Ghost Rider...can you believe this? (1 Viewer)

[Lou Sytsma]

Cage has a good sense for picking projects, though (sans Windtalkers).

You must have missed his picking the remake of The Wicker Man.

 

[Todd H]

I saw this over the weekend with my comic book movie-loving brother. While interesting in some parts, overall I found it passable. It was at least better than the train wreck called Fantastic Four.

 

[TravisR]

To me, Fantastic Four at least got the vibe of the FF correct. Ghost Rider is a pretty serious comic and this movie seemed to miss that. Granted, it's tough to take a movie seriously where the title character has a flaming skull but still...

 

[Josh.C]

For the most part I agree with you Nathan. Cage is a pretty average actor imo, but he seems to do a good job of picking roles that play to his strengths. And every now and then, he surprises me.

I didn't care for the Wicker Man or 8MM, and thought Snake Eyes and Con Air were pretty average.

After looking at his film biography earlier, I noticed there were several (Cage) films that I have not seen.

Lord of War
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Sonny
Adaptation
Matchstick Men
Bringing out the Dead

Looks like I have some catching up to do.

JC

 

[todd s]

Is it me or has Sam Elliot always looked old?

And I agree...He was the best part of the movie.

 

[Spero D]

The only part of the movie I enjoyed was when Nic Cage was playing Johnny Blaze. As soon as Ghost Rider appeared I sighed.

 

[Blips]

For anyone who's interested, check out my video review of Ghost Rider at:

cineflick.blogspot.com

 

[ChrisMatson]

I caught this one at a matinee earlier in the week.
Glad I only paid $5.50.
The dialogue is laughable at times.
Eva Mendes is terrible.
Nic Cage is OK.
The fire effects were very good, the others were passable.

 

[TheBat]

I enjoyed it.. it was more fun then daredevil and fantastic four. reminded me a bit of the original robocop movie.

Jacob

 

[Dennis]

Enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting the best comic book adaptation ever but it was good. Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue, Peter Fonda and Sam Elliott all put in good performances in their various roles, no matter how big, small or under-written they were.

A little advice for Mark Steven Johnson: Flesh out the characters a little more, don't rush it, don't overdo it and take the material seriously.

I guess you could say that about a lot of movies.

 

[Brad M]

I thought Nick Cage was great as Blaze but most of the time I was just looking at the giant boobs on the screen. They should have been given their own credit.

I had really high hopes for this film and up until the halfway point I was really happy. Then it started it's decent. I'd be interested in a longer cut since the runtime was so short. It seemed a bit rushed for me.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Enjoyed Cage. Elliot was pretty good too.

The rest was a rush job featuring the most pedestrian direction imaginable (e.g. 'How is my driving?' on the bumper of the semi).

6.5/10 (a full 2 points for Cage and Elliot, who are fun to watch).

 

[Malcolm R]

Based on his commentary, he purposely lightened things up as much as possible to enhance the "commercial" appeal of the film. He was comparing his film to "Constantine," which he acknowledged was a good film but far too serious and dark which limited its commercial prospects.

 

[Chris Atkins]

According to Box Office Mojo, Constantine made $230 million worldwide while Ghost Rider currently stands at $228 million worldwide. Constantine did better than Ghost Rider overseas.

So, Johnson must be talking about American audiences then.

 

[Malcolm R]

Probably. I believe GR nearly doubled the domestic gross of Constantine.

Though I personally enjoyed Constantine much more.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Yea Cage and Elliot were great to watch. The movie should have just been called Johnny Blaze because his part of the movie was much more interesting than Ghost Rider, who beat each bad guy in 3 seconds, and in lame ways.

In the end, another Marvel film that won't be added to the collection.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Not quite. Rider made $115m, so it would've needed to earn another $35m to double Constantine's $75 gross...

 

[Malcolm R]

You're right. I was thinking GR did close to $140m.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I liked constantine alot better.. because it was much more darker themed and darker toned........

Wish GR was alot darker........

 

[Seth Paxton]

GR done with that Constantine tone would have been a lot more on track. The dark comedy of GR himself would still keep it "lighter" than the bitterness of the JC character did in that film.

I think character recognition went a long way toward GR's box office. It opened a lot stronger, despite worse reviews (by Rotten Tomatoe's count).

Constantine
29.7m/39% of total

Ghost Rider
45.3m/39% of total

And I think Hitch was stronger competition for Constantine than Terabithia was for GR. More people wanted to see GR before anyone actually saw it and decided on it's tone, for whatever reasons that might be.


So I think it's still valid to say that had GR been done closer in tone to Constantine it could have had stronger legs, been better reviewed, and indeed perhaps reached that double domestic of Constantine level. But instead he went corny.