Ghost Rider (2007)

...price is to become the Ghost Rider, Satan's Bounty Hunter.

And that's pretty much it for the set up of this movie. A young Johnny Blaze finds out that his father has cancer, and next thing he's signed up on the Devil's payroll. A cruel twist on the deal causes Johnny to abandon his life and love, and spend the next 20-odd years risking his neck at every given opportunity, performing increasingly insane stunts on a motorbike, trying ...
...a huge fan of the Ghost Rider comics (he has a GR tattoo - which ironically had to be covered up for this movie!) and I can't help but think this is a pet ego piece for him: I can't see him being first choice as lead otherwise! I feel harsh criticising the man largely for being too old, but it was just so damned distracting: Cage's face seems almost ratlike, sunken to the point where I was wondering if he was wearing dentures. He really is wearing ... more

Everybody knows that the Devil likes to offer people their heart's desire, in exchange for one tiny thing: their soul. And naturally the contract binding this deal should be signed in blood. But perhaps not everyone is aware that when time comes due to call in the contract, Mephistopheles doesn't show up in person - he sends his bounty hunter. So every now and then when someone signs their soul away, the price is to become the Ghost Rider, Satan's Bounty Hunter.

And that's pretty much it for the set up of this movie. A young Johnny Blaze finds out that his father has cancer, and next thing he's signed up on the Devil's payroll. A cruel twist on the deal causes Johnny to abandon his life and love, and spend the next 20-odd years risking his neck at every given opportunity, performing increasingly insane stunts on a motorbike, trying to prove to himself... what? That he isn't damned? There's a lot of meandering soul-searching on this idea, but I left the cinema a little unclear on the point.

After some rather bland opening scenes exploring this set up, we join the adult JB, played by a rather haggard-looking Nicholas Cage - welcome to my first complaint! Apparently Nic is a huge fan of the Ghost Rider comics (he has a GR tattoo - which ironically had to be covered up for this movie!) and I can't help but think this is a pet ego piece for him: I can't see him being first choice as lead otherwise! I feel harsh criticising the man largely for being too old, but it was just so damned distracting: Cage's face seems almost ratlike, sunken to the point where I was wondering if he was wearing dentures. He really is wearing a hairpiece - rather obviously. And dear god, what director was silly enough to backlight a man with ears that fuzzy?!!! In fairness, the posing-in-the-mirror scene shows that Mr C has been buffing up big time (it took me a bit to realise the muscles weren't plastic, right enough!). Although for future reference: lower body workouts are good too, for a little balance. Big biceps, pipe cleaner legs - not the best look!

Oh dear. Distractions from physical appearance aside, I'd love to say it doesn't matter - Nic is having such a wonderful time his love for the character shines through. Not so: I imagine he's supposed to be playing a laid-back, laconic character, but sheesh! First half of the movie he seems bored, distracted - yes, I kind of get that it's in character (after all, the man is a little preoccupied wondering when Satan is going to show up for his soul) but it's like trying to hold a conversation with someone who keeps looking over your shoulder - irritating!

The rest of the cast aren't much better - scratch that, they're rather useless. I'm starting to suspect the director's style is to literally try and put a comic book on screen, by having his actors stand perfectly still and over-emote rather poor dialogue: certainly, after finding out that his previous 'credits' are the disappointing Daredevil and barely-watchable Elektra, I am sensing that common theme. There is a scene where love-interest Roxanne and lead's main buddy Mack are desperately worried for our hero: the pair stand and deliver hammed-up lines with obvious facial effort at emotion, but it's sooo plastic and fake the only suitable criticism is "Duuuude! This sux!!!!!!"

Unfortunately, there are rather a lot of moments when the stilted dialogue (often half-drowned out by loud music) are given free reign. I'm not even sure why: I wasn't getting a great deal of insight from the exposition, and every one was a pace-killer (once the pace picked up, obviously!). The one exception is Sam Elliot (who has one of the best voices in film!) as the mysterious caretaker, who explains (again) about the Bounty Hunter curse, and then tells us what the rest of the movie is supposed to be about. Then he soliloquises for a full five minutes about the philosophy of greed, and I'm getting bored again...

