Publications
Partners
What it’s about:
Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) is held to contract by the devil (Peter Fonda) when the devil’s son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) arrives on Earth to take over or some such fiendish delight.
What we thought of it:
A biker with a flaming skull for a head should not strike you as a nice guy, much less the uncertain offspring of a three-way between Elvis, Evel Knievel and Martha Stewart.
Ghost Rider was never going to be easy to make. It’s a very stylised canon, akin to Todd McFarlane’s Spawn or even DC’s Hellblazer (erm… in the movies that’s Constantine). But few knew to what degree this unfortunate Marvel anti-hero’s name could be dragged through hell and back.
Ghost Rider is shocking. Shockingly bad, that is. Poor characterisation, sloppy editing, and ropey effects are not going to endear movie fans. Neither is a vague story (Darkheart might as well have been on Earth to open another Starbucks branch, and we'd be more excited.)
As for padding out the cast list with name actors, the usually competent Bentley is really tightly wound into that long coat - his lines are the lines of a very uncomfortable man who doesn’t actually want to be in the movie.
Meanwhile Peter Fonda’s groaning is reminiscent of the pizza delivery guy in a 70s porn movie. And the surprised-looking Eva Mendez has absolutely no value to the plot whatsoever, other than to serve as a piece of meat for the boys to chew on. There are some other actors in it, too – most of them die, presumably because they had better agents than Mendez and Bentley.
The only performance worth mentioning at all is that of the old man himself, Sam Elliot, who retains a screen full of charisma as effortlessly as twenty years ago, when he was only three hundred years old.
It’s telling to note that despite all the flames and skulls and otherworldly goings-on, a grizzled Elliot is indeed the only watchable thing in the movie. A shame that his involvement in the story ends with – wait for it – nothing. Yes. Nothing. How can this be, you ask? You’ll have to see it to believe it.
Perhaps the main cock up here is director Johnson’s insistence (or perhaps the studio’s), that Ghost Rider is in fact a film that needed to be suitable for the profitable PG13 rating.
The Constantine adap was violent, had a somewhat horrifying undercurrent, and could have been a classic with better acting. Ghost Rider’s acting is hammy too, but the film completely lacks menace. It bears nothing to even remotely suggest that either the Rider or Blackheart actually could be evil guys.
In fact, Ghost Rider is a film so devoid of anything new or intriguing that it feels like the Kung Pow of superhero pics. Only it isn’t a parody. At least it's not supposed to be.
- Anton Marshall
PS: Doesn't Nic Cage have an Oscar? Can't they take it back?
Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) is held to contract by the devil (Peter Fonda) when the devil’s son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) arrives on Earth to take over or some such fiendish delight.
What we thought of it:
A biker with a flaming skull for a head should not strike you as a nice guy, much less the uncertain offspring of a three-way between Elvis, Evel Knievel and Martha Stewart.
Ghost Rider was never going to be easy to make. It’s a very stylised canon, akin to Todd McFarlane’s Spawn or even DC’s Hellblazer (erm… in the movies that’s Constantine). But few knew to what degree this unfortunate Marvel anti-hero’s name could be dragged through hell and back.
Ghost Rider is shocking. Shockingly bad, that is. Poor characterisation, sloppy editing, and ropey effects are not going to endear movie fans. Neither is a vague story (Darkheart might as well have been on Earth to open another Starbucks branch, and we'd be more excited.)
As for padding out the cast list with name actors, the usually competent Bentley is really tightly wound into that long coat - his lines are the lines of a very uncomfortable man who doesn’t actually want to be in the movie.
Meanwhile Peter Fonda’s groaning is reminiscent of the pizza delivery guy in a 70s porn movie. And the surprised-looking Eva Mendez has absolutely no value to the plot whatsoever, other than to serve as a piece of meat for the boys to chew on. There are some other actors in it, too – most of them die, presumably because they had better agents than Mendez and Bentley.
The only performance worth mentioning at all is that of the old man himself, Sam Elliot, who retains a screen full of charisma as effortlessly as twenty years ago, when he was only three hundred years old.
It’s telling to note that despite all the flames and skulls and otherworldly goings-on, a grizzled Elliot is indeed the only watchable thing in the movie. A shame that his involvement in the story ends with – wait for it – nothing. Yes. Nothing. How can this be, you ask? You’ll have to see it to believe it.
Perhaps the main cock up here is director Johnson’s insistence (or perhaps the studio’s), that Ghost Rider is in fact a film that needed to be suitable for the profitable PG13 rating.
The Constantine adap was violent, had a somewhat horrifying undercurrent, and could have been a classic with better acting. Ghost Rider’s acting is hammy too, but the film completely lacks menace. It bears nothing to even remotely suggest that either the Rider or Blackheart actually could be evil guys.
In fact, Ghost Rider is a film so devoid of anything new or intriguing that it feels like the Kung Pow of superhero pics. Only it isn’t a parody. At least it's not supposed to be.
- Anton Marshall
PS: Doesn't Nic Cage have an Oscar? Can't they take it back?
