Review of The Three Musketeers

Four of 1993's hot young stars have fun in a quite frivolous but nonetheless highly enjoyable adaptation of a novel that quite obviously many see as a sacred text.It's full of energy,colour and movement and everybody enjoys themselves hugely. Mr Lester's earlier version was too self - consciously smug and clever for me;tried too hard to be British and Monty Pythonesque(Heaven forfend).Here it's just good old - fashioned fun with Mr K.Sutherland outstanding,but all the boys doing the most unlikely feats of swordsmanship and athleticism. This is not a serious history of pre - revolutionary France.It's a family comedy with bags of action that can offend nobody except the po - faced critics who want to see a straight adaptation of Monsieur Dumas' immortal story. I liked this film.It made me laugh,the horsemanship was outstanding,the swordfights brilliant and Mr T.Curry deliciously bad. I have a feeling that Dumas would have forgiven the liberties taken with his text in order to make it accessible to all,not just a few Francophiles,who,clearly,don't want to share it with the rest of us peasants.After all,it was that sort of attitude that triggered the French Revolution,n'est ce pas?