Which brings me to a Huuuuge complaint from me: this film was cut and tailored to get a 12A rating, which I hate anyway when a much better, darker film could have been attained at the cost of a few audience members. And that's no loss when the kiddies watching this film were rather vocally bored (heck, that applied to half the adults!).

Ah, but then the action kicked in... finally!

The sole point of this movie is the special effects. Nic Cage finally comes to life as the flesh melts from his skull in a fabulously overblown painful transformation scene. A great deal of work has gone into the special effects of a man with a flaming skull, riding around on a motorbike leaving fiery trails and sonic-boom destruction behind him! Chasing his enemies, being chased by the police, pausing to play vigilante (yawn) to some petty criminal... but having so much *fun* doing so (watch out for the finger scene after he jumps off the bridge!).

Alas, just as this bit of excitement is dangled in front of us, we end up back at more talking. And talking. And then we get a bit more action as the rest of the slightly nonsensical plot (annoying childhood-love-lost thread aside) kicks in, and we discover that Mephistopheles' darling son is out to overthrow daddy dearest and turn the Earth into Hell Mark 2. Cool! Only... not really. Blackheart (c'mon, dad's called Mephistopheles/Lucifer/Satan/etc and offspring gets the unimaginative 'Blackheart'?!) is surely a goth music video reject? I really wanted to like this character, and he does look to be having a lot of fun hamming it up, but the character was underplayed and the look was just so cliched. Worse, the simpering evil henchmen: Water, Wind, and Earth, definitely a case of style over substance as each poses for a bit (albeit with a few great effects, like the water elemental wiping his eye... off!), then is dispatched with ennui-inducing ease.

It's not a total loss, I must confess: Eventually we get a decent 15-20 minute run, no interruptions, and FINALLY this movie delivers what we're all sitting here to see: very nice special effects, lots of action, and no incessant talk-talk! Alas, this is the finale and it's taken over an hour and a half to feel as if this film has finally pulled itself together.

Regrettably, despite being a big fan of OTT action spectacular comic book adaptations, I just can't find enough in this film to recommend it. There are moments that had me glued - but many many more that had me twitching restlessly in my seat. I was actually disappointed at the bits near the end I *did* like (the small 'twist', for instance threw up some nice ideas and effects) as it just showed up how much better the rest of the film *could* have been. Heck, it doesn't even LOOK that great, and if the cinematography can't be ace in a comic book adaptation...!

In all, there are some great ideas here, but they act against and not with each other. I don't really understand the character, despite the endless 'talk' scenes, and there isn't enough action to be *that* kind of super-hero film. Great special effects are not enough to drown out the negatives: Nic Cage isn't delivering all he should as a leading man during the first half, and I suspect the movie is at least 10 years too late for him (urrrgh! I hate being this ageist, but - it was distracting!); the supporting cast are largely awful (Eva Mendes' cleavage wasn't distracting *me* from her performance), with the few decent-ish actors flailing miserably with a wooden, clunky script.

For the record, I've never come across the original comic format of Ghost Rider, but I rather suspect there's a lot of "I want to pay homage" being squeezed in there, in scenes that otherwise didn't add much to my enjoyment of the movie experience. Perhaps fans of the comic will get more out of it, but as a movie-goer I just feel a bit let down but a dull take on what *could* have been a really fun, brainless popcorn-movie.
Boring bits:
Running time: 114 minutes
Rating: 12A

• Johnny Blaze (adult) - Nicholas Cage
• Roxanne Simpson - Eva Mendes
• Mephistopheles - Peter Fonda (class casting, putting the Easy Rider himself as the devil in a motorbike flick - but the role is stilted)
• Blackheart - Wes Bently
• Johnny Blaze (younger) - Matt Long, ironically a lot more attractive than Nic Cage's grown up version! 

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