Directed by Peter Hyams and staring Justin Chambers, Stephen Rhea and Tim Roth.
It's not Dumas' Three Musketeers, but it's a lot of fun anyways.
If you're looking for a dramatic and accurate retelling of the classic Dumas novel skip this one for sure. The story makes some faint passing nods at the original, mostly in the names of characters and historical background, but that's about it. Instead, it attempts to achieve the tone, and does so at least moderately well.
The cinematography (also done by Hyams) was mostly excellent. Dark and moody and feeling very much like Renaissance France. Excellent framing and camera work overall. The only downside was that the tremendous coreography of the fight sequences lost a touch due to the high degree of shadow in some scenes. This was especially noticable in the fight scene in the bar in the beginning of the film. Beyond that, the visual look of the film was good, including the historical accuracy of the costuming, which was a delightful surprise. I was also not expecting the fight scenes, which were easily on par with most of the stuff out of Hong Kong martial arts cinema; not a surpise given that they were done by Xiong Xin Xin.
The screenplay, written by Gene Quintano, was decent. There were enough bits of witty dialogue to satisfy, but not so over the top as to be annoying. The plot was certainly not that of the Three Musketeers, but was a passibly good action-adventure film. No major holes, and only a few suprious leaps of logic required to move from scene to scene.
The actors did a decent job of delivering the script. Chambers is not Anthony Hopkins and probabaly won't ever be, and comes off a bit stiff and mumbly on occasion but still manages not to detract from the film. Tim Roth does a superb job as the villianous Febre, hinting well at barely contained maddness. Stephen Rhea's portrayal of Cardinal Richelieu was also excellent, fitting well with my expectations. The other actors and actresses were acceptable though mediocre. The chemistry between Chambers and Mena Suvari was a bit weak.
Overall, it was an enjoyable film, and I didn't regret going to see it, nor even paying full price for it. I probably won't go out of my way to pick it up on DVD. A good way to summarize my response is to compare the film to Starship Troopers: both were decent and entertaining films, which were only superficially like their source novels, and are thuse damned to be panned for it and not examined on their merits.