Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 29, 2017 7:30:24 GMT
Thanks to the ‘Most underrated Disney film?’ thread in the 'Film General' section for reminding me how much I enjoy this movie.
I must admit I haven’t read the original story of The Three Musketeers...and maybe that's why I'm able to enjoy the film so much? I’d only seen maybe one or two older film versions before this^ one, but the ’93 movie is one I remember the most fondly...although I haven’t watched it in a LONG time (that’s not by choice, though. It’s just that they never put it on TV here anymore - though they seem to put on other versions all the time - and I think it’s no longer available on DVD here either). Anyway, what I *do* remember of the movie is that I enjoyed all four actors in the roles of the Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis & D'Artagnan (btw, that's the order I always think of their names in. It's weird to me whenever their names are said in a different order - I find it just sounds weird/'wrong').
All in all, this is just a plain old ‘fun’ movie, I find. It's a rollicking good adventure, without a overreliance on CGI and that doesn't get bogged down with all the stuff that tends to ruin such films these days. It didn't take itself too seriously, but it wasn't a complete farce either. It knew when to let the 'serious' moments play out and when to include a joke - with one not coming at the expense of any other (something else that, sadly I've noticed today's action films have less of a handle on, as they seem to be afraid of letting 'serious' moments play *without* a joke interrupting them). I’ll always remember the song which accompanied the film (which we get orchestral hints of at some points in the movie). I wish I could watch it again.
I must admit I haven’t read the original story of The Three Musketeers...and maybe that's why I'm able to enjoy the film so much? I’d only seen maybe one or two older film versions before this^ one, but the ’93 movie is one I remember the most fondly...although I haven’t watched it in a LONG time (that’s not by choice, though. It’s just that they never put it on TV here anymore - though they seem to put on other versions all the time - and I think it’s no longer available on DVD here either). Anyway, what I *do* remember of the movie is that I enjoyed all four actors in the roles of the Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis & D'Artagnan (btw, that's the order I always think of their names in. It's weird to me whenever their names are said in a different order - I find it just sounds weird/'wrong').
Kiefer Sutherland’s Athos may have seemed grumpy most of the time (except when he “takes his drinking very seriously” as one of the other Musketeers informs D’Artagnan), but I still liked him.
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I think this may have been one of the first roles I remember seeing Kiefer Sutherland play, and whenever I saw him in anything else, I always thought, “Hey, it’s Athos!”. I really liked how he played Athos’ devotion to the King. I totally believed he was putting the King’s safety first before anything else, and I always remember his, “Save the King!” line as they’re all fighting in a battle towards the end. He may have seemed like the typical character who starts out as having become disillusioned with what he once believed in, only to get back in the game/back into the groove of things at the end, but I really enjoyed his character and was so happy to see him eventually brought out of his ‘funk’. I thought he did a good job with the story he tells D'Artagnan about 'love'. You can feel the weight of it thanks to Sutherland's performance and it plays into his history with Rebecca De Mornay’s Milady D’Winter...who I’ll get to in a bit.
I might be in the minority, but I actually liked Charlie Sheen’s Aramis.
Yes, he's a bit of manwhore (not too different to Sheen in reality), but I also bought that he “takes death very seriously” as D’Artagnan's again informed by one of the Musketeers (one thing I always noted when watching this movie was the mention of Athos and Aramis taking different things “very seriously”. It would've been funny if Athos or Aramis had informed D'Artagnan, "Porthos takes his wenching very seriously."). Sheen was quite ‘deadpan’ when he got the occasional humourous line, I enjoyed his dynamic with Porthos especially and I remember that I was as relieved as Athos & Porthos were (yes, I was actually worried for him at the time - hey, I was young) when it was revealed the bullet Aramis had been shot with in fact hit the cross he was wearing. His “There *is* a God.” was the perfect line for the reveal of how he'd survived (I also liked earlier during one of the fights with the Cardinal's guards when he shot a guy, then made the sign of the cross with his gun. He had a few humourous takes on the religious stuff he said/did).
Oliver Platt was just plain FUN as Porthos, I thought.
He got most of the best lines (like when he associated Rochefort with ‘a smelly kind of cheese’) and moments in the movie, including the bit where he basically did the Indiana Jones trick of the opponent who does lots of fancy moves, followed by the hero doing something quite basic to take out his opponent (though in this instance they added Porthos imitating his opponent’s fancy moves before he took him out easily). I call it the 'I don't have time for this' move.
