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The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers

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The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers. Este Films 1973/1974.

Before watching the movie:

A large-budget film with a star-studded cast and strict attention to period accuracy could go poorly in all sorts of ways. The actors could fight for attention to the detriment of the film, the visual appeal could be lost in gritty details or vice versa, and the effort put into the enormous practical concerns could stomp out any entertainment value of the film.

These worries are only enhanced by the subject material. I vaguely recall an adaptation of The Three Musketeers in that a young man wants to be a Musketeer, gets in a fight with some, and then they all have adventures together. Rather dull, especially if one isn’t into swashbuckling tales.

I recognize many names, but I can connect hardly any of them with anything I know. At least it’s sold as a comedy, but I don’t expect much out of a 70s film.

Usually, I avoid sequels, but this pair was intended to be a single film, so I am taking it as one.

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Last Action Hero

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Last Action Hero. Columbia Pictures 1993.

Before watching the movie:

I don’t remember where I first heard of this film, but I liked the idea immediately. I like metafictional stories, and I don’t see them often applied to movies, especially as straightforwardly as this seems to be doing.

Action movies may not be my favorite, but I usually enjoy them, and they’re certainly ripe for parody, which is another thing I’m drawn to, if my blog history doesn’t show that.

The main thing that I keep forgetting when looking forward to this movie is that he’s a contemporary hero, a Die Hard, Rambo, or Schwarzenegger/Van Damme (big surprise) type. I always picture a more fantasy-style action hero, probably because there was a dragon movie right next to it on whatever page I first heard about this.

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The Mask of Zorro

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The Mask of Zorro. Tristar/Amblin 1998.

Before watching the movie:

Although this film reintroduced audiences to Zorro in the 90s, I know it’s not exactly an origin story, but in fact a legacy torch-passing. I’m not familiar enough with the story of Zorro to know why they couldn’t make the original Zorro the man they wanted him to be, but maybe it’s just more about the story they wanted to tell.

I’m not sure, but I think this is the movie that made Antonio Banderas a star, though a quick Wikipedia lookup says no. It does seem to be his break into very mainstream films, though.

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Logan’s Run

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Logan’s Run. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer 1976.

Before watching the movie:

My professor recommended this film to me as a similar story to draw from while writing for National Novel Writing Month. From the trailer I saw, it looks more like a totalitarian dystopia than a “the world is a lie” disillusionment, but I’ll give it a try.

The founding conceit reminds me of an episode of Star Trek, only with less protesting and more running and shooting. People’s hands have some glowing device in them.

Incidentally, Farrah Fawcett’s appearance makes a Google Image search for this movie difficult to find meaningful results.

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