Ghost Rider

Release Date: February 16, 2007

Watch Date: August 10, 2024

“Stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze gives up his soul to become a hellblazing vigilante, to fight against power hungry Blackheart, the son of the devil himself.”

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   My dad really likes this movie?

   That was kind of my only memory going into it, my dad, who likes motorcycles and Nicolas Cage, liked the movie. And after having watched it, I kind of get it. It feels like a movie most dads would like, which would possibly explain why Bob liked it so much.

   Now here’s the deal. I don’t really like Nicolas Cage. He plays crazy, really, really well, which is great! But he’s often not meant to be playing a crazy character, so it doesn’t always come off that well, at least to me. I’ve been informed by Bob that I’m wrong and Nicolas Cage is a wonderful actor. But I’m a big fan of Jeff Goldblum and he’s kind of the same thing, that is to say the way he acts doesn’t really change no matter what character he plays. Maybe there’s just two camps, where you either like Goldblum or Cage and you can’t cross that boundary? I’m firmly in the Goldblum camp.

   All that considered, I actually really enjoyed this movie. I think Cage did a pretty good job of playing Johnny Blaze, though the performance was definitely flat sometimes. And a little odd. Does Blaze not drink but eats only yellow and red jelly beans and really like watching shows about monkeys on television or was that just little character details Cage insisted on being thrown in? See, I can’t trust that it was written in the script and that Cage didn’t just show up on set with a martini glass full of jelly beans and they just had to work it in – and that’s a problem. But, I felt like that was actual chemistry between him and the romantic lead. And, half the time, you don’t even see Cage cause it’s a CGI skeleton head that’s on fire with a different voice so it’s kind of hard to remember how crazy the facial expressions can get.

   I really liked the background story of how the contract for 1000 souls came to be, and I really, really enjoyed Sam Elliot in this. I’ve gotten two Sam Elliot movies in like two weeks, which is both a record for me and just a wonderful coincidence. He, once again, plays a cowboy. He’s the OG Ghost Rider, who is both at least 150 years old, and also very good at maintaining cemeteries. I wish we’d been able to see more of him in action as the Ghost Rider, but apparently he only had one ride left in him – which I choose to believe is because there is one Ghost Rider every generation (though apparently there wasn’t a new one for 150 years) and so now that the torch had been passed he no longer had his supernaturally long life. I wonder if Johnny Blaze will be kicking around 2 centuries from now.

   The weakest parts were probably the villains. It’s a collection of them, and they each get their own mini fight scene. They all have kind of intimidating names, and they are all connected to an element, earth, wind, water. It’s kind of nifty, and I like the idea of demons not hiding in plain sight but within the elements. But they’re all defeated pretty easily, they don’t have much personality, and their following a guy named Blackheart. He’s supposed to be the devil’s son, but…I have a really hard time believing the devil would name his son Blackheart. Then again, that’s a pretty big curse to put on your son – one could say a pretty evil thing to do – so maybe it does track. He’s not very interesting, or intimidating. I guess he wants to overthrow his dad, or turn the mortal realm into it’s own version of hell but…I kind of feel like if the devil wants to stop you, he’s going to stop you. Mostly he just goes around mummifying everyone and being thwarted by hallowed ground. Though his end is actually pretty well thought out.

   In contrast, the devil himself is actually very intimidating. There’s this scene right at the beginning of the movie where he’s getting Johnny to sign the contract and there’s a flash of lightning and you see his shadow cast against the tent fabric and it looks like this monster. I don’t know, I just liked it. The way his face will morph occasionally when he’s talking, the way he holds himself. That’s a guy I don’t want to fuck with.

   Honestly, while this movie is cheesy, and full of more Nicolas Cage than I would prefer, it feels like everyone really cared about the product they were putting out. They understood how goofy the premise was, and while they took the serious parts serious, they made sure to put in some levity (like a man with a flaming skull riding away from the cops on the surface of the water on his flaming motorbike while flipping them off – what other movie are you going to see that?)

   It’s fun, it feels a lot more like a traditional Marvel movie, and while I don’t know if I want a sequel to Johnny’s story, I definitely want to see more of Sam Elliot’s Ghost Rider. And any movie that makes me want a prequel, well that’s a pretty big win in my book.