The Count of Monte Cristo-A Wet Blanket of a Film

Advantages: A few well-played parts, visually impressive.
Disadvantages: Script and plot are weak, characters too stereotypical.

...I saw The Count of Monte Cristo on the first day it came out here in the UK, but I wasn't overly impressed. Here's why... = The Man in the Iron Mask, Anybody? = Dashing young men dash across the screen quite dashingly in this distinctly average tale of trust, bravery and - well - dashing, really. Admittedly there are some impressive scenes and the landscape is breathtaking, but the story-line leaves a little to be desired... The Plot of The Count of Monte Cristo We're in France after the fall of Napoleon. The dashing (I warned you!) Edmond Dantes (played by Jim Caviezel) is a clerk's son who has enjoyed some success in life. His...

freelancer1 14.10.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

Monte, You Terrible Count

Advantages: Good old fashioned romp
Disadvantages: Not enough romping

...for the incarcerated Edmond until a chance encounter with fellow prisoner Abbe (Richard Harris) leads him to formulate an elaborate plan to get his own back on those who betrayed him. His revenge keeps him sane, and many years after his capture, he is finally ready to re-emerge in his new guise as The Count of Monte Cristo, and exact his revenge? * * * * * Remade 10 times (3 times for TV), you have to start wondering whether or not Hollywood have any original ideas left. Fortunately, this is not an ill-fated attempt at polishing a turd ? it?s a surprisingly engaging old-fashioned yarn. I can?t say I?ve seen any of the other attempts to bring Alexandre Dumas? classic novel to the screen, but this suitably impressed me. ***ACTING UP*** Jim Caviezel is one of those actors whose face you?ll know, but probably won?t remember for doing a superb acting...

peppersinclaire 10.11.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

Hotel Monte Verde

Advantages: Very Clean
Disadvantages: Awful Food, Noisy, Far way from Palma Airport

...In October 2006 I went on an all-inclusive holiday for one week to Porto Cristo on the east coast of Majorca (Mallorca). I stayed in a hotel called the Monte Verde. It cost me £169 and I will now share my experiences of this hotel with you. The Monte Verde Hotel was built in 1969 and was fully refurbished during the winter of 2000. The Monte Verde has a total of 140 rooms that are built over 7 floors. When I pulled up to The Monte Verde I was not very impressed with the look of the hotel, it looked like a block of flats and was similar to some of the housing around Porto Cristo, which looked a bit basic and old fashioned. However The Monte Verde is only a 2 star hotel so I was not expecting too much. Upon arriving inside at around midnight Majorcan time (+1 hour GMT), I was surprised to find nobody at the 24-hour front desk. I...

ccrane1983 20.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Monte Verde, Porto Cristo

Jacobo! Bertuccio! The world is mine!

Advantages: Great performences, Superb story
Disadvantages: Mix of accents, some of original story lost

...The Count of Monte-Cristo I first saw this film on Film4, where I have since seen it showing on quite a few occasions. I absolutely loved it and now own the DVD. My copy cost £7 from HMV; it is also available from Play and Amazon for around £6. The front of the DVD case looks like the photograph shown. The back has a short description of the plot and some credits. This film was produced in 1975, and this DVD version released in 2007. Plot The film is a made-for-TV movie adaption of the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas and is set in the Napoleonic era and stars Richard Chamberlain as Edward Dantes; a man with the world at his feet. Dantes is about to become a Captain in the Navy and is set to marry his true love, Mercedes (played by Kate Nelligan). Dantes plans are scuppered by three men who falsely...

Chuckles1987 03.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

Don't count on this version...

Advantages: Good action, looks great, fantastic story
Disadvantages: Average script and acting, misses lots out from the book

...named Edmond Dantès is asked by Napoleon Bonaparte to deliver a letter, but before he can do this he is captured and arrested on charges of treason. It turns out his best friend, Mondego, has betrayed him, because he was jealous of Edmond's success. He is sent to the Chateau d'If, a brutal island prison surrounded by stormy seas, where he spends 13 painful years. Inside, he meets a priest called Abbe Faria who teaches him to read, write, and swordfight, in return for helping him dig an escape tunnel. However, when Faria dies, he uses this as his chance of escape; hiding inside the body bag and getting thrown into the ocean. He finds his way onto an island and meets a group of smugglers, then goes off to discover a hoard of hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. On his return to Marseilles, he discovers that his fiancé Mercedes...

