Robert's Review

Based on the popular comic book, "Ghost Rider" is the story of Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage), a young motorcycle stunt man (a la Evil Knievel) who's madly in love with his girlfriend, Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes). Johnny's father, a fellow motorcycle stunt man develops cancer and is dying. However, one day Mephistopheles (better known as the Devil himself) comes to Johnny Blaze and proposes a deal – if Johnny sells his soul, then his father's cancer will be cured – and when the Devil calls upon him, Johnny will be required to do what is asked of him. However, after the Devil cures Johnny's father, he kills him anyway since the contract only stipulated that the cancer be cured. Always read the fine print. Angry and confused, Johnny leaves Roxanne and leaves town on his motorcycle, eventually becoming one of the world's greatest motorcycle stunt men. As he's getting ready for a world-record jump, Roxanne comes back into his life as a news reporter who's covering the event. His feelings for her begin to rush back and he begins to pursue her once more. 

However, about that same time, Mephistopheles calls upon Johnny for a very important task. Mephistopheles' son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley) has escaped from Hell and desires to create a new Hell on Earth. All Blackheart need is to track down the Contract of San Venganza, which is a powerful contract containing 1000 of the darkest souls known to exist. The contract was acquired by the last Ghost Rider, the Devil's bounty hunter and a creature of bone and hellfire… but instead of giving the contract to the Devil as he was supposed to do, the last Ghost Rider stole it and outran the Devil himself. To this day, it has remained hidden. However, Blackheart knows its whereabouts and is determined to find it so that he can overthrow Mephistopheles and create Hell on Earth too. Cashing in on his deal with Johnny Blaze, the Devil turns Johnny into his newest Ghost Rider and tasks him with destroying Blackheart and also recovering the Contract of San Venganza.

On to my review -- "Ghost Rider" is a fun and very fast-paced superhero movie. Nicolas Cage did a respectable job in bringing the character to life, plus the story was very close to the comic books. My biggest complaint about "Ghost Rider" is how incredibly cheesy the set designs and cinematography were. Many of the sets, including the swamp towards the end of the movie and the city of San Venganza, looked so incredibly fake and cheesy that they took away from quality of the rest of the movie – it was almost like watching a Universal Studios Tour. Despite these bad set designs, the computer animation for Ghost Rider and his flaming motorcycle is excellent and looks very realistic. Overall, the comic fans will love this movie, and the average moviegoer will enjoy it, despite its cheesiness. 

All in all, I'd give this movie 3 STARS (out of 5). Re-watch value: MEDIUM

In Columbia Pictures' action adventure Ghost Rider™ superstar motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) strikes a deal with the vile Mephistopheles in order to save his dying father for the most precious of commodities, his immortal soul and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life.  Now it seems Johnny Blaze is forever destined to ride night after night as the host to the powerful supernatural entity known as the Ghost Rider™.  However years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Roxanne, now a reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny's soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery Ghost Rider, a supernatural agent of vengeance and justice. Mephistopheles charges Johnny with defeating the despicable Blackheart, Mephistopheles' nemesis and son, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrible than the old one.

Personally I really liked this movie and even though the sets were about as cheesy as any anything you would find on display at the lots of Universal Studios, I thought the story was well done.  I being a big fan of the comic book (always thought GR was cool), I found myself drawn into the comic story behind Blazes tainted past.  However my personal favorite was the prior ghost rider played by Sam Elliot (Big fan of his).  Overall the movie was a fun comic adventure, just the kind of movie you would go see on a typical "what do ya want to do tonight?" type.  I also thought Cage did a really good job of portraying Blaze (Cage being a big GR fan himself). 

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars (out of 5). Re-Watch Value: High (I will purchase on DVD). 

Trivia: Nicolas Cage had to have his Ghost Rider tattoo covered with make-up in order to play Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider). Nicolas Cage also wrote sections of the script.

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