Cool News
Your Very Own GHOST RIDER Talkback!!
Well, they haven’t really screened GHOST RIDER for press, so there’s no early reviews here.
Instead, I’m just going to put up a talkback for you guys to post your thoughts. If you see it at midnight tonight, let us know. I was considering a trip down to the Dome, but instead, I think I’ll see it Saturday morning, first show, with some friends of mine.
This should hover somewhere on the front page for the whole weekend, so pipe up... tell us if this is a Marvel hit or a Marvel miss.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
-
+ Expand All
-
Am I?
-
First
-
My friend was supposed to go to a midnight screening of this, and it was canceled by the theater due to lack of interest/poor ticket sales. That's what you get for "my head feels like it's on fire!"
-
It was actually really good. i was really surprised. And Nick didn't do that stupid hand thing. i will for sure go see this again!
-
it was def. good. maybe because i was expecting it to blow like a whales hole. but yeh it was def. good.
-
Dolph IS the Punisher, unlike the 04 abortion, he actually punishes people. He won't plan and plot the badguy's death and vow vengeance in front of everyone, he'll walk up and shoot you a lot and step out of the shadows to slit your throat. He will not be a big crybaby about how everything went wrong, he will be a big ass psycopath talking to God and kicking ass. the 04 version like so many comicbook films today are too emo and metrosexual made for today's emotional post-9/11 audiences. i miss the ultra-violence and alphamale badassery.Hopefully Ghost Rider and Iron Man can get these comicbook films back on track.
-
Doesn't change his style. He just acts the same in every film & it's hit or miss as to whether the character works with him or not.
-
are not making me think happy thoughts!
-
Several mention long bouts of unintentional laughter.. hrmm..
-
like all NuMarvel movie characters.
-
Just got in from the screening for the Press at the Pacific Grove theater. The movie was fantastic! The effects were awesome! Eva Mendes looked good but didnt really sell the sexiness like I expected. The what I like to call "making of GR" was great how he slowly gained his accessories (chain whip, leather spiked jacket, cycle and gun) that was cool and evolved over the length of the film. There were lots of little holes in the plot that will eventually be nitpicked, but overall it wasn't really a bad movie at all. The action was constant, the demons and their effects (water, earth, wind, black heart and mephistollies) weren't too over done. And the scenes of Carter Slade riding along side Johnny Blaze (old and new Ghost Riders) were my favorite, especially the scene w/ the Desert Iguana. Definitely go see this film. I also attended a screening a month ago of "the Number 23" and that was very dissapointing, if given the choice tomorrow, see the Rider!!!
-
It'll be the comedy of the year! NOT THE BEES! MY EYES! AAAAAGH
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=e6i2WRreARo -
The story was fairly accurate as it comes to the origin and the scenes not involving Ghost Rider are not bad. Cage can play Blaze a bit too bumbling and dim witted, but over all his performance is what I expected. The parts where the movie really seemed to fail are the scenes with the Ghost Rider...they are too fast and the Unseen elemental guys don't give much of a fight. Ghost Rider pretty much owns everybody in this movie. And the action is straight camp. I would've like to see the film be a bit more serious. As a comparison I'd compare this to the Blade series.
-
Cage was good, he kept dipping inbetween a country accent and Elvis Presley though which was a tad annoying. And just be on the look out for inconsistencies like why he is hurt as a human after being stabbed as Ghost Rider in one scene, but isnt hurt as a human after being barraged by bullets from police in another. Or why Police at a certain point of the movie feel Johnny Blaze's home is no longer worth survailing and anyone including Johnny can just walk right in. There'll be a scene where you'll go...oh look he's holding something that makes him look like he's reprising his role in National Treasure again. Sam Elliot was excellent but never really delves into his character and why he still exists at a age of somewhere past 200 and hasnt died...overall the movie was well worth the wait.
-
I mean, he goes to great lengths to trick a guy into thinking he's getting tortured? He fucking fries some meat and sticks a popsicle on the guy's back at the same time. Gayest shit ever. If the movie had any balls, that scene would've involved, oh I dunno, real torture, maybe? I've half a mind to take the director's nuts, just the nuts, right? Lay'em out on a dresser, and fuckin' bang them shits with a spiked bat, like BLAH!
-
because they will view it as a serious film that MUST uphold the true vision of a man who sells himself to the devil and because it does not mirror GHOST RIDER, VOL.2 ISSUE #37, it must suck like a $2 whore...... I just want to sit back with my popcorn and watch a flick that I'll enjoy and then forget about in a few days. I'm not going to see Citizen Kane here. Just looking for explosions
-
Hey,
I saw "Ghost Rider" Thursday to be put in my school's newspaper. The link isn't up yet, so I will post it here.
