The Three Musketeers

Based on Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Three Musketeers follows Chris O’Donnell’s D’Artagnan as he endeavors to join Aramis (Charlie Sheen), Athos (Kiefer Sutherland), and Porthos (Oliver Platt) in their fight against an evil Cardinal (Tim Curry’s Richelieu). Filmmaker Stephen Herek, armed with David Loughery’s screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced yet mostly entertaining adventure that benefits from the first-class efforts of its various performers, as the movie’s stars turn in charismatic work that goes a long way towards compensating for the narrative’s somewhat hit-and-miss bent. (The four leads are quite good, to be sure, but it does remain clear that Curry’s deliciously smarmy turn as the mustache-twirling villain remains an ongoing and obvious highlight.) And although the picture’s first half and midsection contain a handful of engrossing sequences, including a terrific pursuit on horses through a French village, The Three Musketeers doesn’t entirely get going until it arrives at its action-packed and impressively propulsive climactic stretch – which does, in the final analysis, cement the film’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that evaporates from one’s mind minutes after it’s concluded.

**1/2 out of ****