This is an unimaginative and non-thrilling sequel to the 1998 hit The Mask of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas as the masked hero of the suppressed. This time he fights enemies of the territory of California as it tries to join the union.

Antonio Banderas (Once upon a time in Mexico) is Zorro who is trying to retire to make his wife, Elena, played by the ultra-hot yet horribly soiled Catherine Zeta-Jones (Ocean's Twelve) happy so they can spend time raising their son. However, Zorro is accidentally unmasked and his identity is notice by two American Agents who force Elena to divorce Alejandro and fall in love with a Spanish Lord who is coming over to live in America but actually has much darker intentions.

There is nothing original about this movie. But that is actually a good thing because if they could have tried to do some new things with the child of the two main characters and made this movie horrible. Fortunately the writers left the kid as a small player, barely annoying so the movie was watchable.

The bad thing about the movie is that it is WAY TOO LONG. This movie had a habit of over stating the obvious and then underlining it with its plot points. If that had not shown the audience that two guys had discovered who Zorro was, the audience would have been interested in knowing why Elena divorce Alejandro, apparently. Instead since we saw them seeing the unmasking, we knew that the two men were framing Elena. We also now that the Spanish Lord was bad form the time his evil face was on screen. But yet the writers had to hammer the point into the skull of the audience with many scenes that weren't necessary for the story. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were responsible for this tome of a movie. They also penned this summer's flop The Island, so what they are still doing in the business I don't know.

I can't say too much more about the movie. It's not horrible, but it's not good. I do know that Orci and Kurtzman's writing make Jane Austin's stories exciting and full of energy. I would love to say that Catherine Zeta-Jones is what makes this movie worth seeing, but knowing that she is soiled by Michael Douglas at least once a week is to disturbing to think about. Ignore this movie and find something else.

Brian - the Naked Gun