I loved the whole bit with the Musketeers 'intending to resist' the guards, then having a discussion. But the funniest moment, for me, still remains the part where D’Artagnan tries to join the group as they’re having a discussion and Porthos casually shoves him away.
Platt was just so good with his comic timing, I thought, but he was also believable in the more ‘serious’ moments too (like when he thought Aramis had been killed). He served as the 'comic relief'...but that wasn't *all* he was/he was more than that. Plus, he happened to have one of the more ‘darker’ scenes when he faced that disfigured goon and impaled him on a bunch of spikes. This movie had some quite disturbing stuff for a Disney movie, I always thought. It's not afraid to show blood or have the musketeers kill.
Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan. Yes, he was a bit of a dork...but a likeable enough one.
He's overconfident, but he also receives lessons in humility and proves himself worthy of becoming a musketeer. He gets schooled in the art of seducing women thanks to Aramis and Porthos (they have different methods of seduction, and when D'Artagnan fails to be as poetic as Aramis, he resorts to Porthos' more direct manner). It was nice to see Athos kind of warm up to him (as did the others) and showed just how much he'd come to care about Athos when he hated leaving his side when he was in a pinch (his "I'll never forget you."). Another thing that probably helped me not dislike him *too* much was the fact that there someone else who was so much worse who had it out for him. In comparison, D’Artagnan wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t until a LONG time after seeing this movie that I discovered that who played the supremely annoying cowardly character of Girard was noneother than the eighth Doctor from Doctor Who, Paul McGann. He certainly portrayed the part of someone you wanted to punch extremely well (that high-pitched girlish voice of his was like nails on a chalkboard). His reaction at the end of the movie when all the Musketeers chased him was quite satisfying (I liked all the musketeers having D'Artagnan's back).
Tim Curry was just deliciously evil as Cardinal Richlieu.
He was the other character who got all the best lines in the movie - and with that voice of his, they were just so much fun (I always remember his shouted line of wanting the Musketeers dead or alive, then adding, “I prefer...dead.”). Though it wasn’t just his lines, but the looks he’d give too. He certainly perfected the ‘evil grin’, and the scene where he plays the King like a fiddle (taking his suspicions and turning them around to seem 'farfetched') reminded me of Palpatine doing the same to Anakin. Also evil was Michael Wincott as Rochefort. I felt he played the more ‘serious’ villain of the two well, and I found him to be a suitable opponent for D’Artagnan to face. His trick with the candles was pretty neat, I thought at the time, and I enjoyed getting some of the history between him and the Musketeers. What I *really* liked was Constance helping D’Aartgnan out there at the end by tossing him the sword that was out of his reach so that he could finish Rochefort off and he got a memorable death/last line as he died. Speaking of...this movie had no shortage of fine-looking ladies, starting with Julie Delpy as Constance.
Gabrielle Anwar as Queen Anne (I always remember her from this role and her one in the Michael J. Fox movie The Concierge - which my mum used to watch all the time). She didn't have much to do besides give Constance advice regarding D'Artagnan and rebuking the Cardinal's creepy advances, but I liked her and how much she stood by the King...despite him being kind of a ponce.
And best of all, Rebecca De Mornay as Milady D’Winter.
I thought De Mornay was just so entrancing in the role. I could never tell whether she was fully ‘bad’ or not (plus, no one could rock a hood & cloak quite like her).
She had a great exchange (which I remember was included in the trailer for the movie) when the Cardinal says, "A snap of my fingers, and you could be back on the block where I found you." when he wanted to get frisky with her, and her response was to pull out a dagger she aimed at a very sensitive place whilst replying, "And with a flick of my wrist I could change your religion." - that basically told you what kind of woman she was/that she wasn't to be messed with. I liked her interaction with pretty much all the characters (including D'Artagnan who, amusingly, she probably wouldn't have picked up from the side of the road if he weren't 'handsome' like she commented. He did well to concentrate on his mission when presented with someone as alluring as Rebcca De Mornay...and even got into an altercation wit her), but especially Athos. Both actors sold this deep relationship their characters’ had once and what must've happened which separated them. I was relieved that we got to hear what her name was from Athos (Sabine, I think he said), as I would've been very annoyed if they'd kept it a secret, and that he rushed over to her before she was decapitated. I was also glad that they got to say their final words to each other, reached a sort of ‘understanding’, and that she took her fate into her own hands (after telling Athos the important information he wished to know in regards to the Cardinal's plot against the King, which she'd refused to earlier when he admitted he couldn't have her life spared) by jumping off the cliff.
