Ghost Rider review (Spoilers)...

[Sharkey]

* 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...

 

The ride with the cool music was definitely one of the best parts of the movie. No doubt about it.

[joker-fish]

 

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,ok...tell us what you REALLY think ,

 

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

[howardhallis]

Sam Elliot, in the middle of telling Johnny Blaze about the curse of the Ghost Rider, should have brought out Jeff Bridges and said:

 

"And this here... Well, this is The Dude."

[ciorac]

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.

 

Well I guess because it was a motorcycle plate, and motorcycle tracks were burned into the pavement, and it was Johnny's plate, and he is the only SOB in town that can ride the way the guy on the bike road. Sounds like probable cause to me. Not to metion the cop indicated the murders began at the same time Blaze hit town.

 

People have been arrested on shakier evidence than that.

 

I didn't hate the movie. Sure it had plot holes. Most movies these days do, including the superhero movies that I loved. I didn't love this movie, but I thought it was going to be awful, I watched it tonight and it wasn't awful. Hulk was awful. This movie was on the level with the Blade films to me. Not as good as 1 or 3, but easily as good, maybe better than Blade 2.

 

X3 was one gigantic plot hole, I absolutely loved X1 and X2, X3 left me wanting, but I still enjoyed it.

 

At least they are still making superhero movies, and that is a good thing to me.

 

Plus, they showed the Spidey trailer and that got me all keyed up for the movie.

[FlyingDonut]

 

This is amusing.

 

The muggles LOVED this movie. We "in the know" are looking for something *spoon* about every comic movie. The muggles needed something to do in the snow and ice, and it was either Ghost Rider (escapist popcorn fun), Bridge to Terebithia (wickedly depressing at the end, and COMPLETELY different from the book) or Norbit (which was very funny).

 

Of course Ghost Rider did well. It was a dumb summer popcorn movie, transplanted to February. Same reason Daredevil did well.

[mar-vell]

* 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...

 

i thought so too! Usually Elliot would take part in the fight and get aced by the bad guy then after Cage beats the bad guy they have a touching farewell scene. Just as well i didn't go to the film to watch those two touch each other!

[Sharkey]

* 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...

 

i thought so too! Usually Elliot would take part in the fight and get aced by the bad guy then after Cage beats the bad guy they have a touching farewell scene. Just as well i didn't go to the film to watch those two touch each other!

 

If Sam would have taken part in the fight and gotten aced to help save johnny Blaze we could have called it "Road House 2"

 

"Don't eat the big white mint"

[ciorac]

 

This is amusing.

 

The muggles LOVED this movie. We "in the know" are looking for something *spoon* about every comic movie. The muggles needed something to do in the snow and ice, and it was either Ghost Rider (escapist popcorn fun), Bridge to Terebithia (wickedly depressing at the end, and COMPLETELY different from the book) or Norbit (which was very funny).

 

Of course Ghost Rider did well. It was a dumb summer popcorn movie, transplanted to February. Same reason Daredevil did well.

 

I must be a muggle then, I liked it.

[burntboy]

 

This is amusing.

 

The muggles LOVED this movie. We "in the know" are looking for something *spoon* about every comic movie. The muggles needed something to do in the snow and ice, and it was either Ghost Rider (escapist popcorn fun), Bridge to Terebithia (wickedly depressing at the end, and COMPLETELY different from the book) or Norbit (which was very funny).

 

Of course Ghost Rider did well. It was a dumb summer popcorn movie, transplanted to February. Same reason Daredevil did well.

 

I must be a muggle then, I liked it.

 

I enjoyed it - it was fun, the cinematography and CGI were excellent (IMHO) and even my wife liked it......

 

the audience laughed many, many times at the numerous one-liners.

 

and i've always LOVED "Ghost riders in the sky"..............

 

Oh, and the theater was the most packed i've been in for years......the holiday should definitely help sustain a decent second week box office........

[PovertyRow]

Well I finally saw it on HD On Demand. I was shocked. Stupefied.

 

I didn't dislike it simply because dislike is a form of emotional response and there was nothing here that touched the emotions. Also there was not much to like. So not much to like or dislike. It was more pathetic than anything else. I felt bad for the people involved in the making of it.

 

I WILL say the FX were quite good and GR in full form was very nicely done. The early scenes when Cage would turn into GR - kind of painful to see. I swear to god he was doing an homage to Bruce Campbell's EVIL DEAD performances! But it just didn't fit or work.

 

Dialogue was SO corny as was any sense of character development. What to say. Almost a year late with my review but no matter.

[Stronguy]

I just saw it for the first time too... I'm sooo glad I took my brother's advice and didn't pay to go see it. It has to be one of the worst movies ever made. It made Daredevil look like a cinematic masterpiece.

[Artboy99]

I just saw it for the first time too... I'm sooo glad I took my brother's advice and didn't pay to go see it. It has to be one of the worst movies ever made. It made Daredevil look like a cinematic masterpiece.

 

While I agree with your take on Ghost Rider, I actually liked Daredevil.

 

Artboy99

[The Troll King]

I just saw it for the first time too... I'm sooo glad I took my brother's advice and didn't pay to go see it. It has to be one of the worst movies ever made. It made Daredevil look like a cinematic masterpiece.

 

While I agree with your take on Ghost Rider, I actually liked Daredevil.

 

Artboy99

 

And I still say that seeing the DIRECTORS CUT of Daredevil is the ONLY way to see it. It's a completely different movie. Normally directors cuts are the same thing with a few scenes added... I will swear til I'm dead that this is not the case with this movie.

 

The director and the studio had two different agendas on this one. Jeff, I'll let you borrow the Directors Cut at the DCC if you want.