Return of the Musketeers (1989)

  Based on Dumas' story Twenty Years After, Return of the Musketeers finds D'Artagnon (Michael York) still only a lieutenant, and an impoverished one at that.  He is hired by Queen Anne's (Geraldine Chaplin) new lover, the Cardinal Mazarin (Philippe Noiret) to go find his three companions and enlist their aid in killing the Duke of Beaufort (Eusebio Lazaro), one of Mazarin's political opponents.  D'Artagnon finds that all of his friends are in markedly better circumstances than he:  Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) is in charge of an abbey and the Queen's personal confessor, Athos (Oliver Reed) retired to his country estate and adopted a son, Raoul (C. Thomas Howell), and Porthos (Frank Finlay) married an incredibly rich woman.  Only Porthos is bored enough to join D'Artagnon.  The other two are working for Beaufort.

Meanwhile, young Raoul is lovestruck the first time he sees Justine du Winter (Kim Cattrall), which happens to be while she is murdering the headsman that killed her mother with his own axe.  She tells him her sordid tale, her version of it anyway, as they spar.  He repeats it to his father, not knowing that is the nobleman she seeks.  But it doesn't matter, because the four musketeers are summoned by the queen for a rescue mission.  Her fellow monarch across the channel, Charles I (Bill Patterson) is being tried for treason and facing execution.  She sends the four over with the express intent of smuggling Charles out of the country.  Three guesses who they run into.  If you said Justine du Winter, congratulations!  You've been paying attention.

This movie was severely lacking in the amount of fun compared to the previous two, The Three Musketeers and Milady's Revenge.  I've never been impressed with Kim Cattrall's acting ability and she certainly is no Faye Dunaway.  The production was also hindered by the death of supporting actor, Roy Kinnear.  They did the best they could with the footage they had and used body doubles and voice overs for the rest, but it shows.  It just seemed like everyone involved had found better things to do with their time but they were contracted for one more movie.  Phoned in is the phrase I'm looking for, I guess.

And apparently, I have misspelled Musketeers in every single other post I have written.  Awesome.  All of those have been fixed now.  Thank you for not eviscerating me in the comments.