Enjoy
~~~
"Ghost Rider"
Staring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wez Bently, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Rating: 1/2 out of 5 stars
After hundreds of trailers and commercials full of beautiful CGI, action-packed fight scenes and needless destruction, I was fired up to see "Ghost Rider." Unfortunately, all I did was get burned.
Based on the Marvel comic book, the plot focuses around stunt rider Johnny Blaze, who sold his soul to the devil at an early age to save his cancer-ridden father. Years later, after making his name as the world's best stunt motorcyclist, he is called upon to do the devil's bidding. He becomes The Ghost Rider, a fiery spirit of cycling vengeance. Blaze is forced to hunt and kill Blackheart, the devil's son, who is trying to usurp his father's position. This is all done while fighting his own demons.
The whole issue with this film is that it's cliché on a lot of different levels. The writing is hackneyed, relying on bad jokes or overly "superheroed" one-liners about destroying evil. There's plenty of destruction, but a lot of it is unneeded and rather unexciting. Parking meters catch on fire and melt, cars flip into store windows, everything explodes over and over, and it's hard to care. The camera work is either overly intense or boring, especially during the riding and fight scenes, and it makes the shots look comic.
Then, of course, there's the acting. Nicholas Cage, with a horrible southern accent not heard since "Con Air," is awful when trying to do anything that requires a personality. He is confused and transforms almost every mood into it. Compassionate, pensive, depressed, intrigued, irate, melancholy - it's all very confusing to Nic Cage. The only other emotion he knows is excitement, and it's easy to tell when Cage is feeling this. His eyes go wide, he throws his hands up, screams and sometimes dances. It's absolutely awful when Cage morphs to the rider and the CGI skeleton head displays more feeling than he does.
The supporting cast isn't anything better. Eva Mendes ("Hitch"), or going by audience attention and screen focus, Mendes' chest, is flat and boring, not a good thing for a love interest. Wez Bently ("American Beauty") looks dark and awesome as the devil's son, until he opens his mouth and becomes as overly exaggerated as the rest of the movie. The real disappointment lies with veteran actors Peter Fonda ("Easy Rider") and Sam Elliot ("The Hulk"), who were surpassingly uninteresting as the devil and the secret graveyard keeper, respectively.
The film is very pretty at times, but it uses CGI to an extent in which all credibility is lost. It's fantastic when Cage first catches fire and turns into the rider, but becomes old news by the sixth or seventh time. The CGI fire itself is equally stimulating, but by the end of the movie, when everything is on fire, it just doesn't matter anymore.
There's also absolutely no suspense whatsoever; it doesn't even make an effort. Major villains appear and die almost as quickly. Even the final battle between Blaze and Blackheart is pretty but long and boring, and leaves you feeling, quite fittingly, burnt out. And it's not just the fact the pace is slow, it's also incredibly self-referential, making it drag that much more. Johnson has no problem using flashbacks, even within the first 10 minutes, just to make sure no one is confused. But it's not nearly intricate enough to lose anyone. Watching the movie is painful the first time, much less doing it again.
While viewing this film, I couldn't help but remember good advice from long ago: "If you play with fire, you're going to get burned."
Lesson learned.
www.TheDailyOrange.com -
I'm surprised. I just got back from seeing it.
-
I could also equate this movie to Hellboy...infact that's the better comparision.
-
From the preview they gave during Ault Swim.........The movie looks like ass. Bad effects and bad acting.
-
LatinoReview...nice.
-
It's starting to look like a fucking GARDEN.
-
I really appreciate that, but, uh... you can have it back. I'm all set.
-
Its from the director of Daredevil! DAREDEVIL!!! I mean jesus people are we not film geeks??!! Watch the fucking trailers. Its a trainwreck, and if you tell me to watch the movie before saying that you automatically lose. If a studio thinks the film is so bad critics shouldnt even watch it imagine how bad it is. The fucking STUDIO is admitting its bad. That means the film isnt just bad, but sign of the apocalypse bad. It will instantly give you cancer bad. May I reiterate its form the director of the absolutely awful Daredevil. The only good thing one can say about Daredevil is that it would make a great episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Let's not even give this one the credit of taking it seriously lest we want even more awful comic book films.
-
By default (seeing as how it's the only positive review thus far), expect to see your blurb pop up in the next round of TV ads for this shitfest: "Ghost Rider was pretty good!" — jrbarker, Ain't It Cool News
-
Congrats kid they read your post and think you got the chops to run the studio. You're perfect executive material. Now go greenlight Robocop 4.
-
It looked like they were going for a PG-13 or something.The thing with the popsicle was directly lifted from one of the Garth Ennis issues along with a big chunk of the rest of the story.You can blame him for that shit.If they REALLY wanted to make a kick ass movie they should have gone late 70s early 80s Punny.Back when he used to blast away at litterbugs.
