NICHOLAS CAGE   CARIAN HINDS   IDRIS ELBA   VIOLANTE PLACIDO   

GHOST RIDER: Spirit of Vengeance

I think I literally yelled “why?” when I heard they were actually making a sequel to one of the worst films from 2007. We all know the real reason for the sequel, and it wasn’t because the movie going public had large demands for Ghost Rider. It was more because Nicholas Cage was so close to paying off his debts and figured this was the easiest way (he gets top billing and when his character is the flaming, head he can snooze in the trailer). The first film cost a whopping $110 million dollars and grossed $115 million, which is not a large profit. This scaled down sequel only cost $75 million and pulled in a disappointing $51 million. Cage has since paid his debts and, hopefully, after lack of profit and the 18% from critics, this will be the last time we have to see the horrible, satanic subject matter on the screen.

Since we last saw Johnny Blaze (Cage), who is constantly tormented by the deal he made with the devil, he has fled to Europe, where he lives in isolation trying to tame his flaming alter ego, Ghost Rider. The devil is literally walking among us as a middle aged man whose body is slowly giving out on him. Going by the name of Roarke (Hinds), he is looking for his son Danny (Fergus Riordan), who shares some of his power. Danny is protected by his mother Nadya (Placido) and Blaze as well. If Roarke gets what he wants from Danny, there will be no stopping what he can do inside Danny’s 13 year old powerful body.

I really hated the 2007 Ghost Rider film; but looking back now, at least it had a story that was sensible. All this movie has is Nicholas Cage doing the crazy 'I’m on crack' laugh like we have seen him do in Bad Lieutenant, Drive Angry and The Weather Man. It doesn’t take long to study Nicholas Cage on film and his antics in the news to realize there is something very wrong with him. But perhaps that’s why is he playing a character that is part demon.

The script for this sequel, like many money hungry sequels, is about as thin as you can get away with. At only 95 minutes, at least this ends very quickly. The special effects are noticeably bad, even in simple sequences like car chases and crashes. The jokes are so terrible that I even had to explain them to someone I viewed this with: i.e. the twinkie joke. When the most interesting conversation piece Johnny Blaze has is how, when Ghost Rider urinates it’s like a flame thrower (and then the movie keeps showing that scene), you don’t even need me to tell you how bad this is.  

 Final Thought – Just as awful as it looks.

Grade D-

By: Dustin Chase W.

Editor: Michael Woody