User reviews

Yea it isn't anything revolutionary but it was fun. Definitely elevated by Nicolas Cage.

Ghostrider is a brilliantly designed character . The chain ,the bike , the flaming skull for a head -he's just plain cool. In fact hes TOO cool - it seems that in any comic , cartoon or game hes involved with, he always comes out as the most interesting thing.

It works the same way with the movie: seeing ghost rider in action provides almost all of the films entertainment value. Watching him ride down buildings , fight villains and flip the bird to the police is a cool sight to behold. When hes not on screen though ,things aren't that interesting. Nicholas cage is funny and quirky as johnny blaze and eva mendes is impossibly sexy (as per usual)but for the most part its all very cheesy and feels rushed and episodic.Also, the villains are frustratingly lame , including black heart who's severely downgraded from his comic book incarnation.

When sitting through ghostrider , your best bet is to wait for the flaming skullhead to show up- watching him do his thing is tons of fun. Sadly the same cant be said about the rest of the movie.While its not bad it doesn't quite do ghostrider justice . Why ? Because hes TOO cool..........

This demonic Marvel adaptation is visually groundbreaking, no doubt, but is not an easy ride. Ghost Rider's exaggerated tone and dialogue and hell-driven sequences provides many speed bumps on this less-than-anticipated ride.

If you like movies that just entertain you and blow you away but doesn't has that much of a plot, Ghost rider is the best choice. Although IMO the plot was decent, a man sells his soul to the devil to save his father and is forced to work for the devil to take down demons. The special effects are fantastic, you'll be blown away when he turns into Ghost rider the first time. Although there could have been some more action, but the action was intense and wonderful. This move is great on a Friday or Saturday night. But don't see this movie on a Sunday, wanting a dramatic emotional movie like spider man. This is a movie to entertain, not make you fall in love with. So just sit back and enjoy one of the greatest Marvel movies ever

Oh where to begin. How could they screw up a movie with a premise like this.

The acting and the dialogue was awful even with actors like Cage and Peter Fonda delivering them, and the set up was rushed, like most of the rest of the movie. The FX ranged from OK to GOOD with the first transformation scene of Blaze to Ghost Rider being pretty well done but every change from there on in is in cheap and nasty morphovision and the morphing motorcycle looked stupid even if the flaming bike itself looked cool. The bad guys were non-entities and although they were supposed to be really powerful etc they don't do anything threatening through most of the movie and Ghost Rider eventually offs them with ridiculous ease, even the main dude at the end.

Honestly this movie has so many clichés you'll be bored less than half way in and after waiting about 30 minutes for Ghost Rider to appear you just want him to get off the screen straight away since apart from looking cool he comes across as a complete dork and his dialogue consists of really bad corny one liners. Every time he comes on screen you just hope to hell he doesn't say anything and when he does you'll be so embarrassed for the poor bloke.

Go get the comics instead.

It's official! Mark Steven Johnson is the new Joel Schumacher. It took Schumacher two movies to bring the Batman franchise to its knees, and with only two movies, Johnson has already buried two comic book franchises with 2003's Daredevil and this month's Ghost Rider, which arrives in theaters dead-on-arrival; flat-lined, from it's hokey beginning to it's clichéd video game ending.

Nicolas Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, a famous Evil Knievel-esquire stunt performer that sold his soul to Mephistopheles (or Mephisto for short), played by Peter Fonda, in order to save his dying father, stricken with cancer. In a moment of young, naïve, foolishness he signed, with his own blood no less, a life contract to become the devil's bounty hunter; damned to hunt down fallen angels cast out of heaven.

During the day Johnny is normal, but at night, in the presence of evil Johnny's skin burns off and his skull lights aflame with hellfire. His motorcycle transforms into a speed demon able to travel fast enough to melt parking meters and vertically climb up sky scrapers, and in its wake, leaves behind a fiery trail of destruction.

The idea sounds kind of, well… cool, actually. Unfortunately the studio – in an attempt to cash in on the Marvel product – limited the film to a PG-13 rating in order to reel in a wider audience:10 and 12-year-old boys, which was a terrible, terrible move.

