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20 great movies from the past 20 years: The Three Musketeers

Our countdown continues with an underappreciated romp that is a pure delight for the senses

Pete Volk

Pete Volk

— 3 min read
The musketeers in The Three Musketeers (2011) cross their swords and look at the camera
Image: Summit

I’m counting down to the 2025 best-of-the-year season by recommending 20 of my favorite movies from the past 20 years. Here are the previous entries, if you want to catch up:

2005: Caché
2006: Undisputed II: Last Man Standing
2007: Sunshine
2008: Speed Racer
2009: Vengeance
2010: Unstoppable

For 2011, my first instinct was to recommend Johnnie To’s terrific love triangle rom-com Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, but you can’t watch it legally in the US right now. (JustWatch claims it’s on Pluto TV, but that’s actually a Spanish-language dub of an unrelated Hallmark movie with the same title). Yes, I recommended a Johnnie To (Vengeance) movie a few weeks ago, but I make the rules here and Don't Go Breaking My Heart is extremely different and extremely good. I’ll keep an eye out for its return to streaming services, and you should, too.

Instead, we’re going to talk about another movie from a filmmaker I adore: Paul W.S. Anderson’s adaptation of The Three Musketeers. All Alexandre Dumas adaptations are entertaining, because they get to work with fantastic source material. (If you haven’t seen the latest French blockbuster productions The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan, The Three Musketeers: Milady, and The Count of Monte Cristo, I definitely recommend them. They’re more faithful and complete adaptations of the books, and all three of them are free with a library card on Hoopla, with some also on Hulu and Kanopy.)  But Anderson’s is so full of life and color that I’ll never get it fully out of my head. It’s a relentless onslaught of outstanding images with sharp colors and larger-than-life set pieces to match the characters (and the perfectly cast performers who play them).

Because Anderson’s aesthetic leans more on images than words, I’m going to try to do the same here. I’m still happy with the review I wrote of his latest, the critically-panned (like almost all of his movies) In the Lost Lands, so check that out if you want a lengthier argument in favor of his work.

So, here are four reasons to love this movie, with some supporting visual evidence.

The lavish costumes and sets

Christoph Waltz and Milla Jovovich walk down an ornate hallway with giant candelabras in The Three Musketeers
All images via: Summit Entertainment
A large room in The Three Musketeers, with a giant painting and a throne
A fancily dressed woman looks at herself in an array of mirrors in The Three Musketeers

The larger-than-life set pieces that lean into absurd spectacle

A massive crowd outside a government building in The Three Musketeers
A massive crowd outside around an airship in The Three Musketeers
Two airships battling in The Three Musketeers
Christoph Waltz stands on a large battle map of Europe in The Three Musketeers

There’s a heartthrob for everyone

Milla Jovovich, smirking and holding a pistol as Milady
Logan Lerman blocks two swords at once in The Three Musketeers
Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham
Mads Mikkelsen as Rochefort
Gabriella Wilde as Constance
Matthew Macfadyen as Athos
Ray Stevenson as Porthos
Luke Evans as Aramis
Christoph Waltz as Richeliu in The Three Musketeers

Paul W.S. Anderson is a first-ballot inductee to the Cinematic Wife Guy Hall of Fame, so every frame with Milla Jovovich screams “I LOVE MY WIFE”

Milla Jovovich kicking ass, swordfighting in a ballgown
Milla Jovovich wearing a fancy dress in The Three Musketeers
Milla Jovovich slides on the tiled floor through traps with one eye open in The Three Musketeers
Milla Jovovich looks over her shoulder in The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers (2011) is streaming on Prime Video, for free with a library card on Kanopy, and for free with ads on The Roku Channel.

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