Ghost Rider review (Spoilers)...

[Pezz5-migration]

Wife and I saw it tonight, wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly suprised. I thought it was alot of fun. Have to agree about Eva's acting .

 

I know some posts said there was no story, but it was easy enough to follow. Same plot as most comic book movies so far. Hero + Love Interest + Bad Guys. Not to hard to follow.

 

I'd Rank it right right up there with Spiderman. Explained the character well and had some laughs. Effects

 

And cudos to Sam Elliot. Ya think he had enough facial hair, look like he's setting up to be the next Wolverine.

 

Anyways, good fun movie and definate setup for the sequel. Don't forget your .

[FFB]

Well, the Ghost Rider movie did an unbelievable $44.5 million this weekend, more than doubling the second-place movie, Bridge to Terabithia. The media is calling it a great success at the box office, despite being panned by the critics.

[Catman-migration]

My wife and I saw it last night. We both thought the movie was choppy at times in how it flowed from scene to scene and that the bad guys should have been a lot tougher. As it is, all of the fights are over way too quickly with not much of a challenge for GR. That said, we found the movie entertaining overall. The action scenes and special effects were excellent.

[Scheradon]

Ok, saw it last night. All five of us that went liked it. Within the group of us, we covered the spectrum from Comic book fan to "who the heck is Ghost Rider?" and everyone came out entertained.

 

I'd give it a C+ overall.

 

The downside's to me were:

Eva's acting was pretty bad. Cage's was hit and miss to me. He did well on the comedic scenes, but failed to deliver in the more dramatic serious scenes. His lines at the end of the film with Fonda were less than convincing and lacked any real substance to me. I also feel they should have spent a little more time developing the character and what his abilities were. Aside from one brief scene where he read an excerpt from a book and commenced on controlling the fire element, it shed no light on him "learning" his abilities...he just sort of had them and used them in the fight/action scenes.

 

Plus side:

Overall, found it entertaining. I liked that they linked in a ride with the old Ghost Rider. Elliott was a great choice for that one. I did enjoy the laughs throughout the film and thought that Cage did well in those scenes. Fonda was fine in his role (even though I thought he fell a little flat at the end). I also got better than I expected out of the graphics and effects. I knew CGI was going to be extensive (it had to be), but I felt they did about as good as they could at this time and Cage's facial changing scenes were above what my expectations were.

 

 

BTW: Can't wait for 300. This movie just keeps growing and growing on me. I can't even get enough of just watching the trailer and haven't been this excited for a film in a long while.

[Aman619]

hey, lets all take a moment to appreciate this thread right now. I mean, what a blessing the opening comes while good ol JC (aka Mr Positive) is 'away.'

[KingOfRulers]

Well, I set the bar Some people went expecting total *spoon* after some of the reviews were not so great and were plesantly suprised I'm glad my review could further everyone else's enjoyment.

[drice6900]

Well, the Ghost Rider movie did an unbelievable $44.5 million this weekend, more than doubling the second-place movie, Bridge to Terabithia. The media is calling it a great success at the box office, despite being panned by the critics.

 

Here comes Ghost Rider 2!

[backtomarvel]

I haven't seen it, but it does have one thing no other comic book movie has had and it's something that can bring in some new younger folks ... the Devil. The evil horror angle is really popular with teens/young adults as horror movie after horror movie will attest.

 

Could explain the surprise box office number and it may continue for a bit. May not be a flick comic fan boys appreciate, but it may tap a whole new type of fan boys in comic movies.

[musicmeta]

I liked the Ghost Rider movie. It was a fun popcorn movie. I thought Nicolas Cage did a good job. "Ghost Rider" was nowhere near as good as X-Men 1 &2 or Spider-Man 1 & 2 or Batman Begins but it was entertaining. I hope they make a sequel as long as Cage is the Ghost Rider.

[Flee-Marquette]

I haven't seen it, but it does have one thing no other comic book movie has had and it's something that can bring in some new younger folks ... the Devil. The evil horror angle is really popular with teens/young adults as horror movie after horror movie will attest.

 

Could explain the surprise box office number and it may continue for a bit. May not be a flick comic fan boys appreciate, but it may tap a whole new type of fan boys in comic movies.

 

Or maybe another type. The local news here in Florida showed Nicholas Cage at the Daytona 500 as the Grand Marshal. The TV reporter was interviewing a guy wearing a full Nascar outfit with a Ghost Rider comic book looking for an autograph.

[Artboy99]

I haven't seen it, but it does have one thing no other comic book movie has had and it's something that can bring in some new younger folks ... the Devil. The evil horror angle is really popular with teens/young adults as horror movie after horror movie will attest.

 

Could explain the surprise box office number and it may continue for a bit. May not be a flick comic fan boys appreciate, but it may tap a whole new type of fan boys in comic movies.

