When the dashing and guileless
Edmond Dantes (Caviezel) is betrayed by his best friend (Pearce)
and wrongly imprisoned, he becomes consumed by thoughts of
vengeance. After a miraculous escape, he transforms himself into
the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, insinuates
himself into the French Nobility and puts his cunning plan of
revenge into action. This swashbuckling thriller will have you
sitting on the edge of your seat until the last ounce of revenge
is exacted.
The Count of
Monte Cristo
is sharp, heartfelt, and sensational. I found the film to
provide an exciting and enjoyable experience. The pace usually
moved fast, the acting seemed solid and the film provided
something different. After several remakes of this film Buena
Vista Home Entertainment (Disney) gives us a reminiscent classic
that is engaging, slick and enjoyable, this is a wonderful
retelling adventure of wrongful persecution and revenge of
Edmond Dantes.
The
Video
The Count
of Monte Cristo
appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 the image has been enhanced
for 16X9 televisions. As a whole, the movie looked nicely crisp
and well defined most of the time. Sharpness was solid. I saw
no problems related to edge enhancement or jagged edges. Colors
looked remarkable with natural flesh tones.
Shadow detail
was a little annoying. There were many dark scenes in this film,
which gives us an overly deep black sequence; low-light scenes
appeared excessively dim and difficult to make out, I found
myself raising the volume of brightness several times. Despite
the shadow detail being a bit too thick, the rest of the film
maintained a first class visual presentation.
The
Audio
The Count of
Monte Cristo
is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Music showed excellent
active participation, as the score mixed nicely into all five
channels and became quite captivating much of the time. The
effects also moved around the room with unexpected depth.
Much of the
audio remained anchored within the front channels, but those
speakers showed good representation. The surrounds also came to
life smoothly during many scenes, the rear channels didn’t
overpower the action but they complimented it well. Audio
quality was generally positive. Music worked best, as the score
was resounding and vivacious, with good bass response. I thought
The Count of Monte Cristo's audio track packed a very
nice resonance.
The
Extras
Extras:
-Audio
Commentary with Director Kevin Reynolds
-"The Napoleonic World" Production Design Featurette
-"En Garde" Multi-Angle Sword-Fighting Feature
-"The Pen" Retrospective On Author Alexandre Dumas
-"Adapting a Classic" Screenwriting Segment
-"The Clash Of Steel" Stung Choreography Piece
-Layer By Layer Interactive Sound Design Feature
-4 Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Filmmakers
-THX-Certified with Optimizer
Overall
The Count
of Monte Cristo
is well paced and exciting, the film simply works nicely for the
most part. Despite the shadow detail being a bit too thick the
DVD includes a very solid picture and sound plus a terrific
roster of extras. The Count of Monte Cristo probably
won’t please everyone, however if your looking
for suspense, action, romance and revenge this film will surely do
the trick – Highly recommended.
