“Wake me up when it’s over”, was what I was thinking 20 minutes into this movie. Admittedly I’m not the biggest comic book fan and apparently the film is pretty faithful to the original comic interpretation. Nicholas Cage plays Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt man who sold his soul to the Devil (Peter Fonda) in his youth in return for his father’s health. Eva Mendes provides the eye candy as Johnny’s old childhood sweetheart. When the Devil’s son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), decides to usurp his father’s position the Devil calls upon Johnny to take the mantle of the Ghost Rider and defeat Blackheart and his cohorts, save the girl, restore balance to the world, blah, blah, blah.
The film was poorly shot, looked like the cameraman had no idea what kind of feel he wanted cinematically. Nicholas Cage was pretty much just doing his Elvis impersonation like in every one of his films. Eva Mendes’ cleavage outshone her performance, I believe her bra should be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The bad guys all looked like wannabe Rockstar contestants. News Flash: white foundation, black mascara and eye shadow do not equal scary! Oooh but wait, they have digitally enhanced scary voices . . . handy if your making prank phone calls.
All in all, it had it’s funny moments and the movie got marginally exciting whenever ghost Rider popped up, but the film felt rushed. Like it was put together too quickly with very little thought of the story and characters. The movie is worth watching, but I would save it as a DVD rental. The extra features on the DVD should make up for the mediocre entertainment.
If you choose to see this movie, I recommend going on a slow day. Comic book fans are apparently not big on personal hygiene. My cinema experience was hampered by the smell of bad, oily foods. Not to mention the stale, mouth odor of the geek behind me who breathes through his mouth. The dude to my right would not stop shaking his leg, was not sure if he was excited or had to pee really bad throughout the movie, but it haunted my peripherals throughout the film. Everytime there was something amusing, the geek laughter filled the theatre. You know what I’m talking about. The kind of sound a person makes when they laugh and try to inhale at the same time. Yup, DVD rental for sure.
Posted on February 17th, 2007 by Leo
Filed under: Reviews
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