Instead of a fun and wildly entertaining ride, what we got is one of the worst comic book adaptations to crash land in theaters since Batman & Robin and Catwoman. Yes, it really is THAT bad.

Instead of cranking out another soft and wimpy flick about demons, hell and tortured souls straight from the formulaic, cardboard factory of clichés, what we should have gotten was a fun, dark, R-rated blast more along the lines of Blade or The Crow, heck, even Spawn had more bite and attitude! It seems like Johnson isn't even passionate or interested in telling his own story, and it shows.

The heavily forced and completely uninteresting romance between Johnny Blaze and his long-time love, Roxanne Simpson (played by Eva Mendes) has but not a spark of chemistry. Mendes is given little to do, and does little more than stand around and look pretty as the "damsel in distress", whose only real talent is an impressive bust-line.

Nicolas Cage – who is an expressed fan of the Ghost Rider comics – is one of the film's biggest flaws; completely miscast as the macho avenger. Cage is a talented actor when working with the right material (see his performances in the underrated Bringing out the Dead and Matchstick Men), but at the age of 43 (pretending to be 28), and his James Stewart persona of acting just isn't what this particular film calls for.

What it needed was an actor with a hard edge and some grit, someone with the kind of tough-guy presence, like a young Clint Eastwood. Thomas Jane might have made a nice Ghost Rider, and I'm sure if someone like Robert Rodriguez had been working behind the camera we would have gotten that fun, R-rated ride that we should have had to begin with.

The film tries to do many things, and succeeds at nothing. It tries to be humorous, but nothing is funny. The scene in which Johnny tries to explain his night-time dark side to his girlfriend aims to be funny, but all I could think about was the scene in Batman, where Michael Keaton compares his superhero gig as being just another job to Kim Basinger.

Ghost Rider also tries to be scary, but nothing comes close to being frightening, and in the end, after all its constant failures, amounts to little more than boredom. Normally I don't do it, but I was tempted to walk out.

Throughout the film Johnny Blaze talks about deserving a second chance, in order to turn things around, for the better. Cage is an actor who deserves a second chance, especially coming off last year's "it's so bad, it's good" remake of The Wicker Man. As for writer/director Mark Steven Johnson, he's had his second chance. This whole comic book movie thing just isn't your game, kid.

If you go into this movie hoping to see Academy Award caliber acting or a dramatic plot that's going to move you emotionally, then you're going to the wrong movie. However, if you're looking for a movie that's a lot of fun and is going to keep you entertained, then this is exactly what you're looking for.

The visual effects in this movie are, simply put, amazing. Ghost Rider is just one of those movies that's cool to look at. As I said before, the acting sometimes falls a bit flat, but Nicolas Cage does exactly what's expected of him for the role. It's a bit cliché and humorous at times, but this is a movie based on a comic book, so you have to expect that sort of thing.

Sam Elliot and Peter Fonda provide the best acting in the movie, while Wes Bentley does a solid job as Blackheart and Eva Mendez is just a very beautiful actress who fits in well as Roxanne.

There are a lot of little gripes about this movie if you look too hard and overthink it, but as a die-hard Ghost Rider fan, I didn't mind these things so much. It stayed relatively true to the original series, while borrowing elements from the 90's series to help make the movie more visually impressive, which I felt worked really well.

I've been waiting for this movie since they started trying to make it over eight years ago and overall, I'd have to say I really enjoyed seeing my favorite comic book character finally make it onto the big screen.

If you want to go see a movie where you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride; then go see Ghost Rider without any worry of disappointment.