I think the only actor I wasn’t fussed on in the movie was the one playing King Louis...but then, the character always comes across as rather annoying/insufferable in *any* version I've watched. I did think it was good how he showed strength, standing up to the Cardinal (with Anne watching on proudly) after the Musketeers had been disbanded in the most unceremonious of ways. It showed the King was at least someone decent, since he wanted to explain things to them first. Though he was also naïve regarding what the Cardinal was really up to. However, there was a nice payoff near the end with him getting a ‘hero moment’ with him being the one to punch the Cardinal’s lights out (which the Queen seemed to be turned on by).
I think this may have been one of the first roles I remember seeing Kiefer Sutherland play, and whenever I saw him in anything else, I always thought, “Hey, it’s Athos!”. I really liked how he played Athos’ devotion to the King. I totally believed he was putting the King’s safety first before anything else, and I always remember his, “Save the King!” line as they’re all fighting in a battle towards the end. He may have seemed like the typical character who starts out as having become disillusioned with what he once believed in, only to get back in the game/back into the groove of things at the end, but I really enjoyed his character and was so happy to see him eventually brought out of his ‘funk’. I thought he did a good job with the story he tells D'Artagnan about 'love'. You can feel the weight of it thanks to Sutherland's performance and it plays into his history with Rebecca De Mornay’s Milady D’Winter...who I’ll get to in a bit.
I might be in the minority, but I actually liked Charlie Sheen’s Aramis.
Yes, he's a bit of manwhore (not too different to Sheen in reality), but I also bought that he “takes death very seriously” as D’Artagnan's again informed by one of the Musketeers (one thing I always noted when watching this movie was the mention of Athos and Aramis taking different things “very seriously”. It would've been funny if Athos or Aramis had informed D'Artagnan, "Porthos takes his wenching very seriously."). Sheen was quite ‘deadpan’ when he got the occasional humourous line, I enjoyed his dynamic with Porthos especially and I remember that I was as relieved as Athos & Porthos were (yes, I was actually worried for him at the time - hey, I was young) when it was revealed the bullet Aramis had been shot with in fact hit the cross he was wearing. His “There *is* a God.” was the perfect line for the reveal of how he'd survived (I also liked earlier during one of the fights with the Cardinal's guards when he shot a guy, then made the sign of the cross with his gun. He had a few humourous takes on the religious stuff he said/did).
Oliver Platt was just plain FUN as Porthos, I thought.
He got most of the best lines (like when he associated Rochefort with ‘a smelly kind of cheese’) and moments in the movie, including the bit where he basically did the Indiana Jones trick of the opponent who does lots of fancy moves, followed by the hero doing something quite basic to take out his opponent (though in this instance they added Porthos imitating his opponent’s fancy moves before he took him out easily). I call it the 'I don't have time for this' move.
I loved the whole bit with the Musketeers 'intending to resist' the guards, then having a discussion. But the funniest moment, for me, still remains the part where D’Artagnan tries to join the group as they’re having a discussion and Porthos casually shoves him away.
Platt was just so good with his comic timing, I thought, but he was also believable in the more ‘serious’ moments too (like when he thought Aramis had been killed). He served as the 'comic relief'...but that wasn't *all* he was/he was more than that. Plus, he happened to have one of the more ‘darker’ scenes when he faced that disfigured goon and impaled him on a bunch of spikes. This movie had some quite disturbing stuff for a Disney movie, I always thought. It's not afraid to show blood or have the musketeers kill.
Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan. Yes, he was a bit of a dork...but a likeable enough one.
He's overconfident, but he also receives lessons in humility and proves himself worthy of becoming a musketeer. He gets schooled in the art of seducing women thanks to Aramis and Porthos (they have different methods of seduction, and when D'Artagnan fails to be as poetic as Aramis, he resorts to Porthos' more direct manner). It was nice to see Athos kind of warm up to him (as did the others) and showed just how much he'd come to care about Athos when he hated leaving his side when he was in a pinch (his "I'll never forget you."). Another thing that probably helped me not dislike him *too* much was the fact that there someone else who was so much worse who had it out for him. In comparison, D’Artagnan wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t until a LONG time after seeing this movie that I discovered that who played the supremely annoying cowardly character of Girard was noneother than the eighth Doctor from Doctor Who, Paul McGann. He certainly portrayed the part of someone you wanted to punch extremely well (that high-pitched girlish voice of his was like nails on a chalkboard). His reaction at the end of the movie when all the Musketeers chased him was quite satisfying (I liked all the musketeers having D'Artagnan's back).
