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Man in the Iron Mask, The

EMAILPRINTMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists

Man in the Iron Mask, The reviews
48
7.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Adventure  |  Drama

Written by: Randall Wallace
Alexandre Dumas père (novels)

Directed by: Randall Wallace

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 13, 1998
DVD: March 6, 2001

Running Time: 132 minutes, Color

Origin: UK

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for sequences of violence and some sensuality/nudity

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu, Gabriel Byrne, Edward Atterton, Peter Sarsgaard, and Hugh Laurie

The Musketeers' most glorious, and dangerous, adventure begins with the rescue of a mysterious prisoner from a fortress island prison.  But they soon realize that their mission may lead to the destruction of the very throne they serve.  (MGM)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Joe Garden

A mish-mash of accents (buffoonish Depardieu's French, somber Irons' British, and DiCaprio and Malkovich carrying the same voices they use for every project) are vaguely unsettling, and there seems to be too little swashbuckling for characters who are synonymous with the term.

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70

Variety Todd McCarthy

An unusually sober and serious-minded telling of Alexandre Dumas' classic tale, this handsome costumer is routinely made and comes up rather short in boisterous excitement.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Wallace, unfortunately, writes lazy, anachronistic dialogue, and the picture is abysmally shot (by Peter Suschitzky), with a prosaic, low-budget look that never allows you to experience the enraptured majesty of a fairy-tale historical setting.

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63

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I could see how, with a rewrite and a better focus, this could have been a film of "Braveheart'' quality instead of basically just a costume swashbuckler.

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63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The result is the kind of picture you can sit through quite contentedly, the cinematic equivalent of an innocuous seatmate on an airplane trip -- it neither bores nor insults you, and, when the ride's over, is promptly gone and forgotten.

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63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The problem with this movie is that Wallace has attempted to squeeze a 500-page book into a 130-minute motion picture, something that can't be done without major sacrifices.

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60

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Beyond its persistent coarseness, Wallace's story often trades yesterday's inspiration (Dumas) for today's (Simpson-Bruckheimer).

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60

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Heavy on swordplay and spectacle, it's so intent on reviving the costume epics of the past it doesn't realize it's trying to be too many things to too many people until it collapses under its own weight.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Viewers expecting rip-roaring, chandelier- swinging swordplay adventure are likely to be disappointed by the measured tone and portentous verbal interplay.

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50

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Leonardo DiCaprio? Excuse me, Leonardo DiCaprio? I know he makes teenaged girls cry, but, I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio?

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50

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Going down with the Titanic was a picnic compared to what Leonardo DiCaprio has to weather (an Alice in Wonderland hairdo, for starters) as Louis XIV in this unwittingly nutso adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1850 novel.

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50

Slate David Edelstein

Thoroughly second-rate -- which is to say that it waddles when it ought to whiz, clanks when it strives for cornball poetry, and transforms its august stars into something akin to a manic dinner-theater troupe.

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50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The only other adaptations I've seen of the Alexandre Dumas novel (which I haven't read) are the Classics Illustrated comic book and the 1939 James Whale potboiler, both of which I prefer to this vulgar and overwrought 1998 free-for-all, which makes you wait interminably for the story's central narrative premise.

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50

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There is nothing worth getting steamed over or particularly excited about.

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40

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The Three Musketeers, a rusty trio of middle-aged retirees, have all but changed their motto from "All for one and one for all" to "I have fallen and I can't get up" in this less-than-rollicking adaptation.

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40

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

This new chronicle of the adventures of the king's musketeers, as directed by Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace, suffers from a severe case of over-earnestness and star-power overkill.

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40

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This dopey swashbuckler offers little action but lashings of DiCaprio's soft, hairless flesh.

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10

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Not 10 minutes into the smeary mess that is The Man in the Iron Mask, the only sensible question to ask yourself is, "What am I doing here?"

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 4:
Another good story receives perfectly average treatment.

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