A flashy, hollow popcorn flick.

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2007)

Oh lets do the good, the bad, and the ugly with this one.
The GOOD: I really don't know too much about the character in the comic book (though I've heard of him), but I would say this is as good a treatment of Ghost Rider that you're going to get. The graphics in this movie and the awesome visuals are truly good looking. They spared no expense on the special effects, making Ghost Rider's flaming head look pretty realistic (if not somewhat silly, because it was a tad small for his torso.)
The story is entertaining, despite its rough spots. The whole imagery and idea of Johnny Blaze is captured really well. We see Nicolas Cage as this thrill seeking loner who's almost trying to put himself out of his misery, by doing the only thing that makes him feel alive. I felt that the bad guys' characters could have been fleshed out more, and the scene just before the end was a little weak, but otherwise it was good entertainment value.
The BAD: Acting wise....it was joke. I'm sorry, but I was laughing to myself in the theater. It really was awful. This was NOT a role for Nicolas Cage--he was wrong for it. His accent is so fake that it was hilarious to hear him talk like that for so long. They should have gotten a handsome unknown actor, who actually HAS that kind of accent. It wouldn't have detracted from the role in the LEAST--Cage offers nothing to it, other than the box office draw of his name. The female lead, likewise had acting problems. I kept getting the impression that she was given just too many bad takes and finally the director said 'screw it!', and went with the "best one" she could do. Don't get me wrong, she's a pretty face, but that's about all she has to offer this picture.
The story has some really questionable writing as well. Some events in the movie make no sense at all.
*SPOILER* Like the part where the police show up at Blaze's house--all 20 of them--toting shotguns and swat gear. How they managed to link a stunt man to the wanton carnage in the streets AND the murders from earlier in the movie where people were FROZEN to death...is a complete mystery. Also the fight scene with the wind demon was.....I'm sorry again, laughable. They way Ghost Rider dispatches his floating foe is just silly. One also wonders what Blaze would have done if his opponent had actually made adequate use of his flight powers, rather than just floating around in one place. The scene right before final fight seems tacked on and pointless--kudos to the visual effects though. *SPOILER*
The UGLY: The roles of the demons in the seem tacked on as well. I would have rather scene Ghost Rider fighting urban street crime that was influenced by the main demon guy. That would have made sense.
Unfortunately, the main villain's motivations are a bit shaky, like the rest of the movie--think about how he is defeated in the end of the movie. Also, Ghost Rider's Penence Stare seems about as threatening and useful as Wonder Woman's magic lasso of truth. And I couldn't get over Ghost Rider's laugh! It was intolerable during the transformation sequences, half-way destroying the tone of the scene; and after awhile it just got corny. He's Ghost Rider, not the Headless Horseman...
All in all, Ghost Rider is a very flashy and entertaining film. It is also poorly acted, juvenile, and badly written. Normally I would give it a 5, but they hyped this film so much last year that my friends and I were expecting SO much more than this. So it earns a 4 out of 10 from me.