-
A friend of mine went to see it the morning before he went to the Hot Fuzz premiere in London. Fucker. Anyway he said it was awful, really really awful. But he's not a comic fan at all. He does love the spider-man movies though. He said it was worse than Daredevil(I didn't mind DD though)
He said it as worse compared to daredevil as Daredevil is to Spider-man(or some thing like that.) Anyway he didn't like it. -
= Ghost Rider movie
-
You people are whiny fucks, this was a lot of fun, and i hope it does well this weekend. IndustryKiller! Your a fuckin assclown, eat shit fucker.
-
News at 11.
-
...but I have a first print Ghost Rider no.2 in pristine condition. There was a Street Figher 2 in our local comic shop and I liked the cover.
-
He only shot at litter bugs and wife abusers becuase he's been drugged in prison. The popsickle torture scene was from a Punisher War Zone in the early 90's with JR jr drawing it. Read a comic book, why don't ya. = ) I wish they would CGI a skull on Denzel Washington in Man on Fire and call it the Punisher, cause that's what the Punisher should have been.
-
You have a mint condition Ghost Rider #2...but you don't like comics...
Nuts...the world is nuts! -
than in Transformers....
-
I HEART Mori's reviews.
-
Has anyone noticed we are halfway through February and naked Harry is still sliding down the New Year pole? It's creepin' me out!
-
... This MSJ-macher clown is in charge of the Preacher miniseries!
-
Why am I suprised? Another Marvel film, made by "fans of the characters" sucks once again. Fantastic Four 2 will be next kiddies...I can see it coming like a trainwreck. Marvel and everyone involved just do not have a clue.
-
Mahooch is a plant.
-
Someone in here needs to spring for some hookers cause you all need to get laid!!!..lol
-
was frickin awesome. end of story. if you are a comic book fan and you did not like daredevil you are a)a hater or b)a whinerbaby or c)someone who's opinion cannot be taken seriously. it was good. don't hate. don't whine. it wasn't spidey2 or batman begins. but it wasNOT crap. sounds like most people liked Ghost RIder to some extent. you whiney bitches moan about everything, so i bet it's worth at least one viewing. that's my new formula for telling if a movies gonna be good or not: (Harry hates it and claims it was the worst atrocity ever to befall mankind) + (everyone on the talkbacks moans and whines like little girls about tiny insignificant details)=decent movie
-
Um, way to pigeon hole people who don't agree with you. I'm one of the few who enjoyed the extended version of DD, but your opinion is worth the same as anyone's who disses DD.
-
...Palladium Theater in Birmingham, MI. Could not ask for my money (or time) back as it was a Sneak Peek promotion through a television station. Had been prepared for an awful movie, having seen the press kit materials and trailers. I was not disappointed. I do, however, have a new found appreciation for Spawn and Constantine. Thanks, Ghost Rider! Too bad Wicker Man didn't come out this year, Nic Cage would be guaranteed a Rasberry.
-
http://tinyurl.com/yrtvgw
-
I saw this last night and it sucked. Sucked pretty bad too. They could easily cut the first 30 minutes of the movie and just put a paragraph on screen outlining that Johnny Blaze made a deal with the devil. Eva Mendes was horrible, to the point I was embarassed for her. The kid that plays Darkheart doesn't have to do anything but stare people down (and deliver horrible lines). Seeing Ghost Rider on screen was cool but the action scenes aren't even really action scenes. I'd compare them to fights in the sandbox. Save your money.
-
...if you fuck up Preacher, I will personally come down and castrate you, got it? sodomizing Ghost Rider is one thing, but one bad glance at Preacher and its fucking ON!
havnt these fuckwit directors/producers learned that camp in comic books is fucking dead?! not every adaptation has to b turned into a light comedy. -
In the "Sneakin' in the Movies" segment - "Man, we give this movie THE FINGER!"Monkeybrains sez: "I just want to sit back with my popcorn and watch a flick that I'll enjoy and then forget about in a few days."The problem here, of course is that IT IS A BAD MOVIE and, as such, CANNOT BE ENJOYED.FOr people who bring up "Flash Gordon," remember De Laurentis (aka Dildo) wanted a serious, straight-faced pulp story, though fast and on the cheap as usual. The driector said, "This'll be better if we camp it waaaaay up like the Batman TV show." And it is. That movie works because it knows what it is and wallows in it.This isn't camp enough and not mythic enough and not serious enough and not smart enough...etc. It doesn't know what it is.This flick is a mess.
-
A work of genius.
