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The Count of Monte CristoRating:
Release Date: 14 October, 2003 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $14.99 You SAVE: $5.00! Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
The Count of Monte Cristo Reviews
Petered out toward the end.....
The Count of Monte Cristo is the tale of naive but likeable commoner Edmund Dantes, his best friend Fernand Mondego and his betrayal at the hands of Mondego, to the government and subsequent imprisonment in Chateau D'If. Upon escape from the Chateau D'If, Dantes assumes the identity of the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo in order to take revenge upon the men who put him there.
I want to preface this review, by saying I have never read the Dumas' classic, and so this is my first experience with the count's story.
James Caviezel plays a very good Edmond. His romance with Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) was convincing, his interaction with the other characters well portrayed....But I admit, I grew tired of the endless sword-fighting scenes near the end (I found my finger straying to the 'fast-forward' button), and I grew tired of Edmond's endless and obsessive need for revenge. (About three-quarters of the way through the movie, I kept thinking it might be a good idea to put Edmond back in Chateau D'If).
While the sceneary and setting were both quite spectacular, I can only give this movie an 'average' rating, because of the sheer unlikable qualities of most of the main characters. By the end of this movie, I asked myself "Who Cares about Edmond, Mercedes of Fernand?" Not this viewer.
Old-Fashioned Movie Fun!
This adaptation of Alexander Dumas's THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO plays out more like a big budget A&E 'movie of the week' than it does a major motion picture of swashbuckling adventure.
However, there's a rousing and sweet joy in watching Edmund Dantes (played with infrequent success at achieving one accent by Jim Caviezel) carry out his plot to seek vengeance on those who stole his life away. Unjustly accused of treason, Dantes endures 16 years of solitude, most in prison, where he manages to meet a fellow prisoner (Richard Harris) and, together, they embark on an attempt to achieve their great escape. Guy Pearce (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, MEMENTO) is put to wonderful use as the villain, and he proves he can chew scenery with the best of them.
Perhaps the only disappointment the film has is the lack of swordplay. In an interview, Caviezel stated that he took fencing lessons for six weeks (even learning how to fence with both hands simultaneously), but there's little swash to this buckle on the silver screen; in fact, Caviezel only picks up a foil three times. The climax duel between the rivals is far too short for my tastes; instead, I found myself enjoying the ride more than the destination.
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