Antonio Banderas: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances

5. Alejandro Murrieta - The Mask Of Zorro (1998)

Just beating the almost equally excellent El Mariachi films (the most famous of which being Desperado), The Mask Of Zorro took the action credentials Banderas showed for the first two lunatic Mexican genre movies and added gloss and style. Where Desperado was an exercise in mystique building that wasn't exactly bursting with plot, the new take on the Zorro story was far richer.

And while swash-buckling films weren't big around the end of the '90s, Zorro was catapulted to success on the back of the chemistry between Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones and a nostalgic eye for charming, golden age adventure credentials, with a touch of comedy. The sequel sadly sucked horrendously, but that only made the "reboot" feel more special and more like director Martin Campbell had caught lightning in a bottle.

Possibly because of Banderas' experience with romantic stories underlined by friction, he felt perfectly fitting to the film's slightly "other age" feeling, and the result is a hugely entertaining salute to the movies they supposedly don't make them like any more.

Plus, without Zorro, we wouldn't have got to see Banderas simpering brilliantly as Puss In Boots in Shrek 2 (and less brilliantly in his other turns as the character).