When The Mask of Zorro begins, it’s 1821 and our hero (Anthony Hopkins), is doing his thing. Charging into a public square in the nick of time; Zorro uses his blade, his bullwhip and his acrobatic skill to rescue a group of peasants from the governor’s firing squad, before riding off again on his trusty Tornado. All this right after the opening credits. In the middle of the melee, Zorro is saved by a pair of quick thinking kids and the sword fighter gives one of the children a silver medallion.
Flash to two decades later; after escaping from years in prison, the now aging Zorro (really a nobleman named Don Diego) sees a grown man named Alejandro (Antonio Banderas) wearing the medallion and he decides it’s time to repay the favor. But Banderas’s character has grown-up to become a thief -- and Zorro must convince him to go straight... by dressing-up in a frilly costume. The older Zorro trains Alejandro to replace him. Don Diego must smooth out Alejandro’s rough edges and hone his fighting skills. There’s a little My Fair Lady-meets-Yoda routine as the elder Zorro turns Alejandro into not only a great swordsman, but also a charming gentleman.
Together, they set about getting their revenge. Don Diego goes after Don Raphael (the perfectly diabolical Stuart Wilson); the man who stole his daughter, played by the exquisite Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. Alejandro, meanwhile has his sights on Raphael’s lieutenant, Captain Love, the man who killed his brother.
So there’s actually a decent plot to motivate all the action. The two Zorro’s team up to foil Don Raphael’s clever scheme to steal General Santa Ana’s own gold and use it to buy California from him. Along the way we get some truly exhilarating stunt sequences that owe a debt to the Indiana Jones films and the old fashioned Hollywood swashbucklers that inspired them. And the scenes aren’t shot in the quick-cut, shaky camera style that’s infected too many of today’s action films. Credit for this goes to Executive Producer Steven Speilberg and director Martin Campbell. Campbell -- who helped give new life to another legendary character with the James Bond film GoldenEye -- does justice to Zorro.
The cast is solid too. Hopkins, who’s played everything from a cannibal to a president, is great in what could be called “The Sean Connery Role”. He brings a substantial charisma to the part and is actually convincing as an action hero. Who knew? Banderas is perfect in a role that allows him to be funny and seductive while kicking butt. And Zeta-Jones nearly steals the show playing the damsel who, like most Action Movie Babes these days, is hardly in distress.
The movie’s only major flaw is that after a while, it starts to drag. The finale goes on too long and isn’t as satisfying as all that came before. But for the most part, this Zorro hits the mark.