Release Date – 2/17/2012
Johnny Blaze fled to a remote location in Eastern Europe to try to control the curse of the Ghost Rider which still haunts him. A secret sect of the church tracks him down to ask for his help in protecting a boy who is being hunted by the Devil himself. Johnny is trying to control the urge to become the Rider so he refuses at first, but he can only hold off the demon inside him for so long. With the help of the boy’s mother and a rogue priest, Johnny becomes the Rider again to protect the boy. This movie is equally as crappy as the original. Absurd acting from Nicolas Cage and a stupid plot. Some cool visual effects can’t save this one.
Nic Cage has gotten a lot of flack in the last few years for taking on ridiculous projects and overacting his ass off. It may have worked in Kick-Ass but it fails miserably here. Its laughable when he goes into fits of screaming and laughing, reminiscent of his famously mocked scenes from The Wicker Man. This guy is an Oscar winner. What happened?! Replacing one spicy female lead with another, Violante Placido plays Nadya, the boy’s mother. No chemistry here with Johnny Blaze like Eva Mendes’ character in the original, they nixed a love story this time around. Idris Elba (STRINGER BELL!) plays Moreau, a wine swigging badass of a priest who recruits Johnny to help in his quest. As cool as Elba is, he’s kind of pointless in this movie besides the recruiting scene. Fergus Riordan takes on the role of Danny, the young boy who might just happen to be the Devil’s son. The Devil himself, or Roarke as they call him in the movie, is played by Ciaran Hinds. He’s kind of a pussy Devil though because he is losing his power in his human form. This is why he wants to kidnap the boy. And finally it wouldn’t be Ghost Rider without another shitty bad guy. Johnny Whitworth plays Carrigan (or Blackout as he’s known in the comics) who… well… I don’t really know what his point was. I guess just to have another comic book villain thrown into the mix for the Rider to fight before getting to the real bad guy.
The movie is unique because it’s a sequel and a reboot at the same time. The story from the first one happened, but not exactly the same. No actors return besides Cage. We get a quick animated catch up scene in the beginning that was kind of cool but sets the tone for this to be a Ghost Rider film not connected to Mark Steven Johnson’s original. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor take over the directing duties and put their fair share of ridiculous into it. These are the guys that brought Crank, Crank: High Voltage and Gamer so they aren’t exactly big time praised directors. The Rider looked cooler, that’s one positive this time around. The flames were more realistic with a lot more smoke and ash going on. But his first appearance in the movie is terrible. He just stands around staring at everyone. The Penance Stare was definitely better in the first movie. At least we knew something was happening. In the end, I think Ghost Rider is destined to be a comic book and nothing more. Even in the hands of someone like Christopher Nolan it wouldn’t be that great on film. But in Neveldine/Taylor’s hands it’s WHACKED!
IMDB – 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 14%
Movie Wiseguys – 4/10
February 17, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Nice…first whacked movie of 2012