If it weren't for the charm of Antonio Banderas and the sheer talent of Anthony Hopkins, this would be a direct-to-video movie starring Antonio Sabato Jr. and Armand Assante. In fact, Hopkins is more relaxed in this role than I think I've ever seen him; he actually SMILES, more broadly than I thought physically possible for him. Banderas is fine, with a nice flair for comedy, and boy does he look good in that Zorro outfit.
One of the biggest disappointments in the movie is the much-heralded Catherine Zeta-Jones. I'd been reading reviews raving about her strong, independent heroine, Elena. Well, sure, she's good with a sword, but that swordplay sequence between her and Banderas exists solely to give the director a chance to show her breasts (and if you go one step further and take the sword as a metaphor for a penis... okay, I'm not going to go there). She's a feminist heroine only in the sense that Ally McBeal is, which is to say she's not, but people think she is, and that's very troublesome. Plus, she's not a very good actress. I kept thinking what Jennifer Lopez could have done in this role... Ole! Which brings up a complaint a friend of mine had about Out of Sight, which seems more appropriate to Zorro: there's absolutely no reason for Banderas and Zeta-Jones to get together other than they're the only two beautiful people in the movie.
Anyway, this is definitely a "wait for the video" type of film.
It's
not going to fully satisfy anyone --- if you're looking for a big bang
action picture, it'll be too Errol Flynn for you. If you're looking for
a Flynn/Fairbanks flashback, it'll be too pyrotechnical.
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