Hey, I liked this movie. It's a simple plot based on the book and done in a dozen different movies (my favorite being "The Three Musketeers" with Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt, and Chris O'Donnell). There is young D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers), an orphan raised by Planchet (Jean- Pierre Castaldi). Planchet is a gypsy swordsmaster who taught D'Artagnan's father. D'Artagnan learns to be a superb, if unconventional, swordsman, all the while burning for revenge at the man who killed his parents.

But for now he arrives in Paris looking to become one of the famed King's Musketeers. Alas, times are not so good for the loyal Musketeers, for they have been framed with murdering Spain's envoy to France. Disbanded and with their leader in jail, D'Artagnan only finds Porthos (Steven Spiers) and Aramus (Nick Moran) at the barracks. At least they point him to a cheap place to stay. An inn that used to teem with would be Musketeers, though now it is also in decline. But it is at the inn that D'Artagnan meets the fair Constance (Mena Suvari).

D'Artagnan enlists the aid of Aramus and Porthos and the three free Rochefort (David Schofield) from prison. With the leader of the Musketeers once again free, D'Artagnan is in like Flynn with the group, though still not an official Musketeer himself. Meanwhile, Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea) is not going to stand idly by and let the Musketeers ruin his plan to take over France. He arranges to have to King Louis XIII (Daniel Mesguich) embarrased at a dinner held in honor of the English ambassador, Lord Buckingham (Jeremy Clyde). The Musketeers once again step in and avert disaster, though not embarassment.

With French-English relations badly hurt by the fiasco, The Queen (Catherine Deneuve) travels incognito to Madame Lacross' (Tsilla Chelton) estate and onwards to meet secretly with Lord Buckingham. Only Planchet, D'Artagnan, and Constance accompany the Queen (Constance's mother was one of the Queen's handmaidens when she came over to marry King Louis XIII). Alas, her plans are spoiled by Richelieu's henchman Febre (Tim Roth). Febre captures the Queen and forges a note to Lord Buckingham. Now when Buckingham goes to meet the Queen, Febre will kill them both and start a war.

Febre is out of control and even Richelieu can't control him. He's holed up in a castle with his army of Hessian mercenaries, ready to let loose the dogs of war. Once again, only D'Artagnan and the Musketeers stand between the good of France and anarchy. And now D'Artagnan's quest is personal, for Febre is the man that killed his parents. Once again into the breach, for France, for the King!...

As I said, there's nothing really new here with respect to the plot. What they did this time though was hire Xiong Xin Xin to do the fight choreography in the "Hong Kong style". Lots of really cool acrobatic moves and displays of breathtaking swordsmanship. There are a few times when it's obviously wires, because like in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Hong Kong style doesn't worry about breaking physics. Still there are not that many fight scenes.

The first fight scene is in a bar. D'Artagnan walking on rolling wine barrels and hanging off of the ceiling. Then there are some more conventional fights, nothing spectacular. There's a cool chase fight on Planchet's wagon/home, think stagecoach. It includes D'Artagnan standing up on his horse, running and jumping onto another moving horse, then leaping again back onto the wagon. Plus the obligatory falling among the wagon horses and then crawling to the back of the wagon. Then there's D'Artagnan scaling a rope and fighting some Hessian mercenaries on their own ropes. And then we have the final duel between D'Artagnan and Febre. For some reason there's is a big barn-like building with lots of ladders. It doesn't make any sense but it does make it a pretty spectacular final battle.

Take out the great fights and the movie is below average. The problem with it is there are a lot of badly edited plot holes. Little things like how did he know this or how did we get here? It goes from one scene to another and you missed a scene, though that only happens once or twice. Mostly it's a lot of "well, if this is true then why didn't they do this or why hasn't that happened?" In the final analysis, I did enjoy the movie. There are better movies out there right now. This movie is sort of a "Knight's Tale" for 17th Century France. It's not bad, but it could have been better with better writing.