I'm a Brit no idea when we get Ghost Rider. I wanna see Cage work with Woo again, in something good this time.
dekionplexis.blogspot.com/ -
Feb 16, 2007 11:34:05 AM CST
Taking a dump on the floor would be more exciting
by allpowerfulwizardofoz
then having to watch this turd at the movies.
-
You're absolutely right about the popsicle thing.Was it"War Journal #1",maybe?My bad.And my apologies to Garth Ennis.I realize they retroactively said he was "doped up"later on when they wanted to make him more of an anti-hero than a villain,but back then that's the way he was.The "doped up" reason for his insane extremes was added later.Old school Punisher would make Charles Bronson tear-up like Iron Eyes Cody in a trash pile by the interstate.
-
Has anyone seen the director's cut DVD?? It really is a completely different movie. I actually liked the new version. Hopefully Ghost Rider has the same thing.
-
This is one big stinker. Ghost Rider was one of my favorite comics
growing up.
I was hoping they wouldn't make a pile if shit movie outr of it but they did,.
Well 300 can't come fast enough -
And he said shit like this can't exist in our dimension unless pink planet-sized winged apes have their enemas back up and flood our space-time continuum.He's going back to the drawing board now that GR is out.
-
Well, I guess I wasn't expecting much. I knew it was going to be corny, and it was. But it was cool to see Ghost Rider come to life. But "pretty good" is a relative term. Now that I've had time to digest it, I think "pretty good" was over rating the movie.
-
What's up with Nick Cages hair? That's the only reason I'm going to see this. His hair is mesmorizing.
-
That's easy. It comes from an aerosol can. PSSHHHHSHHH! Then they lit it on fire to save on the FX budget. It's movie magic!
-
Looks like I'm one of the few that liked the Theatrical cut??? and the Directors cut even a lot more??
-
it seems more people like it than i thought. maybe if you go into it expecting too much you come away disappointed.
-
Ghost Rider, not so much. 3/10, maybe 4/10 if I'm being kind. The whole thing was totally boring and weirdly disjointed. Oh well, I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't get much.
-
It should be WeHateMovies.com. Iv'e never seen so many "movie fans" bitch and moan because they did'nt make the film they had imagined thier head. Do the rest of us a favor and go back to reading your comics and let us enjoy these films.
-
I thought Nicholas Cage played the whole thing great. His acting while undergoing the transformation was spot on. He looked like he was in pain, but damn if he didn't look like he was enjoying it too. The madness of it all came through perfectly. As for the Blackheart, he was good. What the hell do people want? He was the son of the Devil and that's what he looked like. Pale, dark hair and eyes, black clothes...these emo dorks look like HIM (they want to look evil and outcast), not the other way around. And yes, the 3 element demons got their asses handed to them, but that's because they figured they could take Ghost Rider, no problem. You can see it in any bar on a Saturday night, guy gets drunk, guy mouths off to someone because he thinks he can take them, guy gets knocked out. These 4 villains were young, inexperienced, and unprepared, and they got beat. It was a great movie, and a hell of a lot of fun. I had to tell my son (who's 7½) to keep quiet a few times because he kept saying "Whoa, that is so cool" quite loudly while I was thinking the same thing. The flaming skull looked just like what it was supposed to look like...a flaming skull. I don't know what you could have done different or how you could have improved it. It came off like they lifted it right out of the comic book. Overall, I thought it was very well done. Cage, Sam Elliot, Peter Fonda...great acting all around. You know, if they bring out a comic book movie that everyone actually likes (other then Spidey) I might have a heart attack right in my chair.
-
Hey Allpowerfuloz you didn;t like this movie cause your only into kiddy porn so get a life. yea it wasn't the greatest but please, I have seen worse from hollywood like Snakes on a Plane and come on Napoleon Dynamite WTF!!!!!!
-
till ya bashed ND. Napoleon was a funny ass movie. I agree, Snakes left a bad taste in my mouth as well. But you should give Napoleon another shot.
-
I gave my "opinion" so it goes both ways pal. And for the record, I was born April 20th. I refuse to change my name because a bunch of potheads picked some random number to represent themselves. So rather than attack me with insults, Why don't you come back with a counter arguement? Any lazy ass can throw out insults.
-
Just saw it tonight. Cage was in good form and the movie had great action, special effects and a decent love story. The audience even clapped at the end! My wife and daughter loved it too. No reason to bash it,....it was pretty good. It'll do well.
-
it sucked
-
but this one...good god...Eva Mendes cant act worth crap. Its a good thng she forgot to button those top buttons every single time or this movie would just be unbearable. I'll admit SFX were pretty neat, but it was just one punchline after another and the "fight" scenes were extremely anti-climatic. Those element guys were pretty useless too. Blackheart was a weak villian. I was just wholeheartedly dissapointed. Props to Nic Cage though...he finally got his comic book movie. At least its not as bad as punisher.
