Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
As far as comic books go, I've been a Marvel fan as long as I've been a comic book fan. I love the comic book films we are getting these days and can't get enough of them. So when I heard Ghost Rider was coming out, I dragged Rish to the theatre hoping for another great entry in the genre.
As a lad, and in order to save the life of his father, Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil. As an adult, the devil calls the deal in, makes Johnny his bounty hunter, and sends him after his demonic son, Blackheart. Also, they made a love interest thing happen in there somewhere. I don't know why, but I suspect that they wanted people who weren't me to see it.
Of all the comics I own, only two of them are Ghost Rider comics. I can't claim to be an expert, but I can claim that I have always been fascinated by the character. The publication of Ghost Rider comics has been sporadic though, and it is something you have to really want to go out of your way to find. I'm currently reading the Garth Ennis penned Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears mini-series and I have high hopes for it. But then, I have high expectations for anything Garth Ennis touches.
Nicolas Cage plays Johnny Blaze and I have to say that I am glad they finally found a superhero role for him. He so desperately wanted to be a superhero, but all that Superman nonsense was really very silly. Here he has the gauntness and quirkiness to imbue Ghost Rider with a bit of flair and still make him the ass-kicking half-demon he should be. As Rish pointed out to me, he is a bit old, but they tried to make him look a bit younger and sort of succeeded. The unfortunate thing is that they've already capped the number of Ghost Rider movies they can make by casting him.
I'll take all I can get.
Eva Mendes is the love interest and is passable. The love story was mostly very peripheral to the whole thing and felt tacked on in places, but just right in others. Wes Bentley was Blackheart and played him ably, if a bit cartoony. Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles was brilliant. That was a really nice touch.
The movie was really well made and even though the CGI wasn't always perfect, I found it easy to forgive. The action was paced well and the plot moved along well enough. I look forward to seeing what they can do when they don't have to include the origin story.
This is completely worth seeing, whether you are a fan of the character or not. I'm probably being a big fanboyish, but I loved the movie. It was a lot of fun and I will definitely see it again.
Posted: February 19, 2007

Rish's Reviews
In 2005, I got to represent the HFC at the San Diego Comic-Con, and quite enjoyed myself. Tyranist has a severe allergy to crowds (when around them, he itches, sweats and farts profusely . . . and sometimes more than farts, just between you and me), but one of the panels I went to was for Ghost Rider, which had already finished principal photography way back then. Director Mark Steven Johnson, and Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendez were there, and for every question about the film, there were 1.5 of guys telling Mendez how hot she was.
This had nothing to do with the film, I realise now, but hey, there's a reason they don't pay us to do this.
I didn't really want to see Ghost Rider. I don't know what it is, I guess I just thought it looked silly, or trite, or the kind of movie inbred folks in a trailer park might like (no offence if you're reading this, Mom and Dad). But tyranist really wanted to see it, and I am weak (I guess it's safe to say that he wears the pants in our little partnership . . . even if he occasionally stains them), so we went, if I recall, on opening night.
I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would, which is nice. Not as much as he did, I suppose. I feel it sort of falls apart at the end (which, say it with me, boys and girls, is the most important part of a horror movie), when everything ties itself up in a rather cheap little bow that didn't have to be cheap and could've been more satisfying with just a little more finesse.
There were some great special effects, and a couple nice scares (who woulda thought high school Goth-wannabee Wes Bentley could be intimidating?), and the world and characters were cool. Mostly, the film was fun, and that's a better recommendation than I could give up by typing another couple of paragraphs.
I wasn't a huge fan of the comics, but that might have helped me enjoy it, as I didn't have to complain about all the changes that (I'm sure) were made in translating it to the big screen. The film was a big hit, and I'm happy about that, 'cause it'll help Stan the Man pay for a nice burial, but I don't necessarily need to see a Ghost Rider 2. If they make one, I'll probably go to it, though. No harm, no foul.
Posted: April 10, 2007

Total Skulls: 9

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie		Mark of the Beast, Skeleton Dance
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?