...everything a good, old-fashioned adventure story should be: daring, flamboyant, exciting, heroic, and supremely romantic.
The supporting cast, too, is good, three of them in particular: Dagmara Dominczyk as the beautiful Mercedes; Richard Harris as the old priest, Faria; and, the standout in my book, Luis Guzman as Jacopo, the man whose life Edmond spares and who swears eternal loyalty to him. Guzman steals practically every scene he's in with his spark and vitality, and he appears to be the cast member least interested in maintaining the solemnity of a literary classic. Maybe he's the only one in the cast who recognizes that the works of Dumas are no more great literature than those of Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy; they're just older.
Kevin Reynolds is the director, and although his guidance of the project may lack the last degree of flair, he paces the film well, keeps everything moving in good order, fashions some pretty realistic fight segments (sword fights, knife fights, fistfights), and never allows the viewer to become bogged down in plot intricacies. Indeed, if there's any problem with his direction, it's that he perhaps oversimplifies things in the final third of the film to the point where transitional detail is lost, and we wonder how certain characters arrived at point C from point A without ever having seemed to go through point B. But, then, Reynolds has had experience in this territory before as director of things like "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "Waterworld."
Finally, there's the look of the film, which of necessity must be in great part dark and murky and because of these conditions impresses one with its atmosphere and tone. The movie was filmed on location in Ireland and Malta and features handsome castles and chateaus for an authentic nineteenth-century feel. An ample supply of dim shadows, gloomy cells, and creepy corridors abound. Lighting and costumes are appropriately somber (except for the character of Jacopo later in the story, whose attitude and appearance light up the place), and the overall ominous mood of the Dumas story is maintained throughout.
Video:
Given the status of the film as a big-budget affair in Technicolor and Panavision, the picture quality and screen dimensions are uncommonly common, an ordinary-looking 1.74:1 ratio, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. I was also surprised to see more than a little grain throughout the darker and nighttime scenes, with a sort of veil or gauze covering the entire screen in certain dimmer shots. If the latter was intentional, the effect was wasted on me. Outdoor daylight shots, however, are well projected in bright colors and vivid contrasts, with only a small degree of BV's usual dull glossiness.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, mastered to THX standards, works exceptionally well in the front channels, where it conveys a broad stereo field and a moderately wide dynamic range. The rear channels don't do as much as I might have expected, but they are able to communicate a fair amount of crowd noise and ambient musical background. Both the picture quality and the audio quality are competent for the jobs at hand, without being in the top echelon of DVD reproduction.
Extras:
Befitting a lavish, $35,000,000 production, "The Count of Monte Cristo" comes with a reasonably interesting set of bonus features. The first is the customary audio commentary by the director, Kevin Reynolds. Next is a thirty-four minute documentary titled "An Epic Reborn," which goes into some depth on the origins of the story, the author, as well as the filmmaking. After that, there are four deleted scenes, with introductions by the director and by film editor Stephen Semel who explain carefully why each scene had to be cut for the sake of pacing. This is followed by two featurettes, "En Garde," which gives multi-angle views of Edmond's escape, and "Layer by Layer," which provides alternative versions of a scene with or without various layers of sound. Then, there's a THX Optimizer series of audiovisual tests, twenty-nine scene selections, but, quite oddly, no theatrical trailer. Oh, well. English and French are offered as spoken languages, with Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
Considering the novel was written over a hundred and fifty years ago, the movie's dialogue and phrasing have been somewhat refreshed. Some of it still sounds stilted, but much of it is surprisingly good. For instance, I liked Edmond's line when he confronts his old nemesis in the film's conclusion: "How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure." They are brief but not isolated examples of the film's delights. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is everything a good, old-fashioned adventure story should be: daring, flamboyant, exciting, heroic, and supremely romantic. I must admit to some hesitation going into the film, but I came out loving every minute of it.
Kevin Reynolds is the director, and although his guidance of the project may lack the last degree of flair, he paces the film well, keeps everything moving in good order, fashions some pretty realistic fight segments (sword fights, knife fights, fistfights), and never allows the viewer to become bogged down in plot intricacies. Indeed, if there's any problem with his direction, it's that he perhaps oversimplifies things in the final third of the film to the point where transitional detail is lost, and we wonder how certain characters arrived at point C from point A without ever having seemed to go through point B. But, then, Reynolds has had experience in this territory before as director of things like "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "Waterworld."
Finally, there's the look of the film, which of necessity must be in great part dark and murky and because of these conditions impresses one with its atmosphere and tone. The movie was filmed on location in Ireland and Malta and features handsome castles and chateaus for an authentic nineteenth-century feel. An ample supply of dim shadows, gloomy cells, and creepy corridors abound. Lighting and costumes are appropriately somber (except for the character of Jacopo later in the story, whose attitude and appearance light up the place), and the overall ominous mood of the Dumas story is maintained throughout.
Video:
Given the status of the film as a big-budget affair in Technicolor and Panavision, the picture quality and screen dimensions are uncommonly common, an ordinary-looking 1.74:1 ratio, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. I was also surprised to see more than a little grain throughout the darker and nighttime scenes, with a sort of veil or gauze covering the entire screen in certain dimmer shots. If the latter was intentional, the effect was wasted on me. Outdoor daylight shots, however, are well projected in bright colors and vivid contrasts, with only a small degree of BV's usual dull glossiness.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, mastered to THX standards, works exceptionally well in the front channels, where it conveys a broad stereo field and a moderately wide dynamic range. The rear channels don't do as much as I might have expected, but they are able to communicate a fair amount of crowd noise and ambient musical background. Both the picture quality and the audio quality are competent for the jobs at hand, without being in the top echelon of DVD reproduction.
Extras:
Befitting a lavish, $35,000,000 production, "The Count of Monte Cristo" comes with a reasonably interesting set of bonus features. The first is the customary audio commentary by the director, Kevin Reynolds. Next is a thirty-four minute documentary titled "An Epic Reborn," which goes into some depth on the origins of the story, the author, as well as the filmmaking. After that, there are four deleted scenes, with introductions by the director and by film editor Stephen Semel who explain carefully why each scene had to be cut for the sake of pacing. This is followed by two featurettes, "En Garde," which gives multi-angle views of Edmond's escape, and "Layer by Layer," which provides alternative versions of a scene with or without various layers of sound. Then, there's a THX Optimizer series of audiovisual tests, twenty-nine scene selections, but, quite oddly, no theatrical trailer. Oh, well. English and French are offered as spoken languages, with Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
Considering the novel was written over a hundred and fifty years ago, the movie's dialogue and phrasing have been somewhat refreshed. Some of it still sounds stilted, but much of it is surprisingly good. For instance, I liked Edmond's line when he confronts his old nemesis in the film's conclusion: "How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure." They are brief but not isolated examples of the film's delights. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is everything a good, old-fashioned adventure story should be: daring, flamboyant, exciting, heroic, and supremely romantic. I must admit to some hesitation going into the film, but I came out loving every minute of it.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]10540[/release]