Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
D'Artagnan travels to Paris hoping to become a musketeer, one of the French king's elite bodyguards, only to discover that the corps has been disbanded by conniving Cardinal Richelieu, who secretly hopes to usurp the throne. Fortunately, Athos, Porthos and Aramis have refused to lay down their weapons and continue to protect their king. D'Artagnan joins with the rogues to expose Richelieu's plot against the crown.
This 1993 Disney-ish adaptation of Dumas leans heavily into crowd-pleasing comedy and action at the expense of the source material's depth. The plot is a broadly simplified retelling that sacrifices nuance for accessibility, and the acting is uneven — Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt have fun but Charlie Sheen and Chris O'Donnell feel miscast. Cinematography is serviceable with decent period production design but nothing particularly distinctive. Novelty is low — it's a straightforward, commercially safe adaptation of a frequently filmed story with little new to say. The ending is predictable and tidily resolved without much dramatic tension.