B-. It's too long and a lot of the time it seems like the filmmakers are trying too hard to recapture what made the original special, but Banderas and Zeta-Jones still have great chemistry and their son is a hoot to watch. Not up to Mask of Zorro's level, but worth it for a Saturday matinee.

does the kid feature too much??

I felt the kid featured too much, and found him annoying by the end. And the horse seemed to have the best scenes and the funniest ones! Other than that it was a good popcorn film. Not as good as the first but almost up there with it. I think the lack of Anthony Hopkins, who lent the first one a bit of class was missed in this sequel.

- I agree with the above - was OK but didn't surpass the first.

- On Zeta-Jones, not sure how much makeup she had on but she looked good. MIchael Douglas is a lucky old man.

- On the kid, wonder will we be seeing THE SON OF ZORRO ABOUT 10 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD.

A boring overlong disaster not worthy of the "Zorro" title. Far too much slapstick humor and some of the cheesiest dialogue of recent memory the film stalls out about 1/3rd in and never regains itself. The action is second-rate, cinematography uninspired and the choreography simply sloppy.

Add to that numerous plot holes and even some historical inaccuraries and the film really does not amount to much.

C

It was very decent, but making it for kids just brought it down. How many times does someone have to get hurt in the crotch in this movie? If they got rid of those, made it a bit shorter and got rid of some of the lame jokes (the balcony scene actually made me laugh though), it could have been up to the first ones standards.

B-

F

I never thought a movie could physically make me want to kill myself. I'm dead serious. My brain right now is in depression mode. Its not that I'm some almighty movie worshipper who when he sees something like this realizes his life is meaningless. The movie LITERALLY makes me feel like shit, it was like it hypotized me to the point where I want to go to a mental hospital. It screwed with my mind, which is still feeling very very sad. Its like a depression injection. Worst film of 2005 easily, and its up there as one of the worst films I've ever seen.

I'd give it a B

Definitely didn't think it was too long, and I really enjoyed most of it. The action was pretty good, and while generally kinda plain and simple and nothing TOO special...it wasn't bad at all, and pretty fun.

A film that makes you want to kill yourself? It can't be that bad.

Well its not directly making me grab a knife or anything, but I'm in a depressed mode. Its not because it was bad(which it was), it was that watching something like it was for 2 hrs 10 minutes straight screwed with my brain. I can't really describe it, all I can say was it was just unexpected. I don't really take movies seriously or anything, and I'm not trying to here, but for some reason my brain right now feels saddddddddd. Its a weird emotion. Its like the movie hypnotized me into shut-down mode.

I dunno that your reaction is really any fault of the film, though. Sounds like something psychological or emotional......

It's not bad. Other than the fact that it's about 30 minutes longer than it should be and the kid being over-used, it's a fun little flick. The train scene is a blast. If only the rest of the film were like that, though. B-

Second that. The film was a dull cash grab by all involved with the only notable sequence coming at the end on the train. Banderas and especially Zeta-Jones, looked bored stiff throughout.

D+

Finally got to see this. I thought it was great. Predictable, yes. Cliche, yes. Slightly been-there, done-that, yes.

But fun all the same. For the above reasons, I couldn't give it an A, but I give it a solid B+ for pure entertainment value. Besides, this is *Zorro*; it's not *supposed* to be some A+ drama or something.

So, yeah, I thoroughly loved this movie and plan to buy it on DVD when I can.

Joy

B-


The Legend of Zorro isn't half as bad as it could have been. The movie picks up about ten years after the end of the last film and Zorro and Elena already have a son as their relationship gets in trouble over Zorro's dedication to being a professional hero. This is where Rufus Sewell's villain Armand steps in...

Adrian Alonso, Zorro's kid, is actually one of the movie's main problems. As it has been said before he features way too much in the movie and is given too much (unrealistic) action for the movie's own good. The movie itself still plays as a really solid adventure flick, but the fact that the studio obviously tried to make it very family-friendly hurts it quite a bit. I mean, throughout the whole movie you don't even see Zorro stabbing or killing or even injuring anyone with his sword a single time and that despite so many swordfights featured. That is just unrealistic. This combined with the kid having been given a major role makes the movie way too harmless.

Other than that, Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas still have great chemistry and their interaction is great. There is also enough humor to make up for the lack of action somewhat and while Rufus Sewell is really bland as the villain (with ludicrous motives), Nick Chinlund is really great as his hitman Jacob McGivens and turned out to be one of the movie's highlights. However, overall, The Legend of Zorro was a tad worse than its predecessor which can, among other things, be attributed to the absence of Anthony Hopkins in this one.

I forgot to add that I loved the interaction between Zorro and his horse. Those were some of the funniest moments.

Oh, and I love the bit with Alejandro and the Father talking about destroying America with soap... "With... soap?" LOL

Joy

To my surprise, the first hour is actually not bad. I wouldn't say it captured the spirit of the first movie, but with the kid involved, it wasn't going to be. I guess that's where the fault of the film arises from. Even though in terms of story, it would seem most likely that Zorro and Elena would have a child in the ten year gap between stories, you kind of subtract any chance of keeping that "romantic" feeling that first one had. The kid isn't a bad story element, it's just not needed and shouldn't have been in there for the film's greater good.

Once we get to a scene though that involves a completely CGI fire, the film kind of lost me. That sequence was and looked atrocious. You're not supposed to see a green outline around the actors letting everyone in on that this is fake, and that they're actually in front of a green screen. That actually goes for most of the special effects in the film. After that fire, the film quickly turns into James Bond meets Wild Wild West (Will Smith version). That's not a good thing. And the soap?

The train scene is definetly the films best action sequence, although one thing did bug me. Right when the train is about to explode, Zorro and Elena jump off and end up shielding themselves behind a brick wall. Now, I would have no problem with that, if it weren't for the fact that the wall was standalone and ten feet tall. Now even for a PG film, my suspension of disbelief can be upheld somewhat, but there is no chance in hell those two could've survived hiding behind there while a train is exploding right in front of them. Oh well.

The film kind of leaves an opening for a third film to be made. I wouldn't mind it, but it might benefit them if they don't wait another seven years.

[font=arial]C+[/font]

Definitely subpar to the first one.

The preacher with the Brooklyn accent was annoying as hell, and the plot required great leaps in logic (what, the kid thinks to turn the railroad switch when 100 adults can only think to run away and scream?) which bugged me a bit. It was also full of cliches (at one point I said to my wife "Oh look, a train. Bet you soon there will be a fight on top of it while it is zooms along the track out of control.") and stereotypical bad guys.

I had fun watching it, but I doubt I will give it a second viewing ever. C.

The whole Train scene help the movie from total disaster. It was a bad and boring movie, the "humor" didnt really work for me.

D+