La Femme Musketeer

This actually isn't that bad. Historically it's complete rubbish, of course (and why is *D'Artagnan* always the one who ends up with a daughter instead of a son? -- see the enjoyable "D'Artagnan's Daughter" of 1994, for example!) and Susie Amy's unfortunate accent grates every time she opens her mouth, but as modern-day swashbucklers go, it was refreshingly free from knowing allusions and would-be updating of the genre. It was just played straight out for the adventure, and all the better for it.

The 'younger generation' - the sons of Athos, Porthos and Aramis - were well-written, acquiring individuality of their own even before we found out who they were supposed to be, and not just clones of their respective fathers. I loved Aramis's offspring as a devout gambler, and Athos' as a cocky womaniser... The Musketeers themselves I thought bore relatively little relation to the characters of the book, with the exception of Michael York's very welcome reprise of his classic role as D'Artagnan. Experience really does show, I'm afraid; he completely acted Susie Amy, for one, off the screen. I'd far rather remember him this way than in the terminally un-funny 'Return of the Musketeers' from 1989 -- a corpse that should have been let lie if ever there was one -- and was extremely appreciative of the opportunity.

I watched the first episode on a whim. I was sufficiently hooked to bother to video-tape the following one when I knew I was going to be out... and bother to watch it immediately I got back, an accolade if ever there was one!

An attractive-looking cast. Good comradeship, avoiding too-obvious romance. Depardieu, playing an Italian-speaking character in a Francophone milieu with a heavy French accent, was out of place, and poor Susie's lower-class London tones were equally inappropriate. Not a classic... but far from the embarrassing mess it could have been.

When I had faced some Hallmark Entertainment feature I've stay thrilled because so many finest offerings of this valuable Company, nonetheless this version of She-Musketeer doesn't drop very well to me, even has been enjoyable didn't pass on sound of ruggedness at all.

The entire storyline actually a new Musketeer generation of the original ones, even the old and powerful Cardinal name was replaced, although the main structure remains the same, a D'Artagnan (Michael York) daughter Valentine (Susie Amy) enters in the scene when France and Spain are in war whatever be the reason, the puppet King Louis (Freddie Sayers) is ruled by the evil Cardinal Mazarin (Gerard Depardieu) that holds the power at your hands and will.

The Musketeer's brotherhood are aware of the jeopardy that hangs over the France, even the Musketeer's Commander still intending intervene over the matter, withdraw Cardinal Mazarin's authority isn't not easy due the strength of church in such time, then Mazarin got a old letter that will proving that King Louis wasn't a really King, this letter was taken by the scheming Lady Bolton (Nastassja Kinski) at the behest of Cardinal Mazarin, also he has the most skilled swordsman of whole France at your service the dreaded Villeroi (Marcos Jean Pirae) nobody is the match for him, not even the Three Musketeer's sons.

In this environment of war and conspiracy the mini-series is developing, the daughter of the famous and unbeaten D'Artagnan will be a key of the hard assignment of bringing a Spanish Princess Maria-Theresa (Kristina Krepela) to marry with King Louis a kind of settlement to stop the war and make King Louis got his real duties from the hands of the crook Cardinal Mazarin that aware of all and intent to break up the accordance between France and Spain in order to keep the France's treasury at your scope, sending half of taxes to Italy, his former country, it also not so easy many unexpected happenings coming soon.

Aside some points and strong ageing leading casting with solid family humor oriented this Hallmark presentation doesn't convince the viewers, shooting at Croatia sounds a little bit cheap production, the Female Musketeer somewhat didn't hit the target, albeit far away to be deemed as bad whatsoever, glad to see it due this DVD is a hard to find in Brazil, now I'd got my original copy!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5.

I don't know why but I actually liked this show. It was entertaining, funny, sexy and overall fun to watch. John-Ryphus was great in it, I haven't seen enough of him and it was a refreshing thing (and appropriate) to see him in this. Usually shows coming from this network are a bit on the lower end-scale, but this one was better. I gave it a 7 out of 10 which as i mentioned for this network is good. I usually do not rate their work this high. This is an old story told a thousand times by a thousand different filmmakers and for some reason I actually enjoyed this one. Anytime La Femme is used in a title, I have found it to be something worth watching for one reason or another.

This is another attempt to capitalize on the Musketeer theme,with some good things in it,but an overall mediocre result at best.

The good things are the bad guy,Villeroi,played by Marcus.j.Pirae,his performance is for a better movie.Also good is Nastassja Kinski as the evil lady Bolton. The European locations,scenic design and costumes are nice.

The bad things are the lead actress Susie Amy who is a very goodlooking girl but terribly wrong for this part.She just doesn't have the necessary "tomboy" personality to be convincing as D'Artagnan's would-be-musketeer daughter. Other major fault is that the swordfighting is shot very close and you cant really see what is going on,which is annoying. Michael York just makes fun of his earlier role and doesn't try to be anything like an aged D'Artagnan. Depardieu doesn't do much and basically just adds his name here.

Overall,its worth a look especially for fans of the genre but nothing more.

In this three-hour Hallmark presentation, Susie Amy stars as the title character, the daughter of D'Artagnan, played once again by Michael York. It's pretty cute to see him reprising his role from for the fourth time, and while Susie does tease him and call him "old man", he still has a twinkle in his eye and has enough spunk to spice up some romantic scenes with his wife, Susan Brown.

Similar to the original musketeer story where D'Artagnan sets up multiple duels in the afternoon, then ends up banding together with his challengers to fight off the cardinal's guards, Susie sets up a duel with musketeer Casper Zafer. Just as they start to fight, their identities are revealed. All four children of the original musketeers are reunited, ambushed by the cardinal's guards, and band together to defeat them again! While the younger musketeers are busy trying to uncover a plot by the evil cardinal, King Louis, played by Freddie Sayers, juggles his mistress, Clemency Burton-Hill and the political ramifications of marrying his betrothed, Kristina Krepela. Gérard Depardieu doesn't reprise his 1998 role as Porthos, but instead plays the chief bad guy, the cardinal! His cohort is Nastassja Kinski, but if you've seen any musketeer movies, you know that they're not the pair to root for.

Full of fun fight scenes, an interesting swashbuckling story, and a beautiful leading lady to look at for three hours, La Femme Musketeer is very entertaining. It's not too violent, since it's Hallmark, so you can watch it with the whole family and have a nice evening.

DLM warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. Some of the fight scenes use a handheld camera and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"