TriStar Pictures, Rated PG-13
Directed by Martin Campbell
Written by John Eskow and Ted Elliott

Zorro, the original masked hero, has been translated to film countless times by countless actors, sometimes well (Douglas Fairbanks), sometimes not so well (Tyrone Power), and sometimes not even taken seriously (George Hamilton). However, I'm glad to report that we have two actors who have now taken on the role of Zorro and done it right. In the long-awaited (by me, anyway) film, The Mask of Zorro, we first see Zorro make a grand entrance as played by the one and only Sir Anthony Hopkins. He rescues some prisoners who are about to be executed from the clutches of the evil Don Rafael (Stuart Wilson). However, Zorro is soon found out to be Don Diego, and he is thrown into prison after his wife is killed and his daughter stolen from him. Twenty years later, Diego escapes from jail and encounters a thief named Alejandro (Antonio Banderas). Diego decides to teach Alejandro to become the new Zorro, in order to enact his revenge against Rafael and reclaim his daughter (Catherine Zeta Jones), whom Alejandro soon falls for, and vice versa.
It's only so often that a masked-hero movie is done right (the last time was probably The Phantom, and to a larger extent, The Shadow). This movie recaptures all of the fun of the old Saturday afternoon serials, without being overly campy or having bad performances. Alejandro's first try at being Zorro is not unrealistic because he fails miserably. It actually takes him a long time before he gets the hang of it. Hopkins, Banderas, and Jones deliver top-notch performances, and the chemistry between the latter two is magnificent. The action scenes, very important in a film like this, are marvelously well choreographed, and none of them are there simply because they have to be. They fit into the story perfectly. This is probably some of the best fencing onscreen in years. The score, from Titanic's somewhat overrated James Horner, makes the former look awful in comparison. It fits the attitude of the film perfectly. The only real complaint is that Rafael and his right-hand man, Captain Love (Matthew Letshcer), aren't really effective enough as villains, but Letscher is certainly the better of the two. But in terms of pure popcorn movies, The Mask of Zorro will probably end up being the best one this summer. *** 1/2