The sequel arrives seven years after Antonio Banderas’s first turn (in The Mask of Zorro)
as the masked hero. California, on the brink of statehood, is having its very
first crazy election in 1850. Meanwhile, Zorro and his bride (Catherine
Zeta-Jones) are squabbling. It’s the old story about the husband too busy with
work to spend time at home. Their son is ten and fancying himself a budding
Zorro while resenting Dad’s absences. (The eyes-covering mask, of course, makes
it impossible for him or anyone else to figure out they’re the same person.) It
seems only family therapy can save the day, especially when some rich guy
(Rufus Sewell) puts the movies on Mrs. Z, but first there are villains to
take care of. I could recount the mishmash of a plot if only I could remember
it. (Somehow, the “Confederate states,” which I’d had no idea existed a decade
before the Civil War, are all mixed up in it too.) There’s some PG-rated
swordplay, some horseplay, and only a tiny bit of foreplay, with the leading
couple at odds. The scenery is lovely, the climax on a train is pretty good,
but the script, perhaps the product of too many hands, could have used more of
the occasional wit it shows and a little less of just about everything else.
circulated via email 11/03/05 and posted 10/18/13
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