Extras : Scene index, Filmographies, US Theatrical Trailer, Music Video,
45-minute Featurette, Deleted scene, Director's Commentary, Photo Gallery,
Animated Menus, DVD Preview Trailer Disc
Director:
Martin Campbell
(Criminal Law, Defenseless, GoldenEye, No Escape)
Producers:
Doug Claybourne and David Foster
Screenplay:
John Eskow, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio
Music:
James Horner
(Titanic)
Cast:
Alejandro Murrieta/Zorro: Antonio Banderas (Assassins, Desperado, Evita, Four Rooms, House of the Spirits, Interview With The Vampire, Labyrinth of Passion, Matador, Philadelphia, Two Much, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro: Anthony Hopkins (84 Charing Cross Road, Amistad, August, The Bounty, A Bridge Too Far, Bram Stoker's Desperate Hours, Dracula, The Edge, The Elephant Man, The Good Father, Great Expectations (1997),
Howard's End, Legends of the Fall, Magic, Meet Joe Black, Nixon, The Remains of the Day, The Road to Wellville, Sense and Sensibility, Shadowlands, Silence of the Lambs, Surviving Picasso, When Eight Bells Toll)
Elena: Catherine Zeta-Jones (Blue Juice, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, The Haunting of Hill House, The Phantom, Splitting Heirs, TV: The Darling Buds of May)
Don Rafael Montero: Stuart Wilson (The Age of Innocence, Crossworlds, Death and the Maiden, Enemy of the State, Lethal Weapon 3, The Prisoner of Zenda, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3)
Captain Harrison Love: Matt Letscher
The Mask of Zorro
begins twenty years before our intrepid hero is unleashed to swashbuckle
his way through life - slashing a 'Z' wherever takes his fancy - and capture
the hearts of the ladies after being trained by his master.
Back in his heyday, the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins) had
it all - a beautiful wife, a newborn daughter and the adoration of his fans as
he ensured that good won over evil and he was able to make the Tony Blair of his
day, Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson, who you may remember as the bad
guy from Lethal Weapon 3), look like a complete chump by showing them
the error of their ways in spectacular and patriotic fashion.
Like all proper bad guys though, they don't take too kindly to being shown up
in public and usually respond by promising nothing but instant death, or at a
pinch, a long spell in incarcaration. This one throws all his weight behind it
and pulls off a triple whammy - his wife is murdered in front of him, his
baby Elena is taken away and Zorro himself is confined to a dingy, disease-ridden
cell with scumbags aplenty for the next twenty years.
Elsewhere in the land after this time, Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio
Banderas) and his brother Joaquin are also on the run from the law, getting
the backs up of the local infantry, led by Captain Harrison Love (Matt
Letscher). As they escape, Joaquin bravely (or stupidly in my opinion,
since he was only shot in the leg and just gives up after that, the pansy)
sacrifices his own life so that Alejandro may live.
To cut a long story short - and I'll let you find out for yourself how the
new Zorro was identified by the old Zorro as a result of their first, chance
meeting - Don Diego gets out of the prison after a ridiculous spoof of Spartacus
and trains up Alejandro as his replacement. Montero shows his face again and
proclaims the beautiful young girl on his arm to be none other than his
daughter... but she's called Elena. Hang on, you don't think...? Surely not?
Yes, it's the baby twenty years on and how she's grown up! She looks exactly
like the Welsh rarebit Catherine Zeta-Jones.
How long do you think it will be before the old good guy whips the ass of
the old bad guy and the young good guy cans the man who killed his brother?
About 132 minutes according to the back of the box, as swordfight follows
explosion follows swordfight, including a funny scene where the new Zorro
"undresses" Elena with a flick of his wrist (oo-er, missus!)
Oh, and don't forget the plot-changing moment when Elena instantly doubts
her father's origins when she meets an apparently mad woman who insists she
was her nanny all those years ago.
The picture isn't perfect, with artifacts being visible on occasion, but
the explosions are bright and colourful - often sounding like the roar of a
lion (!) - and this is backed up with authentic set and costume design.
The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 ratio - unlike the so-called
"widescreen" presentations doing the rounds on SkyDigital's Widescreen Box Office - and is anamorphic.
The average bitrate is an above-average 5.3Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 7Mb/s.
If the picture isn't perfect, then the sound eclipses it. Dialogue is clear
and the action is a surround-sound treat with plenty of stereo-steering to give
your speakers a workout and an appropriate score from James Horner.
It comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 flavours for English and German languages.
Extras :
Chapters/Trailer :
The usual 28 chapters are applied here and the original US theatrical trailer
is also included.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and German, plus subtitles in FIFTEEN languages :
English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, German, Turkish,
Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian and Dutch.
And there's more... :
Congratulate Columbia UK for producing a disc that easily gets one over on
the American release as it has plenty more extras on board.
Filmographies are available for the four main characters in the film,
plus director Martin Campbell, a 14-picture Photo Gallery sees
the big three strike a pose, a deleted scene, "The Wallet" is one of
the few such scenes I've witnessed that actually would've benefitted from
being placed back in the film and the love theme, an emotional and brilliant
ballad, "I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You", sung by
Tina Arena & Mark Anthony, is presented here in music promo form.
Alas, the single-buying public didn't warm to it as it failed to chart inside
the Top 40. You may remember Ms. Arena from the turgid belter, "Chains".
I prefer to remember her from the lilting and infectious, "Sorrento Moon
(I Remember)".
A feature-length Director's Commentary track is included,
as is a documentary, Unmasking Zorro, featuring plenty of behind-the-scenes
story, action and interviews with the cast and crew. However, there is something
wrong with it that I'm surprised wasn't picked upon by the VPRC (Video Packaging
Review Committee) - it lasts 45 minutes, not the "60" emblazoned on the
front and back. Considering that another Columbia title, Stepmom, has
been delayed for months because the front cover dared proclaim that it contained
both widescreen and fullscreen versions of the film, whereas it only wisely
contained the former, was recalled and similarly, Universal's (nee Polygram)
A Life Less Ordinary was rapped
for completely missing the BBFC's '15' certificate off the front cover, I can
only assume the VPRC were having an off-day when this title happened by.
Finally, my copy of Zorro came complete with a "DVD Preview Trailer Disc"
sticker on the front and the said disk inside, featuring clips of
8mm, Apollo 13, Babe: Pig in the City, Big Daddy, Dr. Strangelove,
Ghostbusters, Godzilla, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, The Mask of Zorro,
Meet Joe Black, Out of Sight, Patch Adams, Shakespeare in Love, Silverado,
Stepmom, Twister and Ivan Reitman talking about the Ghostbusters
DVD and it's special features...
...although, as it's an American promo, he also mentions the 1999 updated
featurette which features on the Region 1 DVD, but not the UK offering. D'oh!
Menu :
A big improvement on most titles, this one features animation and some brief
music from the film, but opens first with Banderas doing the business of the
slashing-Z variety. The back cover of the box decides to show a picture
from the Region 1's static menu though.
I've resisted the attempt to make the daft "swashing of buckles" statement
often linked with films like this and I'm not going to start now, partly
because it doesn't really deserve it. It's entertaining in places and
will appeal to kids but attractive sets and stars don't quite cut the
mustard when the story is rather dull and formulaic, the bad guys are like
cardboard cut-outs and the ending is oh-so predictable.
Aside from that, if you're going to buy it, note that this version has more
extras than the American release as described above so this version is
a more collectable one.
No doubt we shall see a sequel to this film in due course, but I hope they
add a plot next time.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
