222 - Ghost Rider review

Even as a comic book obsessed child, I always knew that Ghost Rider was one of the stupidest heroes. A biker with a flaming skull for a head, I could only think of about several dozen more fascinating characters. The idea of a studio pumping over $100 million into an adaptation of this stupid comic seemed absurd.

But I sensed something unexpected while watching “Ghost Rider,” which is that the filmmakers seemed to feel the same way. Unintentional or not, there’s a sense of screwiness to the whole film, as if everyone involved decided they weren’t making Shakespeare, or even “Spider-Man 2,” so what the hell, lets just try to make something watchable.

Nicolas Cage and his hairpiece play Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman who never seems to get killed during his outrageous stunts. That’s because at age 17 Johnny made a deal with the devil (Peter Fonda): cure my father’s lung cancer, and you can have my soul. The devil cures Dad’s lung cancer, only to murder him the next day. The deal was that I cure your dad’s cancer, he reminds Johnny. Dealing with the devil is always a bad idea, apparently.

Johnny reunites with Roxy (Eva Mendes), his childhood squeeze and now top news reporter. She shows up just in time for Satan to imbue Johnny with the power of the Ghost Rider, which lets him gain a demonic appearance as he thrashes evildoers. Even his beloved motorcycle gains a life of its own, which shows incredible foresight from the people who invented these spells and curses thousands of years ago.

Much to our surprise, it turns out that Satan isn’t a great dad, as his son Blackheart (Wes Bentley, conspicuously absent from film over the past few years) has invaded the earth to claim some stupid old scroll that will grant ultimate power to the wielder. Since Blackheart having that parchment would enable him to do something or other that we wouldn’t want to see, Johnny revs up the bike and rides into battle.

When Johnny turns into Ghost Rider, he gains a bevy of powers, such as super-strength, speed, and lots of stuff with flames. Mostly, however, he foregoes fighting in favor of making his opponents feel the pain of the “innocents” they’ve made suffer, a guilt trip so severe that it essentially kills them via brain aneurysm. Fans of Spider-Man’s acrobatic fisticuffs will likely be disappointed, but those psychos who like motorcycles might really enjoy all the kooky stunts he performs, like jumping over helicopters or riding up and down skyscrapers.

This really could have been a catastrophe ala “Fantastic Four” or “Superman Returns.” Yet director Mark Steven Johnson moves things along, and doesn’t burden us with scenes that insult the wide audience by assuming we care about curses and demons. Cage, apparently a huge enough Ghost Rider fan that the makeup man had to conceal a tattoo of the character, has a blast with a role that he’s really too old for. Sam Elliot steals a few scenes as a former Ghost Rider who dispenses advice to his successor. Ghost Rider is still one of the lamest characters in comics, but to his credit, he has a better cinematic vehicle than many of his comrades.


2.5 out of 5