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Shelf Beauties |
Ghost Rider It was one thing when Nicolas
Cage was interested in playing Superman.
That’s a classic, A-list superhero.
However, grabbing onto a C-list figure like Ghost
Rider doesn’t feel
like it would be the best offer put in front of him.
I kept
hoping in
the middle of the movie the Scooby Doo gang would come out, rip the
mask off of
Cage and reveal Ghost Rider really is crazy old man Ben
Affleck!
That would explain so much. Cage stars as
Johnny Blaze – a daredevil motorcycle stuntman who made a
deal years ago with
Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) to save his father’s life as the
elder Blaze died
of cancer. In
return, Blaze has been
made into the Ghost Rider – a mystical figure who collects on
other contracts
made by the devil with desperate souls (he kinda of sends them to hell
or
something, I didn’t quite get that part).
Now,
Mephistopheles is collecting. It
turns
out the devil’s son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), wants to outdo
dear old Dad by
making his own hell on earth.
He has
come to collect on the biggest, most evil contract ever, but
Mephistopheles has
summoned the Ghost Rider to stop him at any cost.
Will Johnny
Blaze be able to control himself when turned into Ghost Rider? Can he save the planet by
defeating
Blackheart and his trio of evil henchmen?
Ghost Rider is
not the worst movie I have ever seen.
It’s not even the worst movie I have seen
the last few weeks (that would
be the Muppet Baby version of Hannibal Lecter unleashed on the world
last
week). However,
it’s a movie with
inconsistent quality, too often bad and not often enough good. Writer/director
Mark Steven Johnson seems to be trying too hard to serve too many
differing
tastes. At times,
he provides campy
dialogue and action to prove how cool, self aware and hip Ghost Rider
can
be. Sometimes, it
is welcome comic
relief, especially in the hands of Cage (a tough guy stuntman who loves
The
Carpenters is a funny juxtaposition) and Donal Logue (the crew chief
who reacts
with awe and one-liners at his boss’s spectacular luck and
ability). However,
some more serious moments, designed
to add depth for more traditional movie fans, lack the right tone to
captivate
the audience, and the dialogue is too weak to be thrilling even when
something
substantial and meaningful is supposed to be declared. That’s
not to
say Ghost Rider is a complete waste of time.
Johnson does a nice job as the director showing he
can do more than
focus on stuff blowing up, other things catching on fire, and some cool
special
effects (I like Blaze’s and his motorcycle’s
transformations into Ghost Rider,
plus the spirits look good and evil).
He
often frames many shots much like what you would expect from the actual
comic books and graphic novels, like one person standing over
another
with the sun behind them, or looking down in the face of Blaze when he
has been
knocked to the ground. These
visuals are
a nice tip of the hat to fans and the genre.
However, other
parts of Ghost Rider drag the whole film down, especially Fonda and
Bentley,
who are so wooden you would think Ghost Rider could just set them on
fire and
end the movie after twenty minutes.
Each
actor tries so hard to be ominous and stoically evil that the real
challenge
during their stare downs is to the audience – a challenge to
keep from laughing
so loud people think the crowd at the showing of Norbit in the next
theater
over are getting out of hand (and having a better time). Even Eva Mendes, playing
Blaze’s long lost
love, Roxanne, is too phony, rehearsed and kind of vacant to be taken
seriously
(and, her character apparently doesn’t own one single blouse
that can button
all the way to the top, which is her only true contribution to Ghost Rider). Johnson never
answers why a tool of the devil like Ghost Rider starts to act like a
vigilante
by breaking up other crimes, and Cage might want to throw some tabasco
sauce on
that scenery he is chewing as Blaze feels the pain of transforming into
and out
of the titular character, but Ghost Rider isn’t as bad as one
might fear. 1
½ Waffles (Out
Of 4) Ghost Rider is rated PG-13 for horror violence and disturbing images.
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