A young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) makes a deal with the demon,Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) to save his father. Years later, Blaze (now Nicolas Cage), a world renowned bike daredevil starts to turn into the Ghost Rider (sort of the devil's henchman who's job is to capture the souls of evil men. He also has to contend with Blackheart, a goth looking demonic villain whom is the least intimidating heavy in a film in recent memory. What's the saying about the third time being the charm? Well sometimes that's simply not true. Director Mark Johnson's third comic-book based film (after the dire Darevil and simply putrid Elektra) proves just that with this supremely boring joke of a film. Bad acting, a plot that fails to do the comic that it's based on justice, and an aforementioned supremely awful villain all collide to make this disaster such a chore to sit through. By the time that the Ghost Rider dons his trademark leather studded jacket, I was too bored to care, so later in the movie when Johnny Blaze utters "is this thing ever gonna end?" it was like he read my mind. It's all fun and games till Johnson gets his hands on/ royally screws up a sincerely great comic-book, say something like "Preacher"

My Grade: D

Ghost Rider

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue and Sam Elliot

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Drama/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

Ghost Rider is just one of those movies where you don't have to take it so seriously in order to like it. This movie is almost like the Blade movies in terms of how Ghost Rider fights evil that's from hell but this is way better than Blade. So anyway, Nicolas Cage plays the wild stunt biker, Johnny Blaze who makes a deal to Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) in order to save his father and in return has to forget about his life and his love, Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes). A few years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Mephistopheles to give up his soul to have Johnny become the fiery bounty hunter of hell, Ghost Rider in order to take down Blackheart (Wes Bentley), a son and enemy of Mephistopheles. Nicolas Cage did a great job playing Ghost Rider and of course it's always nice to see Eva Mendes on screen of course. The only thing that I didn't like about this movie is how they decided to put in a villain who turned out to be an easy defeat instead of picking one that would be more of a challenge but then again it's an origin movie so everything has to start off easy i guess. But hopefully there will a more challenging villain if they do a Ghost Rider 2. Overall i'd recommend this movie and I hope they do a Ghost Rider 2.

Oh yes this was about the lamest film I have ever seen. I have to say, that I was very excited about the film—I am a comic fan, but not a fanatic or anything. My expectations may have been a little high, but still the movie was pretty awful. It is the only movie I have ever considered walking out on. It certainly had great potential, but truly the execution was off. Throughout the film bad blocking, very corny lines, and bad editing plagued a great comic movie idea. I think that the editing crew was aware of the failures. It was clear that they sliced out every possible plot transition, but were somehow able to keep the extensive camera time devoted to squished cleavage. Maybe this was to distract most people from the train wreck of a movie they had paid good money to see. Lines were always delivered like a bad high school play. They had the opportunity to save it with a little self mocking--you know Evil Dead style, but apparently, no one recognized how awful the script was even as they said it. What a shame. The director, producer, and even some of the cast deserve a penance stare for the mediocrity they have unleashed upon the world.

I am a Nicolas Cage fan. I love all his comedies and think his serious ones are okay. After seeing the Wicker Man, I lost my respect for Cage in serious films, and went to see Ghost Rider thinking it would be an average movie, but probably easy to make fun of. It was bad. . . very bad. It was funny at times, I will admit that, but Cage just is bad in the role, the story is not very complex and has many plot holes in it. You know it is bad when you go into a movie only wanting to make fun of it and coming out just depressed because it was SO bad. In short, don't see this movie, if you want a superhero movie done right, see Batman Begins or Unbreakable, or basically, any other superhero movie was better than Ghost Rider. Thumbs extremely far down

Ghost Rider is a halfway decent comic book movie brought to the big screen but it's not memorable like Spider-man 2, X-Men United, Batman Begins, or The Dark Knight. The movie isn't all that bad. Ghost Rider is no Elektra, Punisher War Zone, Daredevil, or Spider man 3 but it's not that much better either. Director Mark Steven Johnson does an okay job of bringing Ghost Rider to big screen but the bad outweighs the good in this one. I'll get back to that later. Nicolas Cage whose recent films (The Wicker Man and Bankok Dangerous to name a few) haven't been that great but fortunately in this one he's all right as Johnny Blaze who becomes a hell blazing vigilante with a skull thats covered in flames for a face. Eva Mendes is decent as Johnny's love Roxanne Simpson but she doesn't really get much to do. The rest of the cast are admirable in their roles including Wes Bentley as the devil's son Blackheart, Sam Elliot as a mysterious cemetery caretaker, and Peter Fonda as Satan himself. Donal Logue makes a brief appearance as Johnny's friend Mack and he does a good job with the small part but he like many other characters in the film doesn't have much to do and lacks screen time. Some other flaws with this movie was that the dialogue wasn't the greatest at times, the CGI to create Ghost Rider and his bike looks cool but nothing we haven't seen before, the action/fight sequences are good but none of them stand out and the lack of a central villain. There are about three other villains for Ghost Rider to face besides Bentley and Fonda. The special effects used to create their powers were impressive but none of them are in it long enough to leave an impression. If you're a Nicolas Cage fan you might like this one better than I did because Ghost Rider isn't one of his best movies. No offense to Cage who is a good actor but Ghost Rider overall is a movie that could've been much better than it was.

Ghost Rider was always a cool comic book character. So why not make it into a movie? Although this movie had a great financial success, its screenplay is actually quite sloppy. I'm surprised it did so well. I liked Ghost Rider. I liked the visuals, the action, and the villains (a little). But I felt things could have been polished. Mark Steven Johnson who directed and wrote the story for this movie could have done better.

To start off, Nicolas Cage plays as the anti-hero Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. I really like the way they made Ghost Rider look in this film. Just like a bat out of hell, his skull is cloaked in flames, his jacket has spikes on it, he has a flame chain, and his bike has a mind of its own! Much of it is fun to watch. Just seeing Ghost Rider for the first time on screen was pretty awesome to see. The action was good too. Any of the sarcastic comments Ghost Rider makes in this film is funny to hear. I even thought the actors who played the villains were good. What destroyed all these good moments, was how the character's dialogs were brought out.

Most of the dialog in this movie is weird, if not awkward. Mostly due to Cage's character, Johnny Blaze. I guess Mark Steven Johnson figured because Blaze lost his soul to the devil, he might as well lose his personality too. If that's the case, it was not a smart choice. It almost seems like Cage AND ONLY Cage is uncomfortable with his character. I know he's a fan of Ghost Rider but it seems like the script was written out of wack for him. There are parts where it seems like Cage is lost in himself and doesn't know what to say next. I don't quite understand that. One other thing I didn't comprehend was that there was way too much "pointing while zooming up on the face" business. Was the director trying to make a trademark for himself in this film? Not only is it redundant, it can be very obnoxious.

The other element that does not work here are the villains. I liked the bad guys in this movie. They looked frightening to me when I first saw them. But then I noticed a trend as Ghost Rider had finished one off at a time. None of the bad guys really did anything. Blackheart, the son of the devil, has henchmen who have powers like the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender, except they don't involve all the martial arts moves. Before Ghost Rider is about to finish one of Blackheart's henchman, we don't even see him use any of his powers. Well that was kind of anti-climactic. Even Blackheart himself barely uses his "almighty" powers against Ghost Rider. It's really disappointing to watch.

Besides these parts of the film, I enjoyed Christopher Young's soundtrack. It has a lot of guitar in it and creates a punk tone to the action. Sam Elliot appears in this movie as a minor character, he's always fun to listen too but even he can't make up for the bad screenplay. It's unfortunate because I really like Ghost Rider as a character and was expecting something a little more darker for a dark character.

Ghost Rider will please fans to a point, with its good action and awesome special effects. But nothing can help the film recover from its lazy screenplay, awkward dialog and dull villains.

I'm gonna keep this review short and sweet. Unlike this movie. It's complete garbage, thats all I can say. It just has not plot to push the story anywhere. Alright, now for the beginning. The actors that portray Nick Cage and Eva Mendes in the opening of this film should probably look elsewhere for a career choice because there acting ability truly shows how bad they are as actors. Now once the film gets going, it picks up with the false feel of nostalgia. Nick Cage, needs to stop. I mean really stop, he shouldn't take himself so seriously, cuz it ain't workin'. Eva Mendes, who is smoking' hot, can't act. And I really can't recall any time when she could. Thats the biggest grief of this film, the acting. Peter Fonda, appears to be smoking' the same stuff that he's been doing since Easy Rider, so he's the same. But in this role he's just stupid. With a line like, "Far Out" as his first it truly take you bag to the late sixties and the time when everything and everyone was truly free. Thats why the film gets two stars, and thats it. The other supporting roles are dumb to the point of unbelief. Why would anyone seriously want to finance this movie. I don't know, but I wouldn't. It ain't revolutionary, it ain't fun, and overall it ain't good.

There won't be any Academy Awards for "Ghost Rider," and deservedly so. Great cinema it ain't. It is fun stuff, though, and very much in the spirit of the Marvel comic book of the same name. Nicolas Cage works well in the role; his dead-pan humor is well suited to the role of motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze, and the scene in which he attempts to explain himself to his long-lost girlfriend is classic stuff, full of awkward pauses and an eyebrow put to good use.

Granted, things get a little melodramatic from time to time, but that's as it should be. This is, after all, a movie based on a comic book hero, and what superhero worth his heat-vision doesn't indulge in a dose of the melodramatic every so often? It comes with the territory. Still, there's a sense of humor at work here, something that didn't play out well in the "X-Men" franchise and led to that abysmal third installation. There are a good number of laughs in "Ghost Rider." This isn't a movie that takes itself too seriously, which is a nice benefit considering how heavy the subject matter could become. It's rough around the edges, no doubt, and isn't quite up to the same level as the Spiderman movies to date.

I saw an early (11:45 AM) show and the theater was still nearly full. The audience laughed at points that were intended as humorous and even jumped at a couple of scenes. All in all, everyone looked like they were having a good time, from the six year olds with their parents to the older folks like me who were fans of this comic as kids. If you're looking for something fun, "Ghost Rider" isn't a bad bet at all.

I remember watching this film the first time and thinking it was just a lot of special effects without a lot of plot. Then I watched it a second time, and started to realize you have to really pay attention to the details to get the story. While not the best adaptation of a comic book (graphic novel if you prefer) to the screen, the special effects are awesome and the photography is Oscar worthy. Cage is Cage, that stoic actor who seems somehow devoid of emotion in most of his films. Mendez is hot, goes without saying, and equals Cage's level of emotion. Sam Elliot and Peter Fonda are the saving graces of the film, both adding a dimension of emotion lacking in the main characters. The prelude scenes of young Johnny and Roxanne are somewhat necessary, but could have been trimmed down to include more footage of the Ghost Rider and his missions. I haven't seen the newest film, just released at this writing, but hopefully the characters have been "fleshed out" and the plot concentrates more on the present than the past. With Cage being the only holdover for the new movie, perhaps the new directors can up the game a bit. The original film is rated PG-13 for violence and language, but nothing the teens haven't seen in their video games. Collectible? If you are a Marvel fan like I am, probably. As as classic film? No way. But entertaining.

First off, I'd like to say that I really enjoyed this movie. I have read a lot of the bad hype that the flick has receieved, and I believe that this is partly due to the fact that people go into these types of movies expecting amazing advances in cinematography as well as a gripping and dramatic plot. Well, I hate to burst everybody's bubble, but that is really not the purpose of this type of movie. These bad reviews make me wonder just how serious you have to be (or just how snobby a critic) going into the theater to hate this type of movie making.

Far be it from me to say that this movie was perfect. It had its flaws and there were times when I found myself snickering at the silliness of it all, but that to me is good entertainment. The scenes where Cage turned into ghost rider for the first time were fairly intense, and I found myself marveling at the coolness of his transformation and powers. I also enjoyed the battle scenes including one involving ghost rider and a helicopter (I won't tell you what happens there, but it is pretty amusing). I also felt that the movie was pretty well-acted overall, and the entire flick maintained an aura of fun throughout (which I believe was the main purpose of the whole thing) while flowing smoothly through a simple plot.

If you are the type of person to over-analyze plots, scrutinize special effects, whine about some cheesy acting or if you get offended when a movie doesn't have a deep and philosophical meaning behind it, this is definitely not a movie you should waste your time or money on.

