budget movie but nothing exciting. I would expect more from an action movie and from the story, which was also fine but simplistic. Not recommended.

This movie was odd and disappointing for me, having grown up watching one treatment after another of Dumas classic tale, done with acting, action, and a PLOT. This 2022 adaptation couldn't seem to get off home plate. There are FAR too many d'Artagnans for one thing. We're told d'Artagnan (the "main" one) has practiced with the toy sword his whole life, but all we see is him whacking lamely at a grain sack.

The cast is small for a theme usually swarming with cast and extras. The scenes are all shot in close narrow angle which is quickly distracting. The "main" d'Artagnan serves 2 years in the academy (we assume) but returns to his father clearly not a day older when any young man of 18 would change quite a lot in two years -- even a High School production would exploit this easy opportunity to reinforce the idea of time and character development!

I can say, the costumes were not bad, and I didn't notice any jet aircraft or automobiles, but I can't think of any reason I'd recommend this to anyone.

When the opening credits showed a nice engraving of an 18th Century Gentleman I thought we weren't in for a gem - sadly I was right.

The sets and the set dressing are superb and as good as you are going to get but the positives stop there. The script, directing and acting are all so amateur that you would get better from the local 'AmDram'. The armourer was a complete joke, as was the fight director.

Given how many times the 'based on Alexandre Dumas' novel' has been made how is it still possible to get EVERYTHING so very wrong - even, in this case, the timeline!

If you want a musketeers movie you still can't beat the Richard Lester version. But there are other versions that are quite watchable - this is not.

Really, just don't bother, you'll never get that part of your life back. Watch some paint dry, it would be more entertaining...