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Top Critics (14)
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DVD (30)
The Mask of Zorro stands as a pointed riposte to those who say they don't make 'em like that anymore.
The story is not important. The clash of swords, the leaps, the tumbles -- it's all very nice. But after 136 minutes, it becomes a bit much.
Banderas and Hopkins prove that there's life in the Z-boy yet, but by leaving in the dull patches, the filmmakers may find audiences catching zzzzzs in ways they never intended.
A lively, old-fashioned adventure yarn with just a twist of modern attitude, it's the kind of pleasant entertainment that allows the paying customers to have as much fun as the people on screen.
Banderas, with his flashing eyes, makes a good mock-Hidalgo, but the movie would be a lot more amusing if it weren't such kid stuff.
With a wealth of charismatic Zorros (two), a smashing heroine and a dauntless love of adventure, this is hot-weather escapism so earnestly retrograde that it seems new.
Crisp and competent and often witty, but it only does what it's supposed to do; it's never quite inspired or exhilarating...
Directed with snap and panache by Martin Campbell, Mask of Zorro gives audiences a pair of dashing whippersnappers for the price of one.
Not so much a blood-pounding swashbuckling adventure as it is a comfortable old friend--the kind of movie your grandfather might have seen at a Saturday matinee.
A sharp and shining steel blade among dull, rubber toy knives.
It's self-consciously stylized and unapologetically escapist, but a fun film as a result.
Buckling the swash in a way approaching Errol Flynn, Antonio is up for the action and handles the slapstick as the inept student with aplomb. The romance between him and Zeta-Jones has sparks, too.
Zorro follows the predictable paths of action movies, but re-energizes the pattern with adrenaline, exuberance, creativity, and humor.
A surprisingly good example of Hollywood's craftsmanship.
At its best, this 'Zorro' captures some of the dizzyingly romantic flavor of pulp fiction. ...Unfortunately, Martin Campbell has directed this Mexican melodrama in an often uninspired fashion.
If Hopkins makes the story important, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones make it sexy.
It's as if Jackie Chan were channeling the spirit of Errol Flynn.
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