-
The Movie was just what it was supposed to be,A live action comic book.I'm not a Ghost rider fan,but i enjoyed it and will see it again.
-
WOO-HOO!
-
As a Marvel fan and as a British one at that I am really worried about this movie..If we talkbackers slate it then the reaction of industry is not to improve it will be simply not to make them unless it is a sure fire thing...There is a lack of directorial talent that is attracted to this genre because in most cases this can be a career killer. I can't make a movie but surely one among us like sandy corolla could be trusted. Marvel take note: this is how some of the talent was hired for what is now the cornerstone for their output publishing wise.
These films, being fair, mark the end of an era with Marvel having more control of their output. X-men was restricted initially by budget and confidence in the market.
You are all so lucky, your major landmarks are references and back drops for the greatest stories that have ever been told. why don't some of you unite, solidify an idea then put it to Marvel. you can change this for all of us if you get organised -
This movie was inexcusably horrible. The acting was abysmal, the dialogue was worse than anything even George Lucas could come up with, the villains were lame, and they managed to add just about every formulaic hollywood action movie cliche to make it the single worst Marvel movie ever.
-
Of course, Daredevil gets an F, the other two are C level. GR was a solid B-. Yes, Nic Cage talks like Elvis, has fake hair and best of all, CGI abs. Yes, he and Eva Mendes are supposed to be the same age. Yes, GR causes insane property destruction. Yes, there are ridiculous soliloquies when I tried to hit fast forward, and yes, some of the fights are lame and don't make sense. Despite those flaws, the movie is entertaining, moves right along, looks pretty cool, has good villains (tho Fonda is disappointing)and I never found myself thinking about my grocery list. The best way to see this would really be on a nice big HDTV where you'd be free to talk shit about it while watching.
-
Actually I haven't seen it yet, but probably this long weekend
-
it was awesome and the spfx were great. Wes Bentley was a creepy fucker as BlackHeart and at some point needs to play a vampire (maybe TrueBlood should hire him as Bill) Cage did a great job and obviously had fun doing this. And the scene with The Caretaker and Ghost Rider together rocked.
-
highest opening for nic cage and for presidents day. Everyone's a critic..
-
Oh so very very very very....very bad.......
-
( @ )( @ )
-
Just as bad as Fantastic Fuckup.
-
...people are actually accepting of this embarassing dreck? "Okay movie"? "Awesome CGI"? Granted, the FIRE effects looked good, but the rest of it was far too overdone and fake-y looking.
But the movie itself? Who in the bloody hell can hear lines like "You're going down" and "I don't think so dirtbag" and say that the only reason someone might hate this movie is because it's nothing like the comic book?
The plot was retarded, the directing sucked, the cutting style was like a Michael Bay flick on anti-depressants, and every time Cage asked Sam Elliot a question, I was expecting Elliot to pull out a fucking syllabus and a booklist for all the exposition he was going to spew at us.
My girlfriend liked it because of all the cutesy Nicolas Cage one-liners, and the off-kilter ideas like playing The Carpenters before doing a death-defying stunt, but you know what? Fuck that shit. This movie made Catwoman look like Batman Begins. -
if you have trouble falling asleep
-
I quite enjoyed the movie. Is it the Godfather? No. It's a cool popcorn flick with amazing special FX and the Ghost Rider looked amazing. Also, I got chills when both riders were hauling ass through the desert. Anyways, during the credits, they played a song called "Ghost Riders in the Sky". Does anyone know who did it and where I can find it?
-
Any film that can make Donal Logue not funny...has some real problems. Avoid. Not even worth a rental.
-
But for 32 year-olds, it was laughable. So bad it was fun.
-
Caught this one last night, a 10:00 showing, so I was kinda tired when I got back to post about it. So I'll throw in my 2cents. I guess I was a bit blinded by the fact I was getting ready to see one of my favorite Marvel characters on the big screen. As the movie went on though, I kept trying to convince myself that it was pretty good. It really wasn't though. The Ghost Rider himself looked great. The fire, his cycle, etc. But the villains were straight outta the Mortal Kombat flicks. Cheesy, over the top, badly acted. Everyone has to "point" at one another to get their point across! And wasn't Johnny Blaze into the occult anyway? Before he ever made a deal with the devil? His father's death wasn't the least convincing. It seemed like he just slipped off the bike. No harm done, right? And Eva Mendes is so pretty but so damn dull onscreen! WTF was that all about? Towards the end of the flick, she's basically looking at the devil himself, and all she does is give a little shrug and nod in agreement when Johnny Blaze tells Mephisto that he's keeping his powers and going to use them against him. I would assume she would have been a little more terrified? I guess there goes any shot at Ghost Rider2? Well, I was just reading how it made $15 million opening day, so you never know. But if they do, please keep MSJ away from a sequel. But you know, after all this bitching, I'll still pick up the eventual dvd when it's released. Just cause I love the Ghost Rider character. Call me naive...