Tim Curry was just deliciously evil as Cardinal Richlieu.
He was the other character who got all the best lines in the movie - and with that voice of his, they were just so much fun (I always remember his shouted line of wanting the Musketeers dead or alive, then adding, “I prefer...dead.”). Though it wasn’t just his lines, but the looks he’d give too. He certainly perfected the ‘evil grin’, and the scene where he plays the King like a fiddle (taking his suspicions and turning them around to seem 'farfetched') reminded me of Palpatine doing the same to Anakin. Also evil was Michael Wincott as Rochefort. I felt he played the more ‘serious’ villain of the two well, and I found him to be a suitable opponent for D’Artagnan to face. His trick with the candles was pretty neat, I thought at the time, and I enjoyed getting some of the history between him and the Musketeers. What I *really* liked was Constance helping D’Aartgnan out there at the end by tossing him the sword that was out of his reach so that he could finish Rochefort off and he got a memorable death/last line as he died. Speaking of...this movie had no shortage of fine-looking ladies, starting with Julie Delpy as Constance.
Gabrielle Anwar as Queen Anne (I always remember her from this role and her one in the Michael J. Fox movie The Concierge - which my mum used to watch all the time). She didn't have much to do besides give Constance advice regarding D'Artagnan and rebuking the Cardinal's creepy advances, but I liked her and how much she stood by the King...despite him being kind of a ponce.
And best of all, Rebecca De Mornay as Milady D’Winter.
I thought De Mornay was just so entrancing in the role. I could never tell whether she was fully ‘bad’ or not (plus, no one could rock a hood & cloak quite like her).
She had a great exchange (which I remember was included in the trailer for the movie) when the Cardinal says, "A snap of my fingers, and you could be back on the block where I found you." when he wanted to get frisky with her, and her response was to pull out a dagger she aimed at a very sensitive place whilst replying, "And with a flick of my wrist I could change your religion." - that basically told you what kind of woman she was/that she wasn't to be messed with. I liked her interaction with pretty much all the characters (including D'Artagnan who, amusingly, she probably wouldn't have picked up from the side of the road if he weren't 'handsome' like she commented. He did well to concentrate on his mission when presented with someone as alluring as Rebcca De Mornay...and even got into an altercation wit her), but especially Athos. Both actors sold this deep relationship their characters’ had once and what must've happened which separated them. I was relieved that we got to hear what her name was from Athos (Sabine, I think he said), as I would've been very annoyed if they'd kept it a secret, and that he rushed over to her before she was decapitated. I was also glad that they got to say their final words to each other, reached a sort of ‘understanding’, and that she took her fate into her own hands (after telling Athos the important information he wished to know in regards to the Cardinal's plot against the King, which she'd refused to earlier when he admitted he couldn't have her life spared) by jumping off the cliff.
I think the only actor I wasn’t fussed on in the movie was the one playing King Louis...but then, the character always comes across as rather annoying/insufferable in *any* version I've watched. I did think it was good how he showed strength, standing up to the Cardinal (with Anne watching on proudly) after the Musketeers had been disbanded in the most unceremonious of ways. It showed the King was at least someone decent, since he wanted to explain things to them first. Though he was also naïve regarding what the Cardinal was really up to. However, there was a nice payoff near the end with him getting a ‘hero moment’ with him being the one to punch the Cardinal’s lights out (which the Queen seemed to be turned on by).
All in all, this is just a plain old ‘fun’ movie, I find. It's a rollicking good adventure, without a overreliance on CGI and that doesn't get bogged down with all the stuff that tends to ruin such films these days. It didn't take itself too seriously, but it wasn't a complete farce either. It knew when to let the 'serious' moments play out and when to include a joke - with one not coming at the expense of any other (something else that, sadly I've noticed today's action films have less of a handle on, as they seem to be afraid of letting 'serious' moments play *without* a joke interrupting them). I’ll always remember the song which accompanied the film (which we get orchestral hints of at some points in the movie). I wish I could watch it again.
Sorry that I can not agree on you with this one (well, except when it comes to the lovely ladies you have posted and written about far down below) as I wanted to like it but for me 5/10 is the highest I can go.
