Starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, Luiz Guzman, Dagmara Dominczyk
Written By: Jay Wolpert
Directed By: Kevin Reynolds
In the words of Cartman, “revenge is so very, very sweet.” This film was supposed to come out in October but got pushed back til February.

I had an interest in seeing this when I saw the first trailer back in the summertime, but didn’t know how it was going to be. The word of mouth on this was good so I decided to take a look. This story, written by Alexandre Dumas, has been told a 100 times in TV series and I believe old movies as well. It’s a story about Edmund Dantes (James Caviezel) and his “friend” Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce). Edmund is about to be engaged, and Mondego is jealous and wants his fiancee. He frames Edmund Dantes for something and he is set off to prison.

While in prison, he’s tortured and eventually meets an old wise man named Faria, (Richard Harris) that has been there for 11 years. He teaches Edmund philosophy, math, and fencing. The old man tells Edmund of a place that has tons of gold and treasure, and gives him a map. Edmund escapes the prison and finds the treasure. He changes his identity to get back at the people involved with his imprisonment. The tagline says “count on revenge” and that’s what happens I liked this movie a lot. It’s a fun, adventurous movie with drama, action, and a little bit of romance. The actors did a job well done, but what stands out more is the story. But back to the actors; Jim Caviezel did a great job as Edmund Dantes and Guy Pearce is always good. He’s so evil in a lot of the roles he plays. Richard Harris, once again steals the show as Faria in the prison. I really enjoyed when he was on the screen. Luiz Guzman was okay.

I was kind of giggling to myself while seeing Luiz have this silly hairpiece towards the end of the film. He had his moments in the film though. Beside the story being great, so was the action. I love swordfighting movies. I almost wish there was more swordplay instead of drama but I suppose if you cut out any of the drama, it might take away from the story. The locations where they shot were beautiful, and the film score had it’s “swashbuckler” moments and quite good I might add. Some scenes did drag on a little bit or were slow at times. The scenes in the prison were good but I was waiting for Edmund to escape so he can kick some ass. As for the direction, Kevin Reynolds finally got out of the that slump after Waterworld and directed a good movie. If you like sword-fighting, swashbuckler, adventurous movies than you’ll enjoy The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Favorite Scenes: The swordfight in the cornfields at the end of the film.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 131 minutes
Overall Rating: