*½/**** Image A- Sound A (DD)/A- (DTS) Extras B-
starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Peter Fonda
written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Never let it be said that I have my finger on the pulse of the public. Wild horses couldn't have dragged me into a theatre showing Ghost Rider when it opened in the first quarter of this year, but that didn't stop it from ringing the box-office bell more times than it ever deserved. As it turns out, my aversion to the film proved largely justified: Though one can savour Ghost Rider's campier elements (i.e., the toploading of Nicolas Cage with nutty things to do), it's otherwise a pretty pallid affair, with professional but uninspired direction and a ludicrous screenplay both courtesy Daredevil perpetrator Mark Steven Johnson. The film cries out for the gonzo treatment of a Joe Dante, whereas Johnson acts like nothing untoward is happening as his characters say and do absurd things. Even the centrepiece action sequences have no flavour because he hasn't invested anything other than budget in the proceedings.
I can't vouch for fidelity to the original Marvel comic about a flaming skull in leather duds riding a fiery motorcycle to punish evildoers–and really, I'm not inclined to care either way. All I know is that Cage, in his role as professional daredevil Johnny Blaze, offers numerous distractions from the narrative with increasingly bizarre behaviour. We're supposed to feel for him as Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) tricks his younger self into selling his soul to cure his father's cancer; and we're supposed to sigh as Johnny lives a haunted man, unable to die until his pact–to collect on one of the Devil's unpaid contracts–is completed. Call me callous, but I couldn't see past Cage flaring his nostrils, bugging out his eyes, and swilling jellybeans from a martini glass. Indulging his mugging at every turn of the screw, the film seems designed not to tell the Ghost Rider story but to showcase the madness of Cage.
Of course, the tale must be told, and it's not a very good one besides. Mephistopheles resurfaces when his estranged son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) announces his designs on the family business and searches for an outstanding contract containing the souls needed for startup. Blackheart, along with his backup of three gimmicky yet instantly-forgettable henchmen, must be sent back to Hell by our man Johnny Blaze, although the fight scenes kind of take a backseat to Ghost Rider causing things to burn up as he drives past. So much sound and fury is devoted to the pretext for the money shots that when Blaze finally gets down to kicking ass, it's an anticlimax. Granted, one could do a little better than the supremely uncharismatic Bentley and his buddies, who have one elemental superpower apiece and fold immediately upon engaging the hero. There's never any sense that the baddies pose a threat, while the fights themselves come across as secondary to Cage and his posturing.
Now, I'm not saying you can't build a movie around Nicolas Cage acting like a maniac (see: Vampire's Kiss). You shouldn't, however, use it as an excuse to avoid the total banality of your plotline and secondary characters. True, the spaced-out Eva Mendes makes a good match with Cage (especially when she gamely consults the Magic Eight-Ball after getting stood up for a date), but her alter ego, Johnny's long-lost love Roxanne, is merely there to perform damsel-in-distress duty and has a staggering lack of dimension. Ditto the inevitable Joseph Campbell mentor Caretaker, whose chief appeal lies in the fact that Sam Elliott constantly appears to be on the brink of laughter. I'm not asking for Red Desert here–I'm just asking for a sense that the filmmakers cared as much about amusing us as they did about amusing themselves. The digressions take over the movie because there's nothing else to watch.
THE DVD
Sony has issued Ghost Rider on DVD in competing rated (PG-13) and unrated platters, the former available in separate widescreen and fullscreen editions; this review pertains to the widescreen version of the theatrical cut. The 2.40:1, 16×9-enhanced image is excellent, if perhaps a hair too intense in terms of colour: some detail is sacrificed for screaming day-glo hues, which is probably of less annoyance in HiDef. (The step down to standard definition is generally an afterthought in preparing these digitally-graded transfers for the home market.) A 5.1 mix comes in Dolby and DTS flavours, and the surprise is that Dolby takes the prize: it's a well-articulated and subtle sonic experience in contrast to the potent but jumbled DTS alternative. For what it's worth, selecting the latter option from the Languages menu brings up the brand new DTS teaser. Extras begin with a commentary featuring Mark Steven Johnson and visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack. They confirm that most of the crazy Nic Cage asides were indeed the work of Cage himself. It's easy to see where he ends and Johnson's vision begins, for everything here is considered "classic" and "iconic" when it's actually "clichéd" and "obvious." A second commentary by producer Gary Foster is less maddeningly imprecise; Foster touches on technical details, fights with the studio, Cage's contributions, and various and sundry other issues that would all be fascinating if the film in question were any good.
Two documentaries also grace the disc. "Spirit of Vengeance" (28 mins.) is a surprisingly subdued making-of that tries its damnedest to be serious and thorough. Where other docs offer soundbites of meaningless twaddle, this has moments such as producer Mike DeLuca relating an anecdote about working on The Legacy as a kid, finding Sam Elliott to be extremely kind, and returning the favour years later with the role of the Caretaker. That said, the subjects let the featurette down completely, as no amount of honest, searching filmmaking can change the fact that these people ultimately have nothing to say. The same is sort of true of "Spirit of Adventure" (30 mins.), although this featurette is devoted more to practicalities like makeup, stunts, and costume design; we learn the odd tidbit, most intriguingly that exotic fabrics were used to dress Blackheart's henchmen. Still, the piece ends with Johnson hoping Ghost Rider will renew interest in the comic book–you wish he'd set the bar a little higher. Rounding out the package are trailers for Across the Universe, Premonition, Blood and Chocolate, Spider-Man 3, Seinfeld: Season 8, The Messengers, Hellboy, and Stomp the Yard, the first three cuing up on startup.
110 minutes; Unrated; 2.44:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1, English DTS 5.1, French DD 5.1; English, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Sony
