My buddy Tom let me borrow his copy at least 2 years ago, probably longer than that. He told me it was a very good film that I would enjoy. The past 2 years, Kristi has chosen this film for February. She told me that I would enjoy it. So I finally watched it. Here are my thoughts.
Early on, I admit that I wasn’t digging it. It was all important stuff, but it was dark. It reminded me of the beginning of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I’ll reference that film again later on. Initially, I preferred Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) to Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel). I don’t know if this was intended, but his character spoke to me, which probably speaks to how awful of a human being I am. Ah well.
This is a store about a conspiracy that leads to wrongful imprisonment in France. I just had a Les Mis flashback….24601. Anyway, so things go really bad. Edmond meets some interesting people along the way. I though Michael Wincott’s performance of Armand Dorleac (The prison warden guy) was fantastic. In prison, Dantes goes through hell, and then he meets Abbe Faria, an old prisoner who was also wrongfully imprisoned. Abbe becomes a mentor to Dantes and teaches him so many things, from fighting to reading and math. Most importantly, Abbe passes along a map to a treasure trove of wealth. This leads to a prison escape, pirates, mansions, and most importantly, revenge.
If you had to describe this story in one word, it would be revenge. I remember many years ago, The Simpsons did an episode split into 3 stories based around revenge. One was based on this story. They really did a great job capturing so much while keeping it funny. It is funny how many flaws are in this film. When I did some research, I had a good laugh to say the least. I won’t spoil it, but my favorite was when ____ got stabbed and was clearly holding the sword between his arm and side as he was dying. That was hilarious.
That brings me to the direction and acting. I thought the actors did all that they could with the direction they got. I couldn’t tell if Guy Pearce was awful or brilliant. I will lean toward brilliant because this was his follow up to Memento. Jim did well. I’m shocked to say that I thought Luis Guzman as Jacopo did an absolutely wonderful job. A young Henry Cavill is in this as Guy’s son. So the performances were fine to very good. The direction on the other hand, questionable. Lots of mistakes. Also, I mentioned that this film felt a lot like Robin Hood. Well, the same guy apparently directed both films, so that makes some sense. He also did Waterworld and Hatfields & McCoys. So I like his work, but I wish somebody could have helped him correct some missteps.
Overall, I had a really good time. I wanted something to make me happy to start off the Chick Flick fiesta. Oh, you may be wondering why this film is in the chick flick month. There is a very interesting love story going on here. It checks a lot of boxes for a romantic story, but in a very different way. Plus, I do try to accommodate my readers.
Rating: 6.8 – I would rewatch it again, and I think I would enjoy it even more. Still, this has it’s limits, so I felt 6.8 was fair.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Touchstone Pictures (presents)
- Spyglass Entertainment
- World 2000 Entertainment
- Epsilon Motion Pictures
- Count of Monte Cristo Ltd.
Please go find a copy and support the creators.