In preparation for the sequel that i hope never comes...

Rating: 5/10 (28 February 2007)

I really find it hard to believe how someone can expect more than ordinary, for a movie where the main character is a skeleton on fire, CG has come a long way but even if we ever reach the stage where real actors can be replaced by Animated ones there is no way you can extract more than this much facial expressions from a flaming skull.
For the reasons stated above i went into the movie expecting nothing more than a 5, and this movie didn't for once look like it was going to cross that figure.
From the beginning you know that this movie is going to be as cheesy as it gets, even big fans of extra cheese like me (i like B-movies) will find it hard to digest the corny scenes and stereotypical dialogues that this movie has (hell sometimes you can predict it to last pause), any hope this movie had of rising above the ordinary is thrown away in the scene where Peter Fonda makes his appearance as the devil.
From then on this movie follows with one ordinary scene to the other, it felt like the entire movie was like walking of top of a wall, however it always felt that like the movie would fall on the wrong side not once did it look like this movie would fall on the right side and then breakaway from the ordinary.
The dialogues are corny, the computer graphics are ordinary (IN A TIME WHERE CG RENDERED STUNTS ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE OUTRAGEOUS, showing us stunts that may be yet attempted by Robbie Knievel, using CG don't even extract an ounce of excitement). The rest of the stunts are equally ordinary not a single one is worth a mention, to add to that the CLIMAX IS AS ORDINARY AS IT GETS.
Save for the presence of Nicholas Cage this movie would have made a great B-movie.
Shockingly the acting to is completely ordinary Nicholas plays a spaced out character that would have been better suited in movies like mall-rats, clerks etc. Not a single character rises above B movie standards.
By far the best this about this movie is Eva Mendes she looks sizzling, she brings much needed humour to the film and even though i hate to say it there love angle is by far the best part about this film, and did i mention THAT SHES MORE SIZZLING THAN THE ON FIRE GHOST RIDER.
The soundtrack is disappointing too, and character development is minimum, the entire movie feels like an exercise to make the mandatory 3 sequels (atleast) that we have come to associate with Hollywood in recent times,THANK GOD THIS MOVIE HAS NO POTENTIAL FOR THE EVEN MORE TORTOROUS SPIN-OFFS (think Electra and cat-woman).
What could have made a great B-movie is not only a bad/ordinary A-movie.
The film-makers could have got the hint when the best power that GR gives the people a taste of their own sins,hardly exciting when by Christian standards MORE THAN HALF THE WORLD AND THE WHOLE OF America HAS A PLACE RESERVED IN HELL.
Even though I've hardly written anything good about the movie pulls through on some good one liners, EVA MENDES, LOADS OF ORDINARY SCENES THAT JUST ABOUT HOLD YOUR ATTENTION AND Phenomenally LOW Expectations.
Watch only if really really bored, if you like B-Movies and are willing to see this as one, and love Eva Mendes (shes wearing clothes fit for a nun though), free tickets for the premiere(in my case) or really cheap matinée show is a must.
-s weak on all technical fronts including acting (suprisingly), no excitement whatsoever.
+/-s would have made a good/great B-movie.
+s EVA MENDES, good one liners and humour, lots of ordinary scenes that hold your attention.
total 5/10 (facoring in expectations (lets not talk about PG-13) if you watch it like an A-list movie with Nicholas Cage then the rating will be much lower)