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The Mask of Zorro
**1/2
Cinema
Releases - December 11,
1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale; USA; Directed by Martin Campbell. Written by Ted Elliot, John Eskow
and Terry Rossio. Starring
Antonio Banderas, Anthony
Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stuart Wilson.
We hear stirring, robust sound in "The Mask
of Zorro". We see rich, fiery photography. A delicious stage is set
for tales of legendary heroics, with Zorro, the mythical knight, battling
it out with slimy villains, saving innocent maidens and dazzling all with
his swordplay.
As we open, the respectable Don Diego (Anthony
Hopkins) is Zorro, rescuing people from unjust penalties, spitting in the
face of the evil Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson). But his true identity
is discovered, and Montero locks Don Diego up, shoots his wife and takes
his daughter to be raised as his own.
Twenty years later, Diego comes across an angry
layabout, Alejandro (Antonio Banderas), who he remembers seeing as a child,
and eventually decides to train as.... the new Zorro!
The mission of these two is to stop the sick Montero
yet again. He plans to buy California from General Santa Ana, with gold procured
from Santa Ana's own land. Young Zorro has to infiltrate the elite circle
of Montero, so he can understand how and when to strike. He also, of course,
sparks up a romance with the stolen daughter, the striking Elena (Catherine
Zeta-Jones).
This is a good movie. The cute dialogue flows
well, and ticks along beautifully thanks to the charisma of the leads. Hopkins
and Banderas, as well as Banderas and Zeta-Jones, make sizzling, exciting,
successfully comical pairs. In fact Zeta-Jones lights up the screen with
her appearance alone. Oozing sex appeal, she looks better than ever, and
when she was onscreen I was a different kind of hard man than
Zorro.
Still, let's not get carried away with Catherine's
body, and concentrate on the fact that the cast do give good performances.
Along with skilled director Martin Campbell, they find the balance between
serious composure and tongue-in-cheek lightheartedness that is necessary
to tell this big, booming and utterly corny tale. Kudos to Campbell for having
succeeded in this respect when so many other films fail, such as the painfully
solemn "Independence Day" and "Robin Hood: Price of Thieves". He achieved
the same triumph of tone with the 1995 James Bond film
"Goldeneye".
Unfortunately, his new movie also has a lot of
the same flaws as "Goldeneye", as well as some new ones. At 136 minutes,
"The Mask of Zorro" goes on too long for such basic entertainment. Some of
the action scenes, where we need to pay attention to small details, are extremely
hard to follow. There isn't as much legend or mystery as there should be
in a Zorro movie. And the bad guy isn't bad enough -- taking over California
isn't twisted enough for a comic-book villain, we need to see some peasants
being exploited, or killed!
Another, bigger problem I have is that although
"The Mask of Zorro" often feels cool to watch, that doesn't make it very
involving, and hence not as exciting as it should be. Once Campbell sorts
out this problem with his directorial style, his work will be something really
special.
COPYRIGHT©
1998 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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