Musketeer, The

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

For his robust and handsome The Musketeer, Hyams enlisted veteran Hong Kong stunt coordinator Xin-Xin Xiong to stage a clutch of spectacular action sequences that are amusing in the imaginative intricacy of their bravura.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I cannot in strict accuracy recommend this film. It's such a jumble of action and motivation, ill-defined characters and action howlers.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

Quite handsomely produced, and there's a definite swashbuckling verve to it. Most of the characters have been contemporized, but the actors are engaging.

USA Today Mike Clark

If this is Dumas, there's a "b" in the middle and an extra "s" at the end.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

Moves in fits and starts, with some crafty and credible fight choreography by Xin Xin Xiong on either side of the pretty but boring middle hour.

Variety Joe Leydon

A handsome but ho-hum swashbuckler that springs to life only during a few spirited scenes of acrobatic swordplay.

Miami Herald Charles Savage

Its failure to be extraordinary is thus all the more cutting, and its redundancy all the more unforgivable.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Rollicks and rolls, thanks mainly to Roth's over-the-top depravity and Xiong's swingin', "Crouching Tiger"-style choreography.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The novelty value of seeing 17th-century French swordsmen fight like Chinese martial artists doesn't compensate for the film's generally wooden performances and clichéd dialogue.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A grotesque slumgullion of kung fu, studio schlock and pseudo-Dumas swashbuckling that leaves you longing for Doug Fairbanks --or even Don Ameche and The Ritz Brothers.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The images are pretty, and Gene Quintano's screenplay gets everybody from point A to point B, though with no discernible knack for wit or subtlety.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

Appallingly flat.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Dramatically as well as visually, The Musketeer conflicts with itself by trying to blend grand old- school costume drama and MTV- style rhythm and attitude into the same movie. The juxtapositions are often preposterous.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

East/West fusion aside, The Musketeer is a stale Euro-pudding.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

Musketeer's fight scenes are underlit, overmiked, and appallingly edited, with none of the spacious grace that even routine Asian action flicks get right. Worse, the narrative scenes make less sense.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

The movie lacks the one thing that the classic "Three Musketeers" story can't do without: panache.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

What a stupefying thing it is.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

An example of lazy, dumb and couldn't-care-less hack movie making.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The Musketeer is the worst Hollywood period film in -- it seems like ages since "American Outlaws."

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Hyams ("End of Days," "Timecop"), who is his own cinematographer, has no idea how to shoot or compose Xiong's wired choreography.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

There isn't a frame of The Musketeer that's believable even as a Hollywood re-creation of a fantasy world. It's conventionally picturesque, except in the nighttime and interior scenes, which are dark to the point of glaucoma.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Has the distinction of being the very worst of all the many film versions of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel, "The Three Musketeers." Nothing else in Musketeer movie history comes even remotely close to its staggering wretchedness.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Unspeakably awful.