Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm a little conflicted. I want to believe this review. I want GHOST RIDER to be awesome, but the reviewer said they agreed with Massawyrm on something. Anybody who has ever agreed with Massawyrm on anything needs professional help... still, there's a hope this will be good. Fingers crossed.
Hi Harry. Was going to write you about Music and Lyrics but then saw that Massawyrm beat me to it (bastard). For once, I agree with Massawyrm and enjoyed the movie a lot. But I'm writing to tell you about something else today -- GHOST RIDER! There was a screening tonight in Century City, CA and although I wasn't "officially" a part of the press I got to see the movie through other means. In short, the movie is good. In fat, it's really good at times. Nick Cage (and I know he has his detractors) was a blast in the film. You could really feel how much fun he was having, and that goes as well for the rest of the cast. The movie definitely is a good time, with lots of laughs and scares throughout. The Ghost Rider himself looks amazing, much better than he does on the net or in the TV ads. You can really see the detail of the skull and the fire -- good thing they took their time with this as the earlier CGI looked pretty dodgy. There are huge action sequences here in the movie that reminded me of the Terminator movies, particularly T2 with the motorcycle stunts and the Hidden, demons that move and shape shift similarly to the T1000 in T2. Peter Fonda steals the show as Mephisto (or 'Mephistopheles' in the movie). There's a great bit in the movie where Fonda sees Johnny'schopper, which is the same kind of bike he rode in Easy Rider, and says "Nice motorcycle, Johnny." There's a lot of tongue in cheek humor in the movie. Maybe too much at times. But it seemed to play really well with the audience I saw it with. Sam Elliott was equally awesome as the Old Cowboy that helps Johnny. There's several great moments between him and Nic Cage. Towards the end of the movie Sam has a great speech where he tells Nic "You didn't make the deal for greed, you did it for love. Maybe that puts God on your side." Good stuff. There is a ton of action in the movie, in fact the movie probably could have been helped if it SLOWED DOWN and took a breath every now and then. At times the pacing felt rushed, like the filmmakers were in a hurry to get to the end. And when we get to the final battle with Blackheart it is over too quickly for my liking. But that being said, it has more action than Superman Lives and Batman Begins combined. The highlights for me are the first night of Ghost Rider's Transformation, the second night when the entire police and SWAT force is chasing Johnny up and over bridges, down a river, and up a skyscraper (!) and the last night when Johnny and the Cowboy Ghost Rider are tearing through the desert for the final showdown. I thought the Cowboy Ghost Rider was going to fight as well, but he was only showing Ghost Rider the way. A lizard gets toasted in the wake of their ride, though! In short, I really liked the movie. The effects were great. Nic Cage was hilarious. I would have like to see more fights/bigger sequences, but that is minor compared to what I liked. Also, I really loved the score by Christopher Young, one of my favorite composers who did the music for the Hellraiser movies. Ghost Rider was a pleasant surprise and a return to form for Nicolas Cage. If you use this please call me Le Chiffre.
