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.

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

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.

Let's get this straight - Batman Begins currently sits at 8.4 on IMDb, but this is less than 7. What? No. These kind of inconsistencies are a reflection of how dumb the masses really are.This film is infinitely better written and directed and acted than the Batman films. The script is clever and interesting, the humour is spot on (didn't even exist in Batman Begins), you can suspend disbelief to the action and really enjoy it (unlike most films these days with thousands of half-second edits and a melee of mess), there's a proper villain (actually two), and the story makes bloody sense.The characters are all well developed and the pacing is perfect. You see, here's the thing, dumb masses: We need characters we can understand and care about in order to care about the film. If this film went the Batman way and just had fast scene after fast scene with a rushed narrative, no-one would care and it would just be another dumb action movie.Clearly The Mask of Zorro loses out because it doesn't have the marketing muscle and brand name of "Batman".My rating: 4/5