Hollywood blockbuster entertainment is often soulless work promoted by a slick marketing campaign to great financial success, but it doesn’t have to be. Every now and then, this approach creates truly exceptional work, as creatively satisfying as it is crowd-pleasing. Such is the case with The Mask of Zorro and it started with the clever script by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who went on to do similar work for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Everyone is as witty as they are gorgeous, and the characters are continuously fighting, flirting or being funny.
It was the role only Antonio Banderas could play in the 1990s, and he’s matched by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins at their charismatic peak. Hopkins is an odd choice, but he’s never looked more like he’s having fun and he brings real soul to the picture. The Crew is led by Director Martin Campbell and his regular Director of Photography Phil Meheux, made between Goldeneye and Casino Royale. A number of Department heads come over from Robert Rodriguez films. (He was originally going to direct, but wanted to make a more violent film.) The end result is one of the great Hollywood swashbucklers, full of action, comedy and romance.
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