03.18.07
lee1990 Movie Review: Ghost Rider
Selling your soul can really screw up your night life.
This is an adaptation of an older comic book dating from the 1960’s. As such, it does not require a lot of brain function, but can still be fun, just like the comic.
The story revolves around stunt bike rider (Nicolas Cage) named Johnny Blaze (why are so many comic book names bad puns?), who in his teenage years sells his soul to the Satan (Peter Fonda (coincidence?) in order to save his father from terminal cancer. Satan keeps his bargain, but kills Johnny’s father in an “accident” at their stunt bike show the very next afternoon. (Talk about the devil being in the details in a contact. Next time, read the fine print Johnny.)
Jump ahead 20 years, Johnny Blaze is now a successful stunt rider of his own. What his crew doesn’t know is that he has been trying to kill himself with his own insane stunts (including jumping the length of a football field). However, it seems that something will just not allow him to be killed.
Re-enter two characters: his girlfriend Roxanne (who cannot seem to wear a shirt she can completely button and is not at least 2 sizes too small), and Satan. It is time for Johnny to pay up, but it’s not his soul that Satan wants; it is his services and the Ghost Rider, a flaming-skulled mercenary rider who collects on Satan’s contracts and hunts down any who escape from hell.
What has escaped from Hell is Satan’s own son Blackheart, a truly rotten chip off of a really rotten block. He can and gleefully does kill anyone he touches by turning them into dessicated corpses. He has recruited three fallen angels who have been transformed into elemental demons represent Earth, Air, and Water.
What follows is a supernatural free-for-all as Johnny must attempt to both free himself from his curse, as well as stop Blackheart from collecting a contract that will allow him to collect 1000 condemned souls from a old west ghost town whose inhabitants long ago sold all their souls to Satan and then destroyed themselves utterly in an orgy of greed and bloodlust. If Blackheart gains this power, he will be able to create Hell on Earth. The contract was hidden by another Ghost Rider, the only one to ever break Satan’s grip and defy him. To make matters worse, Blackheart of course manages to kidnap Roxanne.
The movie is visually spectacular, as to be expected, if a bit predictable. A good way to spend an evening if looking for simple comic book action entertainment, but check your brain at the door.
7 out of 10.
