This Devil's No Daredevil

Rating: 6/10 (18 February 2007)

Let me start out by saying that Mark Steven Johnson is a terrific writer and director. He did an amazing job with Simon Birch and Daredevil, providing movies with great acting and characters that you truly care about.
Ghost Rider is not so much a superhero movie as a folktale western, which is very cool. The script is great for the most part, though there are many unnecessary lines and speeches, but overall it is very good. The visuals are mind blowing, the locations for all the scenes are perfect, the performances by Cage, Mendes, Elliot, and Logue are terrific, and the cinematography is GORGEOUS.
Then why just a 6 out of ten? I can safely say that is all because of the acting on the part of everyone besides Cage, Mendes, Elliot, and Logue. Matt Long and Raquel Alessi play young Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, and they deserve to be beaten. They are, without a doubt, the most horrific actors in the movie. If it were not for them, the opening prologue would have been really good, even if it is a bit rushed.
Young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) sells his soul to the devil (Peter Fonda), to save someone he loves. It is very cathartic and emotional, and it truly grabs you... at least it would if there were different actors in the scene. Long is a terrible actor, even worse than Daniel Radcliffe in the first Harry Potter film. Luckily, we don't have to deal with him for the whole movie.
Too bad we can't say the same about Fonda. He is truly horrible all the way through.
Soon we meet Blackheart, a truly frightening villain, with a truly pasty complexion. He is constantly killing, and it is never really explained why. Wes Bentley portrays him, and I'm still not sure who is worse, Fonda or Bentley. He truly is horrible in this movie, and it is too bad. Also his little gang of Justice Friends are totally unnecessary, and they bring me back bad memories of the villains in Elektra. And there was nothing good about Elektra.
All in all, the fault is on the casting director. This Christine King character should be locked in a closet for a long, long time. Sam Elliot however, blew me away. His performance was hands down the best in the movie.
The plot is really solid, the performances of the aforementioned four are terrific, the cinematography is gorgeous, the visuals are mind blowing, and the direction is amazing. Mark Steven Johnson did a great job with what he had, but it sadly is no Daredevil.
It really and truly is too bad that it supported such a horrid cast.
6 out of 10.