-
Oh wait, I forgot how many people are joyless jackasses who don't know how to have fun.
Sure, GR could have been better (the darker script that was allegedly rejected in favor of the final one might have fit the bill), but I genuinely enjoyed it as a light piece of entertainment. People seem intent on tearing apart every aspect of this movie with no good reason. What the hell were you expecting? X-Men 2? It's fucking Ghost Rider, people. The comics themselves are corny as hell.
The acting seems to be getting the most criticism, but there's really nothing wrong with it. Eva Mendes is the only cast member who comes across a touch wooden, but she's just eye candy. As a fan of unique interpretations of demonic characters, I think Fonda is excellent as Mephisto. Also, Blackheart works just fine as the primary antagonist. Cage himself is nothing less than loads of fun to watch with his quirky performance. The transformation sequence in particular was played very well. He was obviously enjoying his role, and why shouldn't he? Sam Elliott is also wonderful as the Caretaker, with a gruffness that wouldn't be out of place in any classic western. To me both his narration and physical presence came across as very authentic.
The effects are also worth mentioning. Ghost Rider looks nifty and as convincing as one could reasonably hope for (I mean, his head IS a flaming skull), the fight scenes are engaging, and the way fangs and other assorted nasty bits can sometimes be glimpsed through the skin of Mephisto or Blackheart, reminiscent of the King of the Dead in ROTK, is a cool touch. Definitely preferable to hokey demon costumes or bad CG beasties. People, this movie is good camp in its purest form. Only boring, crotchety comic purists or those who made up their mind to dislike it beforehand could find fault in a film like this. I'm glad a sequel's in the works, because I for one haven't had nearly enough of this franchise. -
but was pleasently suprised when I saw this today. There seems to be a lot of hating on this movie for the sake of hating. I grew up on Marvel comics, and still own tons of them my kids read today. One of the series I own is GR. While this is not a Xerox copy of the comic to film I think MSJ ADAPTED this property much better than he did Daredevil for the cunsumption and enjoyment of a wider group than just us comics geeks. The core of who Johnny Blaze and the GR are is all there. The themes of humanity, frality, and redemption are all nicely explored in a palatable action/fantasy environment. I loved Fonda as the tempter of man, but who is also smart enough to keep an Ace in hole like GR. Sam Elliot could read the ingredients to egg salad and make it sound profound, so I thought he was fantastic as not only a guide for JB but as a man seeking redemption himself. Cage does a good job with JB. I'm glad he didn't go as far with the accent as he did in Con Air. Now for everyone who has griped about GRs fights with the villians; my only gripe is that they didn't all try attacking him at once. A little group tactics would have made for more of a challenge for our hero. That said I can see what MSJ was going for. All the bad guys are so cocky and sure of their power because they each fight GR on their terms; on the ground, in the air, and in the water. But as we learn JB is unpredictable and out thinks them and learns more about his powers as he goes. It's all there folks; the bike, the Hellfire, the penenace stare, everything that make this classic Marvel character unique is all up there on the silver screen waiting to be enjoyed.
-
...no seriously, or at least shove something through my ears or eyes. They turned blackheart into a skinny emo shit head and condensed an entire ghost rider comic series into 2 excruciating hot boob filled hours. I'm tellin ya...eva mendes is insanely hot but just can't act. I was so happy when Depp put those caps in her in Once Upon a Time in Meheeko. I'm pretty sure daredevil was better...but not having seen that for a while cannot make a solid judgement. Nic Cage is cool...this movie is not. Save ur money folks.
-
but thats mostly just because sam elliot could just read from a dictionary and i'd love it and the fact that instead of typical crappy beer, the characters are drinking Lone Star, and reds, not lights. i got a kick out of that because lord knows i've had my fair share of lone stars. but yeah, emo bad guys who pretty much just got 1-shotted in succession, not that cool. its like they mixed together a really good film with a horribly cheezy piece of shit.
-
That is too much to spend on a Campy Horror movie...really now.
-
emotion he knows is excitement, and it's easy to tell when Cage is feeling this. His eyes go wide, he throws his hands up, screams and sometimes dances." hilarious! let me continue...."a nocturnal beast, he can sometimes be seen at dinner parties scurrying towards a buffet...."
