Spring Break
Movie Reviews
David Coley
Issue date: 2/19/07 Section: Culture
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'Ghost Rider'
Imagine if you will: a young boy sells his soul to the devil to save his father's life, only to have his father die anyway. Nothing happens for many years, and then suddenly the devil wants the young man to serve as his bounty hunter to capture souls and demons who have escaped from hell.
When the need arises, the man turns into a flaming skeleton and rides a fiery motorcycle, leaving destruction and several catatonic evildoers in his wake.
Such is the utterly ridiculous premise of the latest Marvel comics adaptation "Ghost Rider." Comics require a certain finesse to make the transfer successfully to the big screen, and in the hands of a good director this can happen swimmingly - see "Batman Begins" and the "Spider-man" series for examples. But that finesse is lacking completely from this film.
The approach director Mark Steven Johnson almost seems like the right one. He seems to not take the material too seriously, which is good since the story screams for an over-the-top style. However, there is a fine line between being intentionally over-the-top and downright cliché, and "Ghost Rider" indulges every tired action movie convention it can possibly get its hands on.
The main conflict of the film revolves around the aforementioned man, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage). He has been given the new task of hunting down the devil's son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) and his evil elemental minions. Blaze must do this while trying to evade the police who are now hot on his trail and protect his sweetheart Roxanne (Eva Mendes).
Also involved is a former Rider (Sam Elliot) who dispenses pearls of wisdom when not taking a ride with Blaze on his flaming horse.
This main conflict comes around the middle of the movie and seems to only occupy a secondary attention as far as the film's narrative goes. The rest is populated with gratuitous special effects and laughable random showdowns between Blaze and the demons.
The villains look like rejects from "The Matrix," and circle each other dispensing taunts even pro-wrestlers would find cliché.
The dialogue is one of the biggest problems. With the actors chewing the scenery and milking each line to death, the already familiar words are sure to induce groans.
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