In theaters

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, directed by Kevin Reynolds. Written by Jay Wolpert, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas. 110 minutes. Rated PG-13.

For adventure fans, Kevin Reynolds’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” has it all – romance, betrayal, a daring escape, sudden wealth, terrific action and swordplay – and a beautifully executed setup for revenge that leaves a satisfying mark on screen.

The film, which Jay Wolpert adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel, proves that in Hollywood, redemption is possible even if you filmed one of the biggest cinematic bumbles of the last century. Reynolds directed 1995’s “Waterworld,” the legendary disaster that has since become one of those movies by which all other big-budget bombs are judged.

Happily for Reynolds – and for audiences – “The Count of Monte Cristo” won’t suffer such a waterlogged fate. The film is great fun, a rousing, well-told tale that captures the spirit of Dumas’ novel while compressing it into an altered, streamlined nugget for contemporary audiences.

In the film, James Caviezel is Edmond Dantes, a naive, up-and-coming sailor whose love affair with the buxom Mercedes (Dagmara Dominszyk) is such a sticking point with his jealous friend Fernand de Mondego (Guy Pearce) that Mondego doesn’t hesitate to burn Dantes with a false treason charge when the opportunity presents itself.

Now locked away in an Alcatrazlike prison in the Chateau d’If, Dantes spends the next 14 years questioning his relationship with God, hardening his soul, and then tunneling his way to freedom while also planning his revenge. He does so with the help of Abbe Faria (Richard Harris), a fellow prisoner whose friendship, influence and hidden treasure ultimately transform Dantes into the powerful, graceful Count of Monte Cristo – a man whose revenge will be especially significant when he learns that Mondego has since married Mercedes and fathered their child.

With Luis Guzman as Dantes’ loyal servant Jacopo, a piggish man Dantes essentially won in a fight, “The Count of Monte Cristo” isn’t the definitive version of Dumas’ novel – that belongs to Rowland Lee’s 1934 movie – but it’s solid entertainment. Throughout, there’s the sense that the failures of Reynolds’ past – and the lowered expectations he enjoys in the present – might have freed him to make a good movie. Under his direction, Caviezel (“The Thin Red Line,” “Frequency,” “Angel Eyes”), is especially good, finally exchanging the brain-dead brand of acting that has defined so many of his performances with an energy and charisma that become the soul of the movie.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Written by Tab Murphy. 95 minutes. Rated PG.

When compared to Disney’s best animated films, the company’s most recent to hit video stores, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” doesn’t compare.

As directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, the team behind “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the film has a promising beginning and animation that effectively borrows from Japan. But the moment it dives 20,000 leagues under the sea in search of the mythic city Plato made famous, the plot starts to sputter, the characters begin to hiccup – and the movie itself begins to drown.

Indeed, the problem with “Atlantis” is that instead of mining its humor from its situations, it chooses racial and ethnic stereotypes.

After the gripping opening sequence that features Atlantis and its people being swallowed whole by the sea, the film cuts to 1914, where an expedition to the lost city is being bankrolled by the eccentric billionaire, Preston Whitmore (voice of John Mahony).

The film’s hero, Milo Thatch (Michael J. Foxx), quits his day job as a museum cartographer to join Commander Rourke (James Garner) and his tough melting pot of a crew: a stinky Frenchman (Corey Burton), a dimwitted Italian (Don Novello), a tough-talking Latina mechanic (Jacqueline Obradors), and a muscular black doctor drawn to look like an athlete (Phil Morris).

When the crew finds Atlantis – too easily, I might add – a romance builds between Milo and an Atlantean princess (Cree Summer) before the tide literally turns against them in a story that feels more like “Star Wars” as written by Jules Verne than it does an underwater adventure based on the Atlantis myth.

With the twists too predictable and the characters among Disney’s flattest, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” ultimately generates no heat. As beautifully drawn and as shrewdly edited as it is, it never becomes the sort of heart-stopping event movie that fans of Disney’s best animated films have come to expect.

Grade: C

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and in the movies section on bangornews.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.