and now the high-flying hong kong style of filmmaking has made its way down to the classics , and it isn't pretty . 
this time out the nod to asia goes by way of france in the excruciating bland and lukewarm production of the musketeer , a version of dumas's the three musketeers . 
by bringing in popular asian actor/stunt coordinator xing xing xiong -- whose only prior american attempts at stunt choreography have been the laughable van damme vehicle double team and the dennis rodman cinematic joke simon sez -- our musketeers are thrown into the air to do their fighting . 
the end result is a tepid and dull action/adventure rip-off that stinks of indiana jones and bad asian kung fu . 
the story is so simple my grandmother could have adapted the screenplay . 
d'artagnan ( justin chambers ) is the vengeful son of a slain musketeer . 
he travels to paris to join the royal musketeers and find the man that killed his parents . 
in paris , he meets the cunning cardinal richelieu ( stephen rea ) , who is trying to overthrow the king , and richelieu's man-in-black associate febre ( tim roth ) , the killer of his folks . 
he finds the musketeers in paris disbanded and drunk , so he rounds up aramis ( nick moran ) , athos ( jan gregor kremp ) and porthos ( steven spiers ) to free the musketeer's wrongfully imprisoned leader treville from the king's prison . 
d'artagnan and his new frisky love interest/chambermaid francesca ( mena suvari ) play footsy and coo at each other as the cardinal hunts down the musketeers until finally the queen ( catherine deneuve ) ends up being captured by the menancing febre , forcing the musketeers to regroup , with d'artagnan leading the charge , and save the day . 
director peter hyams ( end of days ) obviously wanted to blend eastern and western filmmaking styles , but here it's a disaster . 
one problem is that , in reality , most eastern films have taken their lead from western ones . 
jet li's high risk is a rip-off of die hard -- not the other way around . 
ironically , there is awfully little swordplay or action in the film at all -- maybe ten minutes of swashbuckling spread over five scenes . 
most asian action films carry the bulk of their production with 20- to 30-minute action sequences , because they know the scenes have to carry the picture . 
the musketeer instead weighs itself down with a predictable and monotonous screenplay by gene quintano ( sudden death ) , horrible acting by stephen rea and tim roth , and the prosaic attempt of justin chambers ( the wedding planner ) to deliver his mousy self as a leader . 
chambers' d'artangnan isn't a musketeer -- he's a mouseketeer ! 
and hyam's use of candles and torches to light the grime and filth of 17th century paris are well-noted , but that's the only standout in an overall flat production .