GHOST
RIDER
With
Nicolas
Cage,
Peter
Fonda,
Eva
Mendes,
Donal
Logue,
Wes
Bentley,
Sam
Elliott
Directed
by
Mark
Steven
Johnson
Ghost
Rider
and
Dare
Devil
happened
to
be
two
of
my
favourite
comic
book
heroes
over
the
likes
of
the
more
obvious
mainstream
ones.
And
as
Dare
Devil’s
movie
version
was
enjoyable
but
didn’t
blow
me
away,
so
does
Ghost
Rider
leave
my
flame
fizzled.
Had
I
seen
this
when
I
was
about
14,
it
would’ve
been
a
blast.
But,
as
Cage
would’ve
been
a
bad
pick
as
Superman,
here
he
is
a
terrible
casting
choice
as
Johnny
Blaze,
the
doomed
biker.
As
a
young
man
in
a
motorcycle
daredevil
carnival
act
with
his
dad,
our
hero
inadvertently
sells
his
soul
to
cure
his
terminally
ill
dad.
But
Mephistopheles
takes
his
father
anyway
as
he’s
fooled
by
a
loophole
in
the
contract.
So
he
leaves
his
girl
behind
and
goes
on
to
become
a
very
successful
motorcycle
stunt
rider,
his
smashes
and
crashes
defying
death.
Johnny
is
in
fact
not
merely
lucky,
but
protected
by
the
dark
side
which
has
him
lying
in
wait
to
transform
into
a
flaming
skeleton
on
an
a
mean
infernal
motorcycle
to
be
used
as
an
instrument
against
the
evil
Blackheart
and
his
assorted
cohorts
rising
in
opposition.
Cage
has
become
a
caricature
of
himself
and
female
accessory
Mendez
looks
particularly
greasy
(whether
it’s
the
Southern
weather,
Johnny’s
heat
waves,
her
oily
skin
problem
or
the
make-up
artist
giving
her
a
misplaced
overt
glowing
look).
While
there
are
some
exciting
sequences,
the
CGI
is
too
blatant,
aiding
in
dashing
the
legend
some
of
us
hold
dear
from
our
comic
book
youth.
One
cool
touch
is
the
fact
that
Peter
Fonda
(the
original
Easy
Rider
together
with
Dennis
Hopper)
plays
Mephistopheles.
2
/
B
-
PB
1
2
3
4
5
6
A
-
B
-
C
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