 

You never saw Spawn I take it.

( you didnt miss much by the way )

[backtomarvel]

Never even knew there was a Spawn flick?!?!?!

 

From LA Weekly: "Ghost Rider is the biggest film opening so far in 2007 -- and Nicolas Cage's biggest since 2003's National Treasure because he's been in a slump at the box office. Audience breakdown for the film is 62% male and 38% female with 55% under age 25 and 45% are age 25 and older. "

 

Between the kids and NASCAR fans seems the flick has tapped a new audience. There must have been a Spidey 3 trailer before it -- both Sony flicks -- so maybe even a bit of a boost there for a movie that hardly needs it.

[burntboy]

hey, lets all take a moment to appreciate this thread right now. I mean, what a blessing the opening comes while good ol JC (aka Mr Positive) is 'away.'

 

AMEN, Brother................

[Silver Surfer]

Saw the movie and I liked it very much. Once again the critics that panned this movie are the type of people that want to watch a new version of Kramer vs Kramer every other week, lighten up please. You didn't have to know squat about the comic series to enjoy this movie.

[Sharkey]

 

That's great! I am also looking forward to 300 and Spidey 3 -- will probably go see Ghost Rider tonight.

 

The Chicago Tribune today ran a syndicated review from the Orlando Sentinel. The guy panned the movie mercilessly but his review was so poorly written I could hardly follow it. So that makes me want to see it even more!

 

Actually hearing that some people and their families liked the movie is good -- my wife wants to see it and she didn't really like the Spider-Man movies that much because she thought they were trying to take themselves too seriously. She thought the GR preview looked fun and liked that it appeared to not try to pass itself off as high art....

 

So hopefully it'll be an enjoyable movie....

 

 

 

OK, so that's what I said BEFORE my wife and I went to see the movie. I was really just hoping for entertainment. I really, really, really wanted to like this movie!!

 

We just came back, and after actually seeing the movie, with VERY LOW expectations... well, I have to say that my expectations were met. Wow. So much wasted potential in this movie

 

I tend to consider myself very forgiving about movies, and this one just blew me away with its ineptitude. It coulda been a contender!!!! But in the end I just thought it was lame.

 

 

*** SPOILDER WARNING **** SPOILER WARNING:*****

 

 

ACTING: Well the acting was wooden at best, and the overacting was like an epidemic. Can't people just give performances where they don't beat us over the head with the point? This one had it all: typecasting, cliches, and just plain bad acting. Peter Fonda was terrible. Nic was ok, but I had a hard time really feeling what his character was supposed to be -- it took the other characters to TELL YOU rather than him to show you.

Also The bad guys were just plain lame, like punkified versions of the skater demons in Dogma. GR whooped each of their butts in 2 seconds -- like, what was the point? Adam West had a harder time beating the Penguin's hired goons in the 1960 Batman TV show And his acting was better than most of the people in this movie... Blackheart was just a bad guy in name. He had no personality other than talking tough and killing some innocent people. And he was as much of a pushover as the goons. No challenge to GR whatsoever, really. The ending battle took less time than it took for all the demons to fly around. Who knew the devil's kid would be such a wuss!

 

SPECIAL EFFECTS: The CGI was great! I liked Ghost Rider, his bike, and the old Ghost Rider and his horse. The best part of the movie is the special effects and the soundtrack.

 

PLOT: Uh, GR should exact some vengeance on whoever wrote this piece of *spoon* -script because it was LAME! This plot had so many holes and inconsistencies I don't know where to begin. That was the hardest part for me. I can look past some bad acting, a little forced and corny dialogue, and even forgive a lot of weaknesses in a movie if there's a good plot that keeps me engaged. This movie's story seemed disjointed, and so much stuff happens that's not really explained, like someone above pointed out where johnny just seems to use his powers without much being learned or taught to him. He needs a Stick, which is what Sam Elliott SHOULD have been.

 

*** SPOILER WARNING****

EXAMPLES:

* How about the fact that about 3 times they said that a football field goalpost to goalpost was 300 feet. This annoyed the heck out of me -- even my wife knew that was wrong!!! Ok, that's not the plot it's just bad writing!

* Ok, how about at the beginning when Johnny makes the deal with the devil, he's supposed to meet his girlfriend at noon the next day so they can ride out of town together. So then he wakes up the next morning, and his father has already been to the doctor and had new x-rays which show that his cancer is cured, then he goes and does his show, crashes and dies, and then the next scene is johnny riding off without Roxie. So, his dad died and he just up and rides off? No trip to the hospital, no burial or anything, I mean, his mom doesn't seem to be around so who's gonna deal with his dead dad.... WTF?

