Movie Reviews for The Legend of Zorro (Widescreen Special Edition)

The Legend of Zorro (Widescreen Special Edition)

	List Price: ~~$14.94~~ Our Price: $10.49 You Save: $4.45 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $0.46 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

Movie Reviews of The Legend of Zorro (Widescreen Special Edition)

Movie Review: Tries a little too much --
Summary: 3 Stars

-- and ends up with not enough.

They're all good parts. There are the downtrodden but honest Mexican peasantry, hoping for a better life in the US (very topical, asof this writing) when California joins the union. There are the bad guys, trying to overthrow the democratic process for personal gain. There's marital strife and redemption. There's alienation of father and son, also with redemption. There's the tension of Old World aristocracy against New World egalitarian spirit. There's Zeta-Jones proving that a woman can swashbuckle as well as any man. There's the discouraged but plucky little boy. There's comedy. There's way more here than can fit comfortably into most two movies. As a result, it comes across as a bit ditzy, never quite sure where it's going or even what it was doing a moment ago.

Bandeiras and Zeta-Jones work beautifully in their roles as Zorro and his wife, and work beautifully with each other. There could have been a little more spark between them, I suppose, but it's not that kind of movie. Come to think of it, despite a few good action scenes, I'm not sure that it's really any kind of movie.

//wiredweird

Movie Review: 19th Century Incredibles
Summary: 2 Stars

There have been far too many sequels to too many original films that were much more stellar. "The Legend of Zorro", unfortunately, is another.
Whereas the 1998 original was more along the lines of a blockbuster, this 2005 sequel has proven to be lackluster.
Antonio Banderas, as Alejandro De la Vega,has taken his late father-in-law's name, and is now more at ease in his role as a nobleman of mid-19th-century California. He is still donning the mask and making sojourns to help the oppressed and dispossessed of the region. But he now has a wife and child to consider and the tensions between the swashbuckler and his equally daring young wife, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones)mount when she begins to fear for the safety of their son, Joaquin.
As Joaquin, Adrian Alonso reveals that the genes for the spunk and cunning of the De La Vegas have not worn thin as he defies authority to help defeat the villians of the film. At intervals, the family become the 19th century's precursor to the animated Incredibles with the skills and technology available to them.
As another reviewer noted, the story loses its credibility when Elena and Alejandro divorce due to her concerns for her son's safety. This would have been extremely rare in the 19th century, and unheard of in a Catholic country at that time.
Elena reunites with a former acquaintance she met during her years in Spain, a French nobleman named Armand(a piercing-eyed, striking Rufus Sewell) in whose house she and her son become guests, and whom Elena finds to have sinister designs on California, not unlike the abductor she had believed to be her father for many years.
The "Zorro" franchise recycles Tony Amendola as a priest trying to teach students such as Joaquin, whereas he had been a devious henchman to Don Rafael in the 1998 film, and lets us glimpse Mary Crosby, a quarter century after the height of her popularity, in a non-speaking role as a Governor's wife, reassuring us that there are no small roles, only small actors.
While it has a few impressive moments, the script is a tired rehash of the original theme, and the outcome is predictable, literally hinging on the ability to get on the right track.
Young Adrian Alonso appears to have a bright future ahead of him, and I hope that Antonio and Catherine enjoyed their onscreen reunion.
But generally, it simply does not have the sizzle of its 1998 predecessor, and there was a lot of time and money that could have been better spent.

Movie Review: What a let down/disappointment this film was!
Summary: 1 Stars

Unlike the first Zorro, which was a pretty good movie, this second "film" is a combination of incompetence and propaganda (the latter much like The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, Peacemaker starring George Clooney, Behind Enemy Lines starring Owen Wilson, Welcome to Sarajevo starring Woody Harrelson, and Icon starring Patrick Swayze among (too) many others).
Where does one start? How about the plot? A French terrorist (!) who also happens to be a knight of a Spanish (!) crusaders' order (as if there are no French ones) known as the knights of Aragon who wants to blow up the USA! Oh my god, have mercy PLEASE!!!
Some of the major setbacks are:
1) Zorro's horse drinks alcohol and smokes tobacco. No comment...
2) The not-so-hidden politics behind the movie:
The messages like "We are finally free" and "We are finally Americans" etc...
Give us a break!
There is (of course!) the presence of the evil European (and conveniently French at that/The whole ludicrous French Fries-Freedom Fries thing all over again).
There is also the nativist/evil white supremacist/bad cowboy/religious fundamentalist villain all in one.
There is definitely a political agenda here behind this movie and the film coincidently comes at a time when the US experienced major immigrant demonstrations.
3) The southerners are traitors (as always) with Colonel Beauregard on the side of the European "terrorists" (!!!) preparing a pre-emptive strike against Washington DC!!! It's pathetic!
4) Mix-Ups/Confusion: "Waking up the sleeping Giant" was Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's quote following Pearl Harbor, not some non-existent knight's words set on destroying the USA in the mid-19th Century!
The writers for this film should never, ever, be allowed to write again. I cannot believe they actually got paid to produce this abomination/monstrosity of a script and what's even more amazing is that Antonia Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones went along with it!
5) The 7-year old kid, Zorro Jr. got under the bad guys wagon, followed them to their hideout, and gave them a piece if his mind...
6) As for the ending being "Highly predictable," that is the understatement of the year!
7) The Zena-like type of acting (silly-low quality) was another disappointment.
8) Getting out of a series of impossible situations by the extreme uselessness of the villains.
And the list goes on and on making it ridiculous all around.
With such writers, the two Pinkerton Agency/U.S. government agents in the film are not that far off when they say: "Zorro is a relic of the past."
So it's a terrible plot, below average dialogues, weak acting, an interesting setting, decent music, and a good (overall) cast, which when put together fail to take off.
It's all about immigrants' integration in American society, and about how Mexicans should become "good"/patriotic Americans. 1.2 Stars

Movie Review: Simply...awful!
Summary: 1 Stars

I'm surprised to read so many positive reviews of this cliche-ridden piece of formulaic tripe. It was a huge disappointment after the well-crafted "Mask of Zorro." Banderas and Zeta-Jones speak in such phony-sounding accents that I had to turn the subtitles on to understand what they were saying (can't Banderas do a credible sounding Hispanic accent?). But I needn't have bothered, since the dialogue was atrociously written. The stars look and sound embarassed by the whole project, as they should be. Not a cliche was missed, including the one about the bullet being stopped by a cross. And what the hell was a Confederate general doing in a story supposedly set in 1850?