|
Directed by: Martin Campbell Starring: Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell Legend of Zorro, following the successful Mask of Zorro by an amazingly restrained 7 years, is a pretty rousing family-friendly adventure film. It's right in line with the first one, providing good fist, sword, and horse stuntwork without a speck of blood or malice. This is a good thing and it accomplishes this with a clearly defined goal of providing a good time at the movies that doesn't constantly strain the ratings or devolve into juvenile humor (or at least too often). The film picks up several years after Mask in which Alejandro and Elena's baby has grown up but his continued dedication to the cause of Zorro has strained their marriage. On the splits, they continue to butt heads as the newly arrived Count Armand is up to some nefarious deed or another while wooing his wife. Similarly, their son is filled with dreams of being a daring fighter while being disappointed in his father's alter-ego. And it all has some ties to Fight Club, surprisingly. This gives the same kind of setup as True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith as people dance around the hidden lives they lead while still saving the day. Thankfully they didn't overstay their welcome with this well travelled plot thread, or at least they didn't in my eyes. They balanced humor and action as well as they did in the first, which is to say well. The action is as well executed and fun to watch as well, which is also a plus. There are only a handful of clearly CG enchanced sections which were a bit distracting but otherwise it was a good display of some old fashioned fisticuffs and swordplay. There is relatively little that I would call bad about the movie, although there are a few things that I could have done less of. Their son, Joaquin, plays a very prominent role in the film. While some of his stuff is fun to watch, a duel with a teacher probably being the best, he wore out his welcome to the point where I just sort of wish he'd be dropped off with a nanny so I could get back to Zorro and Elena. Both Zeta-Jones and Sewell had some bad accent moments, Sewell in particular sucked as a Frenchman. They also tried to give the horse some wierd sctick with consuming things that failed miserably. If you liked the first, I can't imagine that you wouldn't like this one as much. It never tries to be realistic or spine breaking or bloody, but neither was the first.It's just a good natured action adventure flick with a couple of explosions for good measure. RATING: 4 PROS: Solid adventure sequel with good action and spirit CONS: Some distracting accents, kid gets a bit too much screentime ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386140/
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2005 07:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 01:51 |
|
|
Zorro is the worst movie I have seen since White Chicks. I saw an advance screening on monday, and was horribly dissapointed. In the opening sequence, zorro knocks a guy off of his horse by throwing his hat at him. His goddamned hat! Several scenes later the son character, who I have know idea the name of, gets in a sword fight with his teacher (ruler fight, rather) and suffers no known reprocussions. Zorro's horse drinks at one point, then smokes a pipe and later in the movie successfully jumps onto a train. There is a scene in the movie where zorro rescues a baby from a burning house, and the fire looks so unbeleivably fake I would have walked out if I wasn't there with children. People die so often I forgot it was supposed to be a kids movie. Death is treated as no big deal, except for one time where a the priest guy dies. Then later, it is revealed that character miraculously survived because of a metal cross in his robe, even though when he was shot there was blood on his shirt. Not to mention when the bad-guy is defeated, they attempt to make a joke of it. LOL OH GOD I GET IT THE LAST FEW MOMENTS OF HIS LIFE WERE UNSPEAKABLE PAIN! I know we aren't technically supposed to put spoilers in reviews, but I thought that was an important part of the movie to show how ridiculously bad it was. DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE. IF YOU MUST SEE A CHILDRENS MOVIE, SEE SOMETHING ELSE SUCH AS WALLACE AND GROMIT. RATING: 1 PROS: My 6 year old neice loved it, apparantly death is big with kids. CONS: Violence, Death + horrible kids humour = What movie were you trying to make?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2005 04:41
|
|
|
This movie was disjointed, confusing, utterly dull, and is missing absolutely everything that made the first movie fun. Also: Good job hiring a very distinct looking character actor to play a powerful Don in the Mask of Zorro, and then to play a schoolteaching priest in its direct loving sequel the Legend of Zorro, and thus confusing the gently caress out of me, leaving me sitting the whole movie wondering how the gently caress a corrupt and powerful Don could end up a priest schoolteacher in ten years, only to find out that I was being punished for being too observant, you loving hamhanded moronic casting fuckhead. loving skip this piece of poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2005 04:59
|
|
|
I posted my review here a few weeks before it was released. I felt that it met its general purpose of entertaining families with small children, but overall did not meet my expectations or exceed the first film in any way. RATING: 2
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2005 11:27
|
|
|
I have never wanted to walk out of a movie more in my life, and I'm astonishingly hard to disappoint. I gave xXx: State of the Union a 4.5 for God's sake! There certainly wasn't enough violence to keep this action movie junkie's bloodlust quenched, but there was way too much brutality and cruelty for a PG movie. The bad guys in this movie are horrible, horrible people. They're not the cute "How the West was Fun" evil cowboy types, they're closer to the kind of sadistic murdering sons of bitches you get in Hong Kong blood operas, only 200% more racist and without the looks or charm or quotability. Every time one of the evil-doers was on screen, to quote from Jarhead, I wanted the pink mist. But apppearently, the movie is PG enough to have civilians mowed like grass, but far too PG for there to be any consequences beyond getting a happytap from Zorro's fist and a smack on the rear end from his sword. Sometimes, though, Zorro does throw in a personal touch and really give a guy what-for. The scenes where this occurs are unsettling, in much the same way as if someone taped over bits and peices of David Hasselhoff's "Cowboys Run" with scenes from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Despite all best efforts to make this completely unwatchable, there are some cool technical aspects to this movie. I had this odd feeling the entire time that this film was made to show off some CG department's new editing-the-camera-out-of-mirrorshots technology as there's never a shortage of reflective surfaces for which to observe the rest of the scenery in. Any scene with an abundance of flowers is picture-esque in beauty but provide little more than a much-needed break from your regularly scheduled Orange Lighting Theater (now with more yellow!). The ideal market for this movie is kids who are on the cusp of being old enough to see action movies but aren't quite ready for Terminator 2, and I'm sure those kids had a blast. I, on the other hand, wish I had spent the extra cash on going to the theater that was showing The Weatherman. PROS: You can get up at any point in the movie, go to the bathroom, play some Advance Wars on your GBA, shoot the poo poo with the guy at the consessions stand, go back to your seat and still be completely filled in on the story. CONS: It's not exiting, it's not dramatic, it's not funny, but damnit, it's certainly on film! 1/5
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2005 10:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 01:51 |
|
|
This was an popcorn movie, but not a good one. First of all, it had a lot of stupid bits. The angry relationship between Elena and Zorro for the first part gets tired. Jaoquim is very annoying. Incredibly annoying. Basic logic is disregarded when Elena and Zorro knock out some guards - bad guys who saw her face, then she goes back to being undercover. Was she hoping that non one would notice the unconcious guards and none of them would recognize her? That's stupid. And at the end, even though Zorro has spent the entire movie defeating dozens of bad guys without breaking a sweat, he is somehow outclassed by his foe. Given the skill Zorro had shown in the movie, it is unbeleivable that he couldn't defeat his adversary just as easily as any of the other ones. It's not a great movie, even for a popcorn flick. 2.5/5
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2006 23:27
|
|
