jimbo-53-186511 When Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro (Anthony Hopkins) loses everything trying to protect the people (including his wife and daughter) from the evil Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson) he makes a return 20 years later in order to exact his revenge against Montero. Along the way he recruits a younger man Alejandro Murrieta/Zorro (Antonio Banderas) and trains him to avenge the death of his brother who was killed by Montero's right-hand man Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher)...At its heart The Mask Of Zorro is a basic revenge thriller with a very old-fashioned sensibility about it; all the swashbuckling that you see here is reminiscent of the likes of The Three Musketeers and Robin Hood. These things aren't intended as a criticism, but more of an observation and the filmmakers are clearly sticking to the tried and tested formula of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it.' In fact it's the film's old-fashioned sense of fun that is one of it's biggest strengths; it is very tongue-in-cheek, with lots of cheeky humour and some amusing visual gags. These light-hearted and playful touches do make the film palatable and ultimately very enjoyable.The main cast of the film seem to buy into this sense of fun and this is more than projected on-screen; it's very rare to see Hopkins in this kind of role and he delivers a strong and mostly fun performance (although the tragedy and misery that has been bestowed upon him by Montero allows Hopkins to also become the heart of the film). Banderas' character & performance more-or-less reflects that of Hopkins and he easily holds his own against veteran Hopkins and the two have a wonderful easy-going charm in this picture. Zeta-Jones doesn't quite have as much to work with, but she does at least buy into the sense of fun. Wilson and Letscher are both strong in supporting roles as the two villains of the piece as well.Where the film suffers slightly is in its storytelling which to be blunt is fairly uninteresting; the revenge side of the story is OK (despite being a bit generic) and it does give the film some momentum, but I never really cared much for Montero's dastardly scheme and his rather elaborate plan to overthrow his adversary - it seems that the writers gave up on this train of thought as well as this aspect of the story never really went anywhere despite its apparent importance to the story...Still the film is fun and the revenge elements of the story had just about enough heart to them to make me care and become involved in the characters and their quests for vengeance. However, some of the weaker aspects of the story do tarnish the film slightly meaning that I couldn't enjoy it quite as much as I should have been able to.

AlanWelat When I was a kid back in the days it was good today is more like nostalgia movie.

studioAT Applying many of the tricks they would use later for 'Pirates of the Caribbean' writers Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio combine with 'Goldeneye' director, Martin Campbell to bring the legendary hero Zorro to the big screen.It's an entertaining film, with lots of good moments. Antonio Banderas is good fun as Zorro, while I liked the dynamic he had with Anthony Hopkins's character too.It's perhaps a bit overlong, but on the whole this was a good attempt to bring the hero to life for a modern audience.

adonis98-743-186503 A young thief, seeking revenge over the death of his brother, is trained by the once great, but aged Zorro, who is also seeking a vengeance of his own. The Mask of Zorro is such an underrated film i mean the IMDb rating is a joke 6.7 really? and a 63/100 from Metacritic? i guess critics were drunk in this one but for my surprise Rotten Tomatoes liked the film a lot and gave it a 83% which is really good this came one year after Batman & Robin and although it has nothing to do with DC or Batman they did a much better story with an Older Zorro pass the torch in a younger Zorro Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas are both amazing, the humor and action match good together, the theme is very good and overall the entire cast does a great job what really disappoints me is that the film didn't got the sequel it deserved but we will always have this movie at least. If they ever choose to reboot the Zorro Franchise i would love to see Generation Z it was a pretty good cartoon and if it was directed by the right person it would turn out to be awesome. This film was directed by the same person who directed Casino Royale and Golden Eye Martin Campbell.