This French version of "The 4 Musketeers" tells the story of D'Artagnan and the three musketeers battling the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu while facing danger and surprises along the way. However, instead of attempting a faithful adaptation, we are treated to what looks like a poor quality TV movie that strongly resembles a really bad HIGHLANDER TV show episode.

Writers Pierre Aknine and Gerard Walraevens opted to add a distracting supernatural element and Jackie Chan-like wirework action to the story. Didn't we already see enough wirework in the 2001 "The Musketeer"? It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. It's hard to take this film seriously when so many liberties were taken with the classic story. Plus the awful voice dubs and acting don't help either. The worst Godzilla films have better dubbing and acting!

THE DVD

VIDEO:
For a film of such poor quality, the video is surprisingly decent. The film is presented in 16X9 Widescreen, which is the only redeeming aspect of this DVD. It's certainly not 5 star picture quality, but I have to have something positive to say.

SOUND The DVD claims to have an English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio track. I simply don't believe it. The horribly dubbed voices all sound like they were speaking into a tin can. In fact, the entire audio sounds like this. The audio on this disk has to be one of the worst I have ever heard.

EXTRAS Aside from "The 4 Musketeers" trailer and a few Lionsgate direct-to-dvd trailers, there is nothing here. This is actually a blessing as I could not endure a 3 hour commentary track... unless it was done by the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 gang.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Unless you are a glutton for punishment, I'd recommend avoiding this disk at all costs. If you'd like to see a quality Musketeers movie, I'd recommend the 1973 "The 4 Musketeers" directed by Richard Lester.

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.