I know that I've said
many things about how horrible the summer movie season has been for quite some
time but, with my latest May Recommendation this year I now need to add more
reasons as to how the summer movie season has gone down the crapper. A lot of
people don't remember Zorro, for which I can't blame them because of how young
and naïve they are, so I'll give a short brief history, Zorro was created in
the early 20th century and was a bit of mix of both western style of cowboy and
swashbuckler (basically a 18th century Batman), he's been portrayed a lot in
the earlier films and TV shows by some famous actors but the way I remembered
Zorro was from a 90's TV show that I'd sometimes watch at my step-grandmother's
house, as a kid I heard about this film coming out I was excited but wasn't
allowed to watch it for many reasons, though forced to watch it via cable TV.
And through the years the movie itself seems forgotten to me until I was
reminded through the old trailers on YouTube and realized I need to re-watch
this movie and this amazing moreover brought a smile to my face.
After being imprisoned
for 20 years, Zorro aka Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins) receives word
that his old enemy, Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson), has returned. Don Diego
and trains an aimless drunk Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) to be his
successor. Meanwhile, Montero who has secretly raised Diego's daughter
(Catherine Zeta-Jones), as his own, hatches a plot to rob California of its
gold.
I will say there's a
huge difference between movies that came out in the 90's to now and granted
there were a lot of duds in the nineties but there was at least a variety of
some great summer movies to watch that were not all just remakes, sequels and
Disney superhero movies and animated movies that look so overrated. With summer
movies between 2020 and now there's just only one film worth seeing and the
others are just pure crap and the way I can tell is through the trailer and
knowing that every movie is nothing but remakes, superheroes and animated films
that are again overrated. Though yes, The Mask of Zorro is an essentially a
remake to the past Zorro films but what separates this amazing film from the
rest is predecessors, is that it pays tribute to the swashbuckling films from
the past furthermore the action sequences were more exciting to watch, and you
really can't take your eyes off the screen, they were just so exciting compared
to like the Princess Bride for example. But what also makes the film great is
that for a two hour and sixteen-minute movie, the story itself goes from point
A to point B and point C, in a quick but right pace and doesn't fool around with
extending so much of the scenes. I can't really go on with talking about the
actors if I don't give some great nods to the legendary sword master Bob
Anderson, and for a lot of those who haven't heard of him he started out as an
Olympic swordsman in the 1950's then later fought Errol Flynn in a film and
after that he began his film career as a sword master in great films like the
Star Wars Trilogy (he also was Darth Vader in the lightsaber fights), Lord of
the Rings Trilogy as well as the original Highlander, The Princess Bride, the
first Pirates of the Caribbean for which leads us to the Mask of Zorro. And
upon my research I thought it was interesting that he trained his actors
rigorously as well as Antonio Banderas who trained him for ten hours a day for two
months, along with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. And the fact
that he passed away ten years ago, really brings a tear to my heart because
Anderson was the true soul behind the swashbuckling genre. No question director
Martin Campbell does a fantastic job with action movies for which is why he
directed this great film via Goldeneye as well as Casino Royale but the most
important director we should also talk about, is Robert Rodriguez who I had no
clue was intended to direct Mask of Zorro before he dropped out and Martin
Campbell took over, but what made his part so important was that he was
responsible in casting his fellow movie star Antonio Banderas as the lead role
as Zorro. Speaking of the lead actor we should star with talking about Antonio
Banderas, as a teenager I've always remembered him as El Mariachi in Robert
Rodriguez's movies Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico but no question his
best performance without a doubt is Zorro and to be truthful and honest there
will never be an actor like that can portray Zorro like Banderas did. What's
awesome about Sir Anthony Hopkins as an actor and the respect you have for him
was that through the course of his movie career towards 98, he was always known
for his dramatic roles but when he took this role, he was enthusiastic in
wanting to do an action movie like this. The other thing in what makes this
movie awesome is that they do a great job in disguising some the supporting
actors who are portraying 19th century Californian noblemen, like Hopkins does
a fantastic job with acquiring the accent but the great casting, was Catherine
Zeta-Jones in the movie who is yes is technically from England (mostly Wales)
but as presence on screen and her ability to have her character be a strong
woman and not a typical damsel in distress, she was really exceptional at that.
The other most important part to what makes a great action/adventure movie is
that you have the perfect villains in the movie for which you despise the
moment you lay eyes on them furthermore get to know them more once you close to
the mid and final acts of the film, and both actors Stuart Wilson and Matt
Letscher do such a fantastic job playing bad guys that you do not like the
moment you lay eyes on them and these two need some good recommendation for
their performances. I will mark this movie as one of the greatest summer movies
of all time and truly one of the most exciting movies I've ever seen. Moreover,
if you ever want to know what makes a great action movie this is one of the many
great examples of what you need to put out when it comes for the summer movie season.
Great movie from start to finish, and of course would recommend this to
everyone and most importantly if you ever want to distract your kids from any
movies that are coming out now this would be a great choice to have your kids
watch.
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