Ghost Rider

June 18, 2007

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 114 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Ghost Rider is another in a long line of Marvel characters to get their own feature film and just like the others, the first movie is more of an origin of the character than a movie starring the character… now that’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s moments. Nicolas Cage has been rumored to play multiple super heroes for the last few years (he named himself after one so what did you expect) so you knew sooner or later he’d get his wish, and according to Nic, GH was his favorite so it was only appropriate that he play him. Cage did a pretty good job - considering what he had to work with.

Let’s get the particulars out of the way so we can get back to what didn’t work. The movie starts out with a young daredevil (wrong movie) Johnny Blaze, and his stunt rider father Bart working the carny circuit. Johnny wants to leave this life behind to be with his sweetheart Roxanne and that’s what he plans to do. Johnny goes home to tell his dad and he finds him passed out. Johnny finds a note from his doctor confirming Bart is dying of cancer, which forces Johnny to look at his options. Leave dad and run away with the hotty, or stay and help dad in his last days… decisions, decisions. Well before Johnny can really make a choice, he’s approached by the devil himself, Mephistopheles (Fonda). He tells Johnny there’s no reason to choose he can have both. The devil tells him he will heal his father, so he can run away and all he has to do is agree to become his ‘Rider’, and surrender his soul. Johnny accepts and the next day his dad is completely healed… Yay! Not so fast, the devil always has a plan, and he kills Johnny’s dad anyway, as a sort of warning to Johnny that he’s not to have any attachments and he belongs to him now. So, Johnny no longer has his father and for fear of what he’s become, the girl he loves is left standing in the rain so he can ride off to fulfill his new destiny… As the devil’s bounty hunter, The Ghost Rider.

Jump about 20 years and Johnny (Cage) is THE top stunt jumper in the world, Roxanne (Mendez) is back in his life, the devil’s son Blackheart (Bentley) is on earth to collect on a debt owed the underworld. Mephistopheles comes back and turns Johnny into the rider to stop his son and collect the souls for him, and that about sums up the plot.

The effects in this movie are pretty good and it’s a good thing because the effects are the movie. The Ghost Rider transformation scenes are pretty cool and every scene that includes the bike looks great (especially on a big screen), but the Rider effects not so much. In fact at times they’re down right cheesy. I half expected the ghost teeth to start chattering like a cheap Halloween toy in a couple of scenes, they were so bad. The acting isn’t all that bad considering the dialog the actors have to work with… pretty crappy… There are some scenes that won’t be appropriate for children and the final fight has some pretty creepy elements to it, but all in all it’s a pretty good time at the movies. I’m not a fan of the character and I can honestly say I’ve never read a whole comic starring Ghost Rider, so it’s not fan boy hater-aide that lead to my rating. It was more like I had a good time but I doubt I’ll see it again kind of thing. But just like all comic book movies the door is left wide open to come back for more and hopefully by then the effects will improve and the cheesy element will be taken out all together.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, DVD, Eva Mendez, Nicolas Cage, PG-13, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott, Wes Bentley