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The
Count of Monte
Cristo
has made its way to
blu-ray and a great
feature just got
better with perfect
picture and sound.
Alexandre Dumas’
second most notable
work behind
The Three Musketeers
was turned into a
movie most recently
in 2002 with Kevin
Reynolds directing
and Jim Caviezel
starring.
The movie tells the
ultimate tale of
revenge. Edmond
Dantes is a young
man who had
literally everything
taken away from him
by his best friend
and a few greedy
French politicians.
After spending years
in a prison with his
hatred and lust for
revenge brewing,
Edmond finally gets
out of jail. The
thing is… In jail,
an old priest taught
him to read, use a
sword, and all kind
of useful things. He
also told him the
location of a giant
treasure. So once
Edmond escapes
prison he goes and
gets the treasure
and uses it to start
planning his revenge
on those who’ve
wronged him. He buys
a giant estate and
calls himself The
Count of Monte
Cristo and
establishes a
reputation for
himself and earns
enough respect and
attention to where
he can start taking
his revenge on the
people who took
years away from his
life.
Reynold’s way of
telling
The
Count of Monte
Cristo
has been criticized
because he didn’t
stay true to the
book. Did I like
everything that he
did? No. Do I like
the overall work he
did and what he did
with the classic
tale? Absolutely. He
updated the story
and it turned out
great. It grabs your
attention and you
live and breathe
with Edmond Dantes
through prison and
as he exacts his
revenge. The only
thing I’ll say about
Reynold’s work with
this movie is
outside of Caviziel
the characters
aren’t as well
casted as they could
have been. There are
a lot of ‘I know
that dude’ actors,
but not a lot of
really noteworthy
thesps. That’s a
small criticism. One
interesting fact is
that Richard Harris
played the role of
Abbe Farria
(Priest), Edmond’s
cellmate and savior
in prison…. He also
played Dumbledore in
the first two Harry
Potter movies before
he passed away in
2002.
The
blu-ray update, it’s
HD video but it
wasn’t made that
long ago so it
doesn’t really need
that much
restoration. The one
thing I’ll say for
video shot in the
1998-2002 period
with the beginning
of DVD is that it
doesn’t have a lot
of soul to it.
That’s exemplified
with
The
Count of Monte
Cristo.
The video doesn’t
have the soul and
spirit that films a
few years later
started to develop
or that older films
had. There’s no
personality. On a
format like blu-ray
that’s only
heightened, and the
directorial effort
by Reynolds isn’t
really highlighted
as much as it can be
ignored.
The blu-ray features
on this are mostly
the DVD features
from a release that
was put out with the
DVD release years
ago. There’s not a
ton here but there’s
some info on Dumas
and lots of
production things
that are talked
about in the extras.
There’s nothing
notable but it’s
serviceable.
The
Count of Monte
Cristo
is a great story and
Reynold’s version of
the story is good.
It’s not amazing,
but he made a solid
movie that’s as
watchable now as it
was in 2002 when it
came out. There’s
something to be said
for that.
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