Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in Ghost Rider
© Sony
Maniac Grade: C
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott
Writers: Mark Steven Johnson, based on the Marvel Comics
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
"Ghost Rider"
By: Abbie BernsteinDate: Monday, February 19, 2007
Ghost Rider is a bit of a conundrum, full of grim mythology but with a pretty upbeat, quasi-humorous tone. With almost everybody involved on the same page, the results are enjoyable.
Nicolas Cage plays the adult Johnny Blaze, a professional daredevil harboring a secret. When he was a teenager (Matt Long), Johnny made a deal with the Devil (Peter Fonda) that backfired. Johnny has been trying to disprove the idea that he’s damned ever since, but now the Devil has come to collect. Johnny is tagged as the new Ghost Rider, a kind of bounty hunter for Hell who by night is a fiery skeleton riding on a flaming motorcycle, with an internal evil detector that allows him to find bad souls.
Actually, Johnny has a specific mission right now: he’s to prevent the Devil’s son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) from getting hold of the contract of San Berganza, which will enable Junior to take over the world. This seems vaguely familiar from Constantine, but fortunately, Ghost Rider doesn’t bang us over the head with metaphysical musings. Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson manages to work in both incarnations of the Marvel Comics hero – Western version (that Sam Elliott voiceover at the top eventually pays off) and ‘70s biker – to good effect. Speaking of good effects, there’s a lot of CGI here. There’s fun to be had with the morphing back and forth between human and flaming skull, or, for the more demonic characters, humanish and skeleton-like, and it’s used in a way that doesn’t really impede the action. Johnson succumbs to the urge to show too many reaction shots from civilians (yes, we know, this looks freaky to people, you can resume the story/action now), and he’s got an extra story beat or two in there, but for the most part, the pace is sprightly.
Cage plays much of Johnny with a modest air of abashed, hesitant astonishment that is well-modulated and quite funny. He makes the character not only someone we can empathize with, but someone who empathizes with us – the movie never breaks the fourth wall, but there’s a sense that we’re being shown, “Hey, if you find this a tall tale, imagine how Johnny feels!”
Fonda is swell casting as the ultra-cool master of the uneasy rider and Elliott is the epitome of all that is Western. Donal Logue scores as Johnny’s devoted chief roadie and Eva Mendes does all she can with the role of Johnny’s reporter true love. Only Bentley seems a little too arch for the proceedings – his Blackheart is mean but lacks the sense of personal menace conjured by Fonda. For that matter, we’re never clear on some of the rules at play here, including why Hell’s First Father and Son are choosing this moment in time to have their faceoff.
Even so, the idea of literally burning rubber as the bike streaks around, the righteous ass-kicking and Cage’s air of someone tentatively engaging in a necessary but questionable task are all enough to create appeal for fans of decent comic book-based films.