-
how the system works. When was the last time that this site actually praised a film. Said that the film had great acting, great sfx. Its been a very long time. Seemingly everytime movie that comes out these days is shot down immediatley becuase of the director or star or writer. This was a news site once. Chris Rock shut down production on the unwanted Rush hour three because he wouldnt come out of this trailer. That is huge because he wouldnt star in that movie unless he 25million and stalled negeotiations. Where was that story on this site. Nowhere! I have been going to the movie for almost thirty years, since childhood. Movies continues to amaze and fascinate me and I especially was intrigued by those sfx series. Where was the tb for notes on a scandal which was is one of the best purely dramatic film of the year, I believe Dench really gives the best screen performance ever in that. Where was the tb for that. nowhere. Why do some adults object when film studios kiddify comic books for the big screen? Doom is a scary villain, this we know. But a film studio cant make doom to scary becuase they will drive away their target audience. AS someone who studied business in the 1990, studios make money and there products are films. I know there is nothing wrong with making money but I often get the feeling that some here think that films are art and Marty S. used to think that and thats why he hated lucas and the berg for so long but at least they understand its all about merchandise and mechandise means money. Karen Fahey from bananarama had a huge row with Pete Waterman who has sold well over a 100 million records. She was going on about arts and Waterman said if you want to do arts go to arts school. Pop is commercial. there is no art in the pop music business. Film business is commercial, there is no art in the film business. Those who think there are, are fooling themselves.
-
Pretty damned impressive.
-
I truly feel sorry for you at the moment, while us brits get the frankly brilliant Hot Fuzz at the weekend u ended up with this steaming pile of turd oh well april will soon be here
-
Here's a quick rundown of my thoughts on the film.
The Good: Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze. Cage captured the cockiness of the character as well as the tortured side of him very well while only lapsing into the patented Cage zaniness a few times. (Like eating a martini glass full of jelly beans and emulating Elvis in a few scenes.)
The Ghost Rider transformation scenes. The special effects for the scenes where Johnny Blaze transforms into his alter ego Ghost Rider were especially well handled. Watching his eyes steam up from his tear ducts evaporating to his skin slowly ashing up and falling off to his demented cackle once the transformation finally took hold, Cage, along with the special effects team convincingly showed us how someone can have all their flesh burn off their face until only their flaming skull remains and look damned good while doing so.
The Ghost Rider special effects. Ghost Rider was always the coolest looking of all the Marvel superheroes. With his flaming skull, bad ass motorcycle and wielding his killer chain, he was a totally bitching creation. The look for him in the film is no different. It is a miracle of modern special effects (CGI flames are pretty tricky to recreate, not to mention when they’re covering somebody’s skull.) that Ghost Rider looks so awesome and is totally believable and (most of all) cool as hell. The effects for his bike were equally tight as were the scenes in which he rides around town, melting everything in his path.
Sam Elliott as The Caretaker. Old pro Elliott fit the role of the previous incarnation of Ghost Rider like a glove, which his gravelly voice providing much needed gravitas to his hokey narration. His ride, an undead horse with flames shooting out of its nostrils was also very cool looking and gets the award for best zombie horse since House 2.
The Penance Stare. Ghost Rider’s real power is to have his villains look into his eyes where he reflects all their sins back upon them which causes them to go insane and have their eyes turn to ash. The effects for all the visions are a bit overdone, but were effective nonetheless. If they do make a sequel it will be interesting to see this concept further developed as he only does it twice in the film.
The Bad: Wes Bentley as Blackheart. While I quite enjoyed Peter Fonda as the Devil, his son Blackheart is another matter entirely. Dressed like a Goth poseur who frequents Hot Topic and whining like a spoiled brat, Blackheart is hands down the lamest villain in the history of motion pictures (Which is a shame because in the comics he was pretty damn cool.) and Bentley’s performance matched Blackheart’s patheticness tit for tat. The lack of a central villain really prevented the movie from kicking into gear, which is too bad since the rest of the film had a lot of potential. (Imagine Donner’s Superman facing down Ned Beatty’s character Otis instead of Lex Luthor in the final showdown and you’ll get some idea of what I mean.)
The Hidden. Bentley’s demonic crew of miscreants were all a bunch of Covenant wannabes with silly powers (they’re all “elements” like earth, wind, water, etc) that made the villains in Elektra look like the fucking X-Men.
Ghost Rider’s dialogue. Come on Johnson you have hands down the coolest motherfucker the silver screen’s seen in a long time and everything goes out the window as soon as he opens his mouth. His lame one-liners like “You’re going down!”, “You’re pissing me off!” and “SURPRISE!” were all sub-retarded. Giving Ghost Rider nothing meaningful to say is a real waste and makes you wish he never opened his mouth in the first place.
