Frankly, I find it very hard to believe that a major Euro-Cult exponent, the legendarily irascible 85-year old Italian film-maker Riccardo Freda, came out of 13 years of retirement to make this belated French swashbuckler with such art-house favourites as Sophie Marceau, Philippe Noiret, Claude Rich, Sami Frey and Luigi Proietti, got himself fired from the project (as so often happened in the past, often to the benefit of his cinematographer Mario Bava) and distinguished director Tavernier stepped in to complete the picture; the more likely scenario is that it was avowed Freda champion Tavernier's idea to dust off (and update) an old script from the elderly director's glory days of the "Peplum" subgenre - already filmed by him as the obscure and elusive THE SON OF D'ARTAGNAN (1950), co-starring the ubiquitous Gianna Maria Canale, his then-current muse/companion - now that swordplay was once again en vogue on screen in France – presumably following the worldwide success of the Oscar-nominated 1990 Gerard Depardieu version of CYRANO DE BERGERAC! Having said that, Richard Lester had himself resurrected his long- dormant Alexandre Dumas diptych from the mid-1970s for one final (and, ultimately, fatal) fling with 1989's middling THE RETURN OF THE MUSKETEERS – in which Noiret (here as D'Artagnan) had played Cardinal Mazarin i.e. Proietti's role in the movie under review! Whatever the real story is, the eventual outcome was a solid effort all round which, while perhaps not scaling the expected heights given its pedigree of cast and crew, should provide lively entertainment for viewers of all persuasions. In retrospect, Marceau may have been right in complaining that, notwithstanding the film's title, her part should have been bigger: she still gets to shed her clothes and wield the sword on various occasions and her characterization here must have decided Mel Gibson to cast her in his own epic BRAVEHEART (1995) and she did get her own later period vehicle in MARQUISE (1997; which I am not familiar with) in which she romances Louis XIV (who is still a royal teenage brat in this one!). Instead, Tavernier's movie chooses to focus on the tattered relationship between the reassembled Four Musketeers: even the supposedly dead Athos turns up as the one-eyed henchman of Mazarin! Marceau gets her own romantic foil in a rebellious poet (played by Tavernier's own actor son, Nils), as does bumbling villain Crassac (a delightful, Cesar-nominated turn from Rich) in his unscrupulous accomplice Eglantine De Rochefort (Charlotte Klady). For the longest time, we follow the two factions on the separate trails of 'Double McGuffins': the musketeers' clue turns out to be nothing but a laundry list, in spite of Bishop Aramis (Frey) extracting Biblical references from the message, obtained from a fugitive black slave in the very opening sequence, the initials of which when combined together spell "Crassac"!; Mazarin's clue, then, was nothing but Tavernier's on-the- spot poem to Marceau during their first meeting in a tavern! Even so, fencing instructor D'Artagnan and his aging buddies still manage to stumble on the real plot on the young king's life during his coronation.Recently, it seems like I always get to make a reference to my unwatched pile in my reviews: this one is, obviously, no exception since I own several tenuously "Musketeers"-related films I have yet to catch up with: A MODERN MUSKETEER (1917; with Douglas Fairbanks), BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT (1926; with John Gilbert); CARDINAL RICHELIEU (1935; with George Arliss), THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1935; with Walter Abel), UNDER THE RED ROBE (1937; with Conrad Veidt), an unsubtitled Spanish-language copy of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1942; with Cantinflas), Roberto Rossellini's THE TAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV (1966), the uncut International version of THE FIFTH MUSKETEER (1979; with Cornel Wilde as D'Artagnan) and THE MUSKETEER (2001; with Catherine Deneuve). To end this review as I had started it by referring to Riccardo Freda again: it should be noted that I have just acquired off of "You Tube" a copy of his professional rival Vittorio Cottafavi's MILADY AND THE MUSKETEERS (1952), sourced from a late-night Italian TV broadcast

1654. When the titular daughter, Eloise(the stunning Marceau, who takes over her father's arc, and is equally big on honor, justice, and defending the innocent), gets a hint of a conspiracy, she leaves the convent her and her mother were at(...if you aren't safe there, then where?), goes to Paris, has her first suitor(Tavernier, a poet who is not exactly skilled with a weapon; he is the comic relief, and in spite of that, he is seldom annoying, they walk the line of that well), and asks the elder D'Artagnan(Noiret, who recognizes himself as a youth in her... and the two have a great relationship, one of several that are sweet and, as a lot of the humor, very human, very sympathetic... she wants to be as big an adventurer as he was, he wants her to be a woman, and listen to her, and in amongst the expectations, there is clearly a mutual love) for help. He sets about reuniting with Aramis(Frey, the religious and controlling of them) and Porthos(Billerey, always hungry; what of Athos? I won't give that away), (all three of them physically affected by it having been 20 years since they were last swashbuckling) and they will all seek out the mysterious Red Lady. This clearly loves the novels(with many references to them, and not all overt or direct) and wanted to add a new chapter to the overall narrative, that of the next generation, and it succeeds in delivering that and making it compelling. We get an early indication of how far our villains will go(and when you find out what they're doing, it's quite clever, and fairly historically accurate), the gradual build-up to seeing them together rather than immediately showing all of our favorite musketeers, and the fencing is great, both in quality and amount. Nice choreography, and the well-done visual composition of the fights ensures that you never lose track of where everybody is, in relation to each other, and what they're currently doing - even when it involves a dozen people, and they're in a crowded, well-furnished area, like a bar. This keeps to a moderate pace, and one can clearly tell it's French... you can practically smell the environment, sense it right in front of you - with people in the market selling, inside praying or writing, etc., according to the time. The mood is thus set effectively. Their passion is also clear, with several of the well-written characters suddenly bursting into rants, or arguing. And it is evident in the comedy, which I've already mentioned. This balances laughs and tension well. There is a lot of mild violence, a little female nudity(topless, and butt) and sexuality, and, I'm told by the Parents Guide(what? I don't speak it... MF'er), some strong language in this. I recommend this to any and all fans of the Dumas stories. 7/10

Only based on Alexander Dumas' musketeer tales, not taken from them, this movie still manages to capture the sense of fun and adventure that marked his novels.The four older actors playing the retired musketeers who are drawn back into the fray by D'Artagnan's daughter, Eloise, will be unfamiliar to most American viewers, but all of them have that same kind of slightly naughty French humor that so many Americans love in Gérard Depardieu (whose Porthos from the "Man in the Iron Mask" would have fit in perfectly here).And Sophie Marceau will charm the pants off of you - although her pants are about the only clothing item she manages to hang onto here. But she is saucy, funny and very strong.The scenery, too, will enchant - the castles, the countryside, all are gorgeous and true to the time.

I was hoping that Bertrand Travenier, Sophie Marceau and (writer)Jean Cosmos would deliver a "unique" Musketeers film, but I was disappointed. The film was SLOW and LIMP. Perhaps the Muskeeters should of gone to the NEW WORLD and dealt with the Native Americans. THAT would make a good movie, Muskeeters help the native Americans against corrupt colonials. The film reminded me of "En Garde", another swashbuckler. Besides, d'Artagnan's daughter does not have mush screen time after her father and his chums enter the picture. The film has inspired such "rip offs" as La Femme Muskeeter and a PAX Cable TV series who's name I've forgotten