Unbelievably handsome Matt Long plays the young Johnny Blaze, who unfortunately grows up to look like Nicolas Cage

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2007)

Another Marvel comic book story reincarnated on the silver screen, Ghost Rider is a story of redemption, good vs. evil and the other complexities common in this genre's lore.
Johnny Blaze, a young motorcycle stunt driver does carnival acts together with his dad, whom he tries to save from certain death by accidentally entering a pact with the devil. He grows up doing increasingly more dangerous stunts while trying to redeem his ghastly self and protect the woman he loves.
The unbelievably handsome Matt Long plays the young Johnny Blaze, who unfortunately grows up to look like Nicolas Cage with hair plugs and seemingly fake abs (which Cage has reportedly defended as real and not CGI as suspected). At least the beautiful Raquel Alessi, who plays Johnny Blaze's love interest Roxanne Simpson, grows up to be the equally luscious Eva Mendes. Peter Fonda plays the devil Mephistopheles, and Wes Bentley (from American Beauty) plays his son, Blackheart, who calls on the other forces of evil to help wrest from the Ghost Rider a prized contract.
CGI-effects were heavily used, which is why the movie was about a year late in its release, so I might as well comment on it. When Blackheart transforms into his evil face, he laughably looks like one of those ghosts in Asian horror flicks like The Grudge or The Ring. Blackheart's minions were also not worthy adversaries, very easily defeated by Ghost Rider in the incredible situations, which is perhaps why the children in the theater were not scared.
Ghost Rider is fun stuff, nothing so amazing but it is definitely entertaining.