"The Mask of Zorro" is action-packed escapist
fun, perhaps a guilty pleasure for some, but it
is too shallow and ridiculous to be considered a
good movie. "The Mask of Zorro" begins in
California in the year 1820, when it was still a
Spanish possession. Anthony Hopkins is Zorro,
masked action hero by day, aristocrat by night.
Governor and bad-guy Stuart Wilson learns
Hopkins' identify, and jails him, for good
measure killing his wife and kidnapping his
infant daughter.
Twenty years later, Hopkins escapes from prison,
and being too old for the role, instructs
enthusiastic bandit Antonio Banderas to take his
place as Zorro. Banderas' brother has been killed
by Matthew Letscher, who is Wilson's right-hand
man. Meanwhile, Wilson has a plan of buying
California from Mexico, with gold extracted via
slave labor from a local mine. Hopkins seeks
revenge on Wilson, Banderas seeks revenge on
Letscher, and Banderas romances Catherine Zeta
Jones, who is Hopkins' now-adult daughter.
What can be said that is positive about "Zorro"?
The sets are excellent, especially the mine. The
costumes are very good, and the endless action
scenes are well choreographed. Zeta Jones is
beyond beautiful, and the cast is energetic.
So, why isn't "The Mask of Zorro" (not to be
confused with "The Mark of Zorro", the silent
epic starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.) a good
movie? It's all action and no thought. The film
is riddled with little problems. I'll just
describe a few of them.
Hopkins spends twenty years in prison. The day
Wilson returns from Spain and pays a visit
looking for Zorro is the very day that Hopkins
decides to escape. Well, if it was so easy, why
didn't he break out twenty years earlier? Both
Hopkins and Banderas can fight multiple swordsmen
at once. They can also outrun bullets. But when
the duel their enemies one-on-one, they can
barely hold their own. Hopkins and Wilson have
numerous opportunities to kill each other, but
don't. It is almost as if they prefer the other
to stay alive, so as to make their own life more
interesting.
Hopkins trains Banderas to be not merely a great
swashbuckler and acrobat, but a gentleman as
well. He must be a great teacher, since Banderas
learns it all in just a few scenes. It took
Professor Higgins an entire three-hour movie to
train Eliza Doolittle.
Jones is a big fan of Zorro, and espouses
pro-peasant attitudes, despite being raised by
despot Wilson. It is amazing to me, but not to
the writers, that she never takes her father's
side, and falls for Zorro immediately.
Scenes typical of a Zorro movie, such as hapless
soldiers fumbling in an attempt to catch Zorro,
Zorro swinging from convenient ropes and
chandeliers like Tarzan, and jumping two stories
onto a stationary horse (Wouldn't that break the
horse's back? Wouldn't that cause an, um, groin
injury?) are present. It is probably impossible
to make a great movie about Zorro, (or Godzilla,
or Batman, for that matter) unless it is done as
a parody, such as was done in "Zorro, the Gay
Blade" some years back. (44/100)
A sweeping romantic adventure of love and honor, tragedy and triumph set against Mexico s fight for independence. Twenty years have past since Don Die...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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