a possibility for the perennial MST3K movie of the year; it's bad, but it's consistently funny

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2007)

Did Mark Steven Johnson know what he was doing with Ghost Rider? More than anyone else, I'd figure. Yet it would be probably just as funny as the movie itself to see him try and work legitimate claims to big-action movie clout with this one. It makes Daredevil look classy in comparison, but in a way it's actually better than Daredevil in the point that matters- where Daredevil was just run of the mill, Ghost Rider is a horrendous exercise in the ludicrous in special effects, stunts, cheesy-bread dialog (look how far it stretches!), and Nicholas Cage's ultimate decline as an actor. By this account I shouldn't recommend, but...damn it all if it isn't worth seeing once; it's like a disposable item bought from a mall that works great once in the worst possible ways, and then probably never will again. Unlike some of the bad movies from last year (i.e. Apocalypto, Lady in the Water), it doesn't totally offend the sensibilities even through its numerous faults. Actually, a part of me WAS offended, as I thought seeing it 'this is what action movies based on comic books have come to, good Lord', but the other part of me, that was expecting it to be bad, had a lot of fun in savoring every trashy, campy, whatever-the-f*** moment.
And how about Nicolas Cage, huh? Summoned from the spotty parts he's gone to in the dozen years since he nabbed an Oscar, he plays Johnny Blaze, a character who might be one of the dumbest characters in modern movies, and who's motivations amount to 'I love to ride, I love my girl from my teenage years, and I hate the son of Satan (played by Wes Bentley, who's another sign of the decline of the American Beauty kids), and I got to lift the curse from Mephastopheles'. So, he's turned into the Ghost Rider, a creation of visual effects and cheesy grit that COULD actually be a legitimate marvel, but ends up being better for laughs, all unintentional I'd guess. But all the while though- and I might actually give credit to the filmmaker and star(s) for this- they don't make it necessarily a dull-bad movie. Few things get more entertaining than seeing how Ghost Rider vanquishes with his fiery whip his un-dead foes, including one who is made of wind! Or just the appearances of Peter Fonda and Sam Elliot, actors who might've been amazing at one time or another, but now seem like extreme caricatures (I was almost expecting Big Lebowski quotes in the dialog/voice-overs of Elliot's). And Eva Mendes becomes almost a counterpoint for Cage's plastic, trying-to-break-cardboard performance.
But there's a lot of great lines to go with the wacky visuals too, as the inanities of style and substance start to go hand in hand (i.e. the cops just seem to know without much evidence that Johnny Blaze is responsible for the first set of crimes when he becomes Ghost Rider the first time, or when Ghost Rider rides up the side of a building). And by the end, my friends and I couldn't help ourselves, and went full-blown into what had already been happening for a while watching the flick- we became like the characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000, making wisecracks at every turn when not busting a gut over Bentley's turn into being "Legion...We are MANY!". The material just lends itself completely to that kind of deconstruction, yet that's what ends up making it not a complete waste of celluloid at the same time. Well, some would argue it is a waste, and they might not be wrong, but what a waste! It's probably up there in the ranks of the most shamelessly entertaining train-wreck Hollywood spectacles, right up there with the likes of Howard the Duck and Zardoz. Just don't, for goodness sakes, expect a respectable adaptation from original source to screen.