If, however, you are the type of person who enjoys some good laughs, some over the top (and at times cheesy) comic book acting, cool battle scenes, action and adventure, or if you simply just like to see some guy with a flaming skull, this is worth the 8 bucks to get into a theater seat.

I really had a great time watching this film; although i have never been a Ghost Rider Fan, i loved comic books. I had been a Superman fan all my live, but in the comic stores the character of Ghost Rider had some attraction to me, as the non-typical superhero. Now that i saw the movie, i was amazed of the great story behind this guy. A superhero that fight evil of the worst kind!, just great, a combination of a superhero and some horror - type characters; great complement!. It isn't an Oscar worth movie, but is a film to have a good time, is fun, entertaining, with action, and the type of movie that you can see in company with kids. Great special effects and night scenes that put a special charm in the film. Eva Mendes is absolutely beautiful as always!

ABOUT THE MOVIE: Nicolas Cage plays here Johny Blaze, a motorcyclist that used to make dangerous shows with his father Barton Blaze (Brett Cullen), when doctors detected to his father a cancer in his terminal stage, a demon called Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) offers to save him in change for his soul; Johny do this, but this demon or devil, deceived Johny, when at the next day his father dies on an accident in the show. Johny has his soul sold, and loses his all-life love, Roxanne (Eva Mendes), years later Blaze became a famous motorcyclist, who performed very dangerous shows; with a great team leaded by Mack (Donal Logue) he even jumped over helicopters. Suddenly he meet again with Roxane, but in that moment, Mephistopheles claimed the right for Johny's services, and turn him in a Ghost Rider, one of the servants of the devil that looked at night like a skeleton on fire. Mephistopheles order him to defeat his "cold" son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) who wanted to claim the old contract of San Venganza, with the help of other demons that represented the natural elements earth, water and air; this contract was hidden by a previous Rider to the devil, in order to prevent the possession of 1000 souls!. Blackheart threaten to bring hell to earth with these 1000 demons! Here Blaze mission start as an incredible action quest as this new Rider!

7/10, good work of Mark Steven Johnson in another of his hero movies, and a good performance of Cage and great special effects!. Worth to watch!

I'm usually very tolerant when it comes to comic-book movies. For some reason i like them even though i don't particularly like comic books. I guess it's the way that they can bend reality with an alibi to do so, as opposed to when they do it in a regular action movie. In the end though rocking action scenes, or a good solid story, is needed to make it work. There are loads of examples of movies that did work with different approaches. Like comedy (Spider-man), action (X-Men) and emotion/story (Hulk by Ang Lee). This movie however doesn't really have an approach...

I can freely admit to never having heard of the character Ghostrider before this movie. And i'm not surprised, it's not a very interesting character. And it works less well in a live-action movie. Considering the Ghostrider is basically just a special-effect with a flaming skull, there's not much acting to be done. Nicholas Cage is his usual self as the troubled man who turns into Ghostrider at night. Whether Nicholas Cage being himself is a good thing or not is up to you to decide. The rest of the performances range from dignified (Peter Fonda) to downright silly (Wes Bentley).

The real problem here is not the acting though, it's the fact that the movie has precious little to offer. It lacks direction and purpose almost completely. It's too slow and lame to be a good action-movie (although there are a few decent special-effects scenes), it lacks comedy almost completely and the story is too lame and shallow to carry the movie. I guess going for the action-angle would have been the best way, but the Ghostrider doesn't really have any interesting ways to fight. He punches people, strangles them with chains and looks deep into their eyes. The fact that the money seems to have run before they got the flaming-skull effect right doesn't help either.

The thing i was thinking when the movie was over was "Spawn" from 1997. This movie reminded me so much about Spawn that it could easily have been a sequel. Both movies are very heavy on special effects (although this one is obviously light-years better in that department, or well, ten regular years...), both have an anti-hero with connections to the devil, both seriously lack weight in the action-scenes. And in the end both of them are thoroughly dull, and while they make a lot of noise, they have precious little to offer in the way of entertainment.

I rate this 3/10.