The Indifferent. Eva Mendes as the love interest. There were never any sparks between her and Cage, though I think she could be a good star of romantic comedies because she has good comedic timing in some of the film’s lighter scenes, but she was never allowed to explore the more emotional side of her relationship with Blaze. Thank God though we didn’t see them have sex though. Can you imagine his skull catching fire while he was going down on her?
Ghost Rider’s voice. It wasn’t bad enough that Ghost Rider was given some of the most inane dialogue ever committed to celluloid, but they also gave him a voice that sounded like The Crypt Keeper on steroids. It wasn’t bad, but it’s wasn’t cool, scary, or effective either.
Overall on my all time list of best comic book movie films I'd put it at number 30, sandwiched between the 1989 Punisher and The Mask.
-
Make no mistake, “Ghost Rider” is a bad movie, but the comic book fans who are using the internet to complain about it need to shut up. As a former comic book fan myself, I can honestly say that it's not like anyone's childhood has been raped or pissed on here. Seriously, anyone who actually enjoyed reading comic books didn't like Ghost Rider anyway.
When writer-director Mark Stephen Johnson decided to make a film based on Ghost Rider, he had to have known what he was signing on for. Ghost Rider never had any definitive stories; he’s not a compelling character. The ‘superhero’, and I use that term lightly, was nothing more than an angry flaming skull dude with shoulder spikes, a swinging chain, and a badass motorcycle. The only people who dug him were those glue-huffing punks in my high school algebra classes. Those Beavis and Butthead types loved Ghost Rider because he represented their wet-dream: a fiery half-demon who belonged in the world of heavy metal album covers. And you know what, when Johnson created this film, I have the feeling maybe he created it just for them. Johnson’s Ghost Rider is a raging bad-ass, who has leathal death metal videos playing in his eye sockets 24-7, and his main bad guy is an Emo boy played by American Beauty’s Wes Bently. Sounds like every Slipnot fan I ever met.
If Ghost Rider had been a good film with clear character motivations and emotional gravity, it would have made for an inaccurate translation of the comic. None of that stuff was in the source material to begin with, so why would Johnson want to add it? Because he’s a filmmaker? Well, maybe, but then wouldn’t all the glue-huffing metal heads feel betrayed? After all, they stood by Ghost Rider when people who demanded silly things like 'good writing' and 'coherent panel sequencing' laughed at him behind their copies of "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns".
Johnston made a bad movie based on a bad comic book. No love loss here. What’s odd though is that the intro with star Nicolas Cage – before he turns into a butane-powered skull – seems like a screwball comedy a la "Anchorman" or "Taledega Nights". Busting out the same dialect he used to play Tiny Elvis on an episode of SNL, Cage’s alter-ego is a ridiculous stuntman who takes insane risks like jumping a motorcycle over six running black hawk helicopters. Also, instead of drinking beers, Cage’s character likes to binge on martini glasses filled with jelly beans. When he looks into the mirror, an evil-looking skull stares back at him, but neither Cage or his buddies hanging out with him seem to notice. As a matter of fact, the only things that seem to rile Cage’s friends are the facts that he writes in a diary, and reads ‘weird’ and ‘funny’ books like Christopher Marlowe’s “Faust”. Too bad that part of the movie was trapped in the body of an adaptation of a lousy comic book.
Perhaps if nothing else, “Ghost Rider” will serve as a reminder of how funny Cage used to be when he was in comedies like Raising Arizona. Perhaps he will make a move towards the genre once again before completely destroying his career with motr films like this. Comic book fans need to get their priorities straight; they have bigger fish to fry like films based on comic books that were actually enjoyable (i.e. 'Watchmen', 'FF2', etc.) -
get ready for ghost rider 2, geeks.
-
I love Marvel. But I hate this movie. Whatta waste. This one goes with Elektra. F4 was better though I wasn't crazy about it.
The villains were boring. Action dull. -
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this one and that's just what I got. Was Nick Cage bad as Johnny Blaze? No, not really. He just looked lost. Like he wanted to do a good job, but didn't quite know how he was supposed to feel. Mendes was laughable. It's a good thing her cleavage was prominently involved because it's her only saving grace.
Two quick thoughts: 1) How was this contract of 1,000 souls supposed to make Blackheart powerful enough to defeat daddy? It never got explained. Not even a hint. 2) If the Devil is looking to make a deal with those greedy and desperate, why make the deal with Johnny? Why not go straight to his dad (the guy who's got the cancer) and talk him into signing on the dotted line?
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 325 total posts 322 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 106 total posts 106 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 63 total posts 60 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 74 total posts 58 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 159 total posts 51 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 47 total posts 41 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 161 total posts 34 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 488 total posts 33 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 121 total posts 23 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 70 total posts 20 posts