* Another example: When Nic Cage is arrested and thrown in jail and then busts out as Ghost Rider and ends up confronting the entire police force and swat team. And then later when Roxie is looking for him she just walks in his apartment. Uh, don't ya think they police, FBI, and everybody else would be tearing every inch of that place apart investigating?

* Or another example: When the police confront him, and Roxie starts to walk out to meet him but the police give the order to open fire WHEN SHE IS STILL IN FRONT OF THE GUYS WITH THE GUNS? My wife busted out laughing at that scene!

* Or my favorite of all: When Sam Elliott uses his last chance to turn into the original Ghost Rider and uses it NOT to fight the bad guy with Nic, but just to ride across the desert with him BEFORE he has to confront Blackheart. He gets there, turns human, and then says, "well, you're on your own Johnny, I could only change one last time..." and disappears. Double, no triple WTF???

** I KNOW IT'S A COMIC BOOK MOVIE, and I can suspend disbelief that a flaming skulled bounty hunter for the devil can ride his flaming motorcycle up the side of a building and on top of water. I don't have a problem with that. But PLEASE at least make the story coherent!!!!

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Excellent. A well-shot movie with nice camera work. Although a couple of the sets are really clearly sets, cheaply done -- it was obvious most of the money went into the CGI....

 

HUMOR: GOOD -- there are some funny one-liners here and there, which I liked. But nobody, and I mean nobody in the audience laughed out loud at the jokes. Most people were laughing out loud during the serious parts because the dialog was so forced and cheesy!

 

CONCLUSION: I was just disappointed, even going in with low expectations. It's a shame because with a cast consisting of Nic Cage, Peter Fonda, and Sam Elliott, you expect a lot more than what they deliver. There were some fun parts, some good one-liners, a couple of decent scenes with GR. But overall it didn't entertain me as much as I'd have like -- or as much as it could have.

 

RATING: I'd give it one

[Scheradon]

* Or my favorite of all: When Sam Elliott uses his last chance to turn into the original Ghost Rider and uses it NOT to fight the bad guy with Nic, but just to ride across the desert with him BEFORE he has to confront Blackheart. He gets there, turns human, and then says, "well, you're on your own Johnny, I could only change one last time..." and disappears. Double, no triple WTF???

 

I have to admit, I was thinking WTF too at this one...

[grandz-migration]

* Or my favorite of all: When Sam Elliott uses his last chance to turn into the original Ghost Rider and uses it NOT to fight the bad guy with Nic, but just to ride across the desert with him BEFORE he has to confront Blackheart. He gets there, turns human, and then says, "well, you're on your own Johnny, I could only change one last time..." and disappears. Double, no triple WTF???

 

I have to admit, I was thinking WTF too at this one...

 

That was a shining moment in the film for me. I was half asleep by then.

 

I gave-up on the movie when Johnny Blaze was arrested. That was my WTF

moment (one of many).

[KingOfRulers]

I didn't notice that they said a Football field was 300 ft three times I did notice a few holes though. When Johnny Blaze is arrested because his license plate was found at the scene, the cops did not tell him his Miranda rights or show a warrant for his arrest. They should have shown him turning into Ghost Rider yelling and screaming for a writ of habeas corpus. Also, how does a license plate mean he did anything? The entire street was full of debris, pieces of rubble and car parts--whats so weird about finding a license plate there. That would never be enough to arrest him.

[Sharkey]

I didn't notice that they said a Football field was 300 ft three times I did notice a few holes though. When Johnny Blaze is arrested because his license plate was found at the scene, the cops did not tell him his Miranda rights or show a warrant for his arrest. They should have shown him turning into Ghost Rider yelling and screaming for a writ of habeas corpus. Also, how does a license plate mean he did anything? The entire street was full of debris, pieces of rubble and car parts--whats so weird about finding a license plate there. That would never be enough to arrest him.

 

Somebody else mentioned the error that goalpost to goalpost was 360 -- I figured maybe they just said 300 feet once in the movie. But they say it like 3 times and the great thing was my wife Beth leaning over and saying "aren't the goalposts behind the endzone line?"

 

Yeah, the whole arrest thing was so lame and cliche'd. There used to be a great column in the Comics Buyers Guide called 'The law is a azz" where an attorney would deconstruct comic book plots that contained very flawed legal scenarios. It was brilliant (and yes, Daredevil figured prominently in many columns....) I would love to see what he'd say about the Ghost Rider scene.

[ArAich]

* Or my favorite of all: When Sam Elliott uses his last chance to turn into the original Ghost Rider and uses it NOT to fight the bad guy with Nic, but just to ride across the desert with him BEFORE he has to confront Blackheart. He gets there, turns human, and then says, "well, you're on your own Johnny, I could only change one last time..." and disappears. Double, no triple WTF???

 

I don't know about you guys...you all seem to be missing the point...it wasn't just about the ride..it was about the ride with the cool music...