We have been very lucky in the past couple years to have complete and brilliantly done re-dos of some excellent movie franchises, like Star Trek and Batman. Back in 1998, we saw a similar remaking of an old movie and TV franchise, Zorro, with the release of the excellent The Mask of Zorro. This was an excellent title on DVD and the sequel, The Legend of Zorro looked and sounded great on Blu-ray. Would The Mask of Zorro fare as well on its initial Blu-ray release?
Film
Call me a sucker for some good old fashioned swashbuckling fun. As a kid, I loved the reruns of the old Zorro TV series starring Guy Williams as Don Diego de la Vega (yes the same Guy Williams in Lost in Space). When The Mask of Zorro film was released, I was not sure what to expect. However, I was more than pleased with the result.
Briefly, the film opens in 1821 as the the Spanish are being driven from California by the Mexican army. The ruthless Spanish governor Don Rafael Montero is set to leave but is scheduled to execute several people in the town courtyard. However, the men are rescued by Don Diego de la Vega a/k/a Zorro (Anthony Hopkins) who swings into courtyard to save the day. However, the governor has his revenge when he has de la Vega’s home ransacked and burned, killing his wife and stealing his daughter and throwing de la Vega into prison.
The film then moves forward 20 years, when Governor Montero returns with a scheme to steal gold from the Mexican government and buy California and turn it to an independent republic which he would rule. He returns to California with de la Vega’s daughter, Elena (played by the stunning Catherine Zeta Jones in her big screen debut), who he raised as his own daughter in Spain. De la Vega was finally able to escape imprisonment and vows to take his revenge on Montero. He meets Alejandro Murietta (Antonia Banderas), a common thief and drunk and turns him into his successor as Zorro. Together they foil Montero’s plot and rescue the people he employed at the gold mine as slaves.
The Mask of Zorro is a fast paced action thriller that is laced not only with plenty of swashbuckling action, but plenty of humor. It is a fun film that the whole family can and should enjoy. Highly recommended.
Video
While I loved the film, I was a bit disappointed with the video. The film features a natural color palette with excellent skin tone rendition. Blacks aren’t as inky as I have seen but are fairly deep and stable. It is in the areas of clarity and detail where I have issues with the film. Close-ups for the most part have excellent clarity and detail. However, even there, there are issues.
There is one scene in particular with Hopkins and Zeta Jones in a stable, where his facial detail is excellent whereas hers appears to have been smoothed over. I didn’t notice this often but enough that is was a bit of a distraction. In distant shots, the film suffers from a degree softness, lacking the level of clarity that is exhibited in the rest of the film. I would have preferred an image with more detail and clarity but can state without reservation that the video on this Blu-ray release is miles ahead of that on the DVD.
Audio
While I had some issues wit h the video, with the one exception noted below, the audio on this release was excellent. What strikes you immediately from the outset of the film is the aggressive use of the surrounds to provide a rather immersive sound mix that really adds to the action sequences. The surrounds are also used quite effectively in the interior scenes to create room ambiance.
Dynamics are also quite good with deep bass. The gun shots are well presented here, sounding quite realistic. The only issue I had was with the fidelity of the overall sound as well as the dialogue, which sounds a tad on the thin side in comparison to the very best sounding films and which can be just a tad fatiguing at reference levels. Other than that, this is a fine sounding film that really pulls you into the action.
Special Features
The extras here are basically just ported over from the DVD release. None of the extras are in high definition. The extras include two deleted scenes along with a director’s commentary. Only one featurette is included, “Unmasking Zorro” where the making of the film is detailed with the cast and crew. Also included is the music video for the featured musical track, “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You” featuring Marc Anthony and Tina Arena. The final extras are a “sneak peak” at the sequel “The Legend of Zorro” as well as an “exclusive” scene from that film. All in all, the extras offer nothing new that was not included with the old DVD release and are rather threadbare at that.
Final Thoughts
While I was a bit disappointed in the video quality on the Blu-ray release of The Mask of Zorro, it remains a fun and fresh film 11 years after it debuted in theaters. If you are looking for a fun swashbuckling film with plenty of action, give The Mask of Zorro a look. Highly recommended.
