bad script, bad acting, bad direction...the bad film trifecta!

Rating: 3/10 (6 March 2007)

Okay, let me preface this review with a little point. I am a huge comic book reader and fan. I have been collecting comics for well over half my life, including Ghost Rider, so when I heard this movie was in production, I was excited.
Then I sat down to watch said film, and a vastly different emotion bubbled to the surface like so much bile. What could have been an entertaining, if surreal romp, turned into a heavy handed, poorly written, poorly acted mess.
So what is so bad? I hear you ask. Well the list is shorter if you ask what is good:
-its relatively short
-half decent f/x and sound
-Eva Mendes' cleavage
-it wont give you cancer (although tests are underway) SO what is bad?
-Casting-Nicholas Cage playing Nicholas Cage
-Sam Sheppard underused, ESPECIALLY near the climax
-Torso mirror shot-creepy on many levels
-Dialogue, switching from camp, to poe faced serious, then back to
camp
-Peter Fonda-short a dollar are we Peter?
-Eva Mendes CAN NOT act
-Butchered a once entertaining premise-where can i learn to master
a curse in one afternoon? I know, I will talk to my hand!
-Casting-have i mentioned Nicholas Cage?
-The big chick from the Aussie comedy(?) the Wedge? What the?
-IT WILL GIVE YOU THE AIDS
Comic retorts aside, the rest of the list is a serious criticism of this film, and surely at some point the people that produce these sub par efforts should be held accountable. Movies like Spiderman, Superman Returns, X-men 1 & 2, Hellboy have shown that even the most fantastic of concepts can be both entertaining and thought provoking if married to a decent script and cast. Ghost Rider had neither of these, and the result is far from what many would call entertainment.