"Ghost Rider" is one of the worst films in recent history. It's difficult to know where to begin with this review, as "Ghost Rider" cannot be explained easily. The failure of this film cannot be ascribed to any single flaw, but rather a whole mess of them coming together into one giant cinematic fecal explosion. Since the plot of the film is ridiculous in and of itself, it seems appropriate to begin there.
"Ghost Rider" follows Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage), a stunt biker who sells his soul to the Devil (Peter Fonda) in exchange for curing his father of cancer. Blaze leaves behind his childhood love, Roxanne, to keep her from being hurt by what he's done. This is all the audience gets for the first 40 minutes of the film.
Cut to the future, and Johnny is now a famous Evil Knievel-esque figure, performing death defying stunts that sometimes result in horrific crashes. Because of his "condition," these crashes never scratch Blaze, but soon the Devil's son, Blackheart (played by Wes Bentley, who played Kevin Spacey's brooding, pot-slinging neighbor in "American Beauty" but whose career is apparently going nowhere), eventually comes to Earth to try and overthrow his father and end the world. The Devil calls upon Blaze to assume the mantle of the Ghost Rider, a flaming skeleton with a range of fiery superpowers, to hunt down Blackheart and his army of fallen angels. That's really it. The rest of the plot is filled in with Blaze's eccentricities (i.e. drinking jelly beans out of martini glasses), bad jokes and fight scenes that are mediocre at best.
Half the people in this film have no business being anywhere near it, especially Peter Fonda. Fonda is a great actor, and he tries to do well with what he's given. It almost works, but his efforts are futile due to the movie's mediocrity. Sam Elliott is in a similar situation. He is a fine actor but his character is utterly wasted.
Eva Mendes does no better. Her role is as empty as her head appears to be every time she's on screen as Johnny Blaze's former love interest-turned-reporter. Her role has no visible purpose, and she contributes absolutely nothing to the plot. Ostensibly, she's meant to give Blaze inspiration to be good and take control of the curse placed upon him, but she really could have been anyone.
Cage has wanted to do a superhero movie for a long time. His performance is rocky at best and definitely not up to the level of greatness that he reached with "Face/Off," "The Rock" and "Gone in 60 Seconds." There is little that can be said about his performance other than it is dull.
Beyond the actors, the script is absolutely terrible. The dialogue is hackneyed and stilted, and the film is nonsensical at times. The director must have decided to blow the entire budget on special effects, and it shows. The fire effects are actually impressive and the transformation sequence was interesting as well. The effects and the Fonda/Elliott quotient are the only redeeming features of a movie that was long, badly written and absurd. However, no special effects in the world can save a movie that was doomed from the start.
To be blunt, people should not see this movie, even if potential viewers are fans of the "Ghost Rider" series. It is an utter bore and a waste of money.
