Oct. 02, 2003 - 6:58 pm
ok, so first off, i haven't updated in a damn damn long time. it isn't that i haven't been watching movies, i just periodically lost my drive to write entries. i guess it happens to us all at some point or another. anyway, i'm hopefully back now. i'm not going to worry myself with writing entries about all the movies that i missed because it would just take way too long. some of the films i didn't write entries on: Secretary, Midnight Run, Sunset Blvd., Nick of Time, and quite a few others. i'm a huge slacker i know. hopefully i'll make up for it in the future.
i had wanted to see The Count of Monte Cristo when it was released in the theater last year but i never actually made it. at one point, i was supposed to meet Anne and some of her friends there, but there was a mixup and i ended up getting my money back instead of sitting in the theater by myself. this is another screen adaptation of the eternally famous and well-read novel by Alexandre Dumas. this is one of the few books i remember reading in high school and vividly enjoying. it's filled with romance, excitement, action, and perhaps most importantly hate.
i'm sure you've all read the book, but just to refresh your memory... it's about a young sailor who seems to have everything going right for him all of the sudden. he has a beautiful companion that he is getting ready to marry, he becomes the captain of the ship, and his father adores him. then everything goes just about as wrong as it can. he becomes falsely imprisoned for treason by his best friend and some other villains in the worst dungeonlike inescapable prison called the Chateau D'If. after years of despair he begins planning his vengeance against them and finds strength of mind from a fellow prisoner. after escaping, he finds a hidden treasure and begins to take calculated revenge upon all who contributed to his imprisonment and the destruction of his old life.
amazingly, pretty much the whole book has been rewritten and cut for this movie. actually i guess that happens a lot with classic stories. there are tons of things that have been completely changed plot-wise in this film though. but i guess if you just pretend like it's a different story, you'll do ok. i had to look back at the Cliffs Notes to see just how many differences there were (seeing as i hadn't read the book in about 7 years).
i really loved the cast of this film. that's definitely its strongest leg. Jim Caviezel is destined for greatness i think. and he has excellent choices as far as his roles go. the same thing goes for Guy Pearce. Mercedes was played by an actress named Dagmara Dominczyk who really astounded me. she has a very interesting way of speaking. it's not just because she's foreign, there's a kind of halting attractiveness to the way she says her lines.
overall though it's a very strong movie and has a lot of the standard glorious adventure that we've come to expect from director Kevin Reynolds who has done films like Rapa Nui (1994) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).