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.