l-m-n-o-p 26.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

Wreak My Rewengay

Advantages: Exciting, sword fighting, not too much bodice ripping
Disadvantages: None

..., so as not to narrow the audience and so any scenes where sex is involved are very underplayed and those involved are still fully clad and merely kiss and perhaps, rather daringly, hug! I found this a great relief as there is nothing I hate more when watching a drama or action film than to be assailed at every turn by heaving bosoms and overlibidious men. I have gone to watch the film for the sword fighting, the duels, the evil villains and exciting stunts and not to see some woman in the nude. If I wanted that there are plenty of pornos down at my local video shop. The Count of Monte Cristo had a romantic interest but that was not what dominated our hero?s actions, as he obviously thought with his brain and not what was in his trousers. No nudity here (sorry if that disappoints you blokies)! ENJOYMENT FACTOR The film will...

Ophelia 12.06.2003 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

On what slender threads do life and fortune hang

Advantages: A gripping, moving, very worthwhile read
Disadvantages: Discourages with its length, which is unfortunate

...Such is the quote chosen for the back of the new, stylishly attired Penguin edition of Alexandre Dumas? The Count of Monte Cristo, and it does sum it up quite perfectly. This edition is a thoroughly complete and unabridged version, in a new translation by Robin Buss, who also penned the introduction (worth a look) and notes. This weighs in at decent doorstop size, £8.99 (RRP) buying you entertainment for quite some time? three weeks, for myself entertaining myself on a daily commute. So why read all 1245 pages of tiny, crowded print? Let?s start with a synopsis of one of the most popular and enduring stories ever told? Edmond Dantes is a young and promising French sailor, about to be promoted by his boss, ready to lift himself and his father out of a life of genteel poverty and preparing to marry his sweetheart, local...

ruth_cole 02.09.2003 · Read review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

PREPARE FOR ADVENTURE - COUNT ON REVENGE

Advantages: Good swashbuckling fun, classic story
Disadvantages: Not quite enough action

...When a story has been dramatised into film nine times already, it does rather beg the question, “What’s the point of doing yet another version?” It was nearly twenty years since the last film version of Alexandre Dumas’s was released in cinemas, so with an entirely new generation of filmgoers to be enthralled, perhaps the time was right to re-make this classic story. The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of two young men. Edmond Dantes and Fernand Mondego both work for a shipping business, but come from completely different backgrounds. Edmond is the son of a common man, and lacks education and common sense. Mondego, on the other hand, is the son of a wealthy count and is well educated in all matters. Nonetheless, despite the pair’s wildly varying family backgrounds, it is Edmond who is the most...

LostWitness 03.10.2002 · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)

Memories of Marisa Monte

Advantages: Sumptuous arrangments and the voice of Marisa Monte.
Disadvantages: 'Rose & Charcoal' is a better album.

...I first remember hearing this album on a warm steamy tropical afternoon in 2003 whilst swinging in a hammock beside a riverbank. I'd kind of forgotten I still had the CD and have only recently started playing it again after rediscovering it at he bottom of my CD collection. It is all to easy to place Marisa Monte's music into the category of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira - Brazilian Popular Music) - a type of urban popular music that emerged in the 1970s with artists such as Chico Buarque, Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa. MPB evolved from the Bossa Nova period that dominated the 1960s and the subsequent 'Tropicália' movement led by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. Like European and North American pop music, MPB combines many influences derived from contemporary folk and rock, but often borrows heavily from traditional Brazilian Samba...

Zmugzy 26.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Memories Chronicles And Declarations Of Love - Marisa Monte

Stand up and be Counted

Advantages: Great solid old-fashioned story telling
Disadvantages: performaces on the hammy side, not enough fighting

...“What?” I said “I said, d’ya fancy going to see the remake of “The Count of Monte Cristo”?”, she replied. “ A remake of “The Count of Monte Cristo” how redundant is that? A story which, according to IMDB.com, has been made into a cinematic movie 13 times, 3 TV movies and 4 series. I’d say the last thing the world needs is yet another version. What on earth makes you think I’d ever go and see this movie?” A winning argument I thought. “Well, I have two free tickets courtesy of our friends at thefilmfactory.co.uk.” And so it was that I found myself making the trek to the Edinburgh UCI and I have to say I’m very glad I did, because it turns out the movie is not half bad at all, in fact I have to admit to rather enjoying it. Based...

daveking 21.04.2002 (22.04.2002) · Read review
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Review of The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)