What is it about The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas's mammoth swashbuckler of perfidy, obsession, and revenge, that has inspired some 30 film adaptations? For Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), it's the clichés and the hypocrisy. Neither does he stint on the swash, which starts with the opening credits as idealistic sailor Edmond Dantès (broody Anthony Perkins look-alike James Caviezel) and his dissipated pal Fernand (an epicene Guy Pearce) take on a squad of British dragoons on the coast of Elba (fans of the book will at this point abandon all hope for a faithful adaptation) who think they're agents of the imprisoned Napoleon. The pair's mission proves innocent, unlike the emperor himself, who prevails on Edmond to deliver a "sentimental" note to a friend back in France.

What a sap. The envious, treacherous, and deceitful turn him in and Edmond loses his new captaincy, his fiancée, and his freedom as he spends the next 13 years a prisoner (or in the current parlance, a "detainee") in the Château d'If. That will make one want to get even, though his prison pal the Abbé Faria (Richard Harris, looking as wizardly as in Harry Potter) counsels against revenge even as he provides Edmond with the training and the treasure that will be his means of attaining it. Reynolds is equally sanctimonious about the evils of vengeance, but only after Edmond has killed or ruined all those who have annoyed him (the movie even invents a couple of bad guys not in the book for him to knock off) and thus satisfied the audience's basest inclinations can he dedicate his life to good deeds. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, or so the Abbé keeps reminding us. But wisdom doesn't sell movie tickets. At the Apple Valley, Entertainment, Hoyts Providence 16, and Showcase cinemas.