DVD Review: The Count of Monte Cristo Studio: Touchstone Pictures (Walt Disney Co.) Produced by: Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber Directed by: Kevin Reynolds Starring: Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Dagmara Domiczyk, Luis Guzman

Review Posted: September 16, 2002 Reviewed by: Greg Elliott [ greg@entopia2002.com ]	Discuss this Review in Forumtopia!

There are great films, and there are horrible films.  Then there are films like The Count of Monte Cristo, which may not be the greatest cinematic event of your lifetime, but manage to entertain you and make you smile nonetheless.  Adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic of the same name (which I have not read, so I’m not going to bitch about book-to-film “problems” like most critics), The Count of Monte Cristo is a fun movie about betrayal, adventure, and best of all—revenge.

When Edmond Dantes (Frequency’s Jim Caviezel) is betrayed by his best friend Fernand Mondego (Memento’s Guy Pearce) and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit, he becomes obsessed with exacting his vengeance on those responsible.  After an escape many years in the planning, and a little help from a buried treasure, Dantes becomes the suave and enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo, and puts his plan of revenge into motion.

Yes.  I know I’m good.

Like I said, I haven’t read the novel, so I can’t compare the book to the movie. After watching some of the featurettes on the disc, I have found out they changed quite a bit in this adaptation. Well, who cares? The movie has likable (and dislikable when appropriate) characters, a interesting story, and some nail-biting edge-of-your-seat sequences. To all the critics with sticks up their butts, learn how to watch a movie for fun. Hmph.

Video Presentation

At times, this movie is absolutely gorgeous, mainly when the scenes are outside in daylight.  The Island of Monte Cristo has some stunning ocean views, and the colors are crisp and vivid.  The costuming of the social elite during the high-class parties in the movie is colorful, bright and very well presented on film.  However, in some of the darker dungeon sequences, and especially the initial confrontation inside Count Mondego’s house, the picture looks faded and the contrast levels are just awful.  In these darker scenes, brighter colors seem pushed, especially red, so things like lipstick and blood just jump of the screen like they were glow-in-the-dark.  Otherwise the movie’s picture quality is just fine, with no visible edge enhancement or artifacts.

"After watching some of the featurettes on the disc, I have found out they changed quite a bit in this adaptation.  Well, who cares?  To all the critics with sticks up their butts, learn how to watch a movie for fun.  Hmph."

”I’m sorry for The Time Machine!”  *snif*

Sound Presentation

Absent from this disc is a DTS soundtrack, but the Dolby 5.1 track does just fine.  There isn’t a lot in the film that requires a large amount of surround, but in the large party scenes it’s pretty damn cool to hear conversations in the background coming from behind you!  Also available is a French Dolby 5.1 track, but since I haven’t a clue on how to speak French, I can’t tell you how good that one is.  I need to throw in a little rant here however.  This is directed towards all studios producing DVDs currently.  PUT SPANISH AUDIO TRACKS ON DVDs!  SUBTITLES JUST DON’T CUT IT!  Last time I checked, a lot more people spoke Spanish in the U.S. than speak French. I know Region 1 includes Canada, but who cares about Canada!  They say “aboot” and “hoser” and play lacrosse for pete’s sake!  Grrr…

Editor’s Note:  We at Entertainmentopia do not actually hate Canada, and neither does Greg, but he needs somebody to blame stuff on when he’s desperate, and they’re close by. J

Special Features

Looking at the list of Special Features on this disc, you’d think there’s a lot, but they go by real fast. All the featurettes can be played together (except for the multi-angle sword fighting one), and take about 20 minutes for all of them to play.  However, they are interesting to watch, and it’s pretty cool to see how they did a lot of the stuff in the movie.  The deleted scenes are pretty basic, but one is actually a cool alternate version of Inspector Villefort’s “departure” .

I think I made the wrong turn at Albuquerque…

Summation

Overall, this disc is pretty solid.  Fairly barebones, and save the video problems I mentioned, I would recommend this disc for anyone looking for a fun movie, or for the chance to see Guy Pearce play a bad guy!

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