Ghost Riders

On Saturday Feb. 24 my friend, Coleman, and I went to see the film Ghost Rider at Carmike Wynnsong Cinemas. This is another movie based on a Marvel comic book series.

The story begins at a circus where a young Johnny Blaze and his father are performing a motorcycle daredevil show. They jump over cars and through a ring of fire. Jonny is in love with Roxie, a girl whose father considers Johnny a crude carnie and not good enough for his daughter. Because Roxie's father is intent upon sending her away, Roxie and Johnny decide to run off together.

Johnny returns to the carnival to work on his motorcycle and finds out his father has terminal cancer. While he repairs his bike, young Mr. Blaze is confronted by a mysterious stranger, who offers him a deal. You guessed it. Johnny's soul for his father's life.

Johnny's blood seals the contract. He becomes the devil's bounty hunter, and his father is cured only to die shortly afterwards as he performs a very dangerous stunt. An angry and devastated Johnny has lost his soul to Mephistopheles for nothing.

Johnny decides he has lost his father and lost his soul and has nothing to offer Roxie. He leaves her standing in the rain and rides off into the dusk. This is where the plot starts to speed up.

Fast forward years in the future where a grown- up Johnny has become a famous daredevil, and the contract comes due.

The world is filled with evil, the elemental demons, who were cast out of heaven with the devil, begin to challenge him for power and control. They are after the thousand souls from the evilest town since Sodom and Gomorra to turn the balance of power. Who stands in their way….Johnny Blaze aka the Ghost Rider!

Johnnie Depp was interested in playing the lead role in this saga, but Nicholas Cage was the perfect choice to play the cocky smart- alec Jonny Blaze. It was also a stroke of genius to cast Sam Elliot as the old west ghost rider/cemetery caretaker. Peter Fonda was believable as the regent of hell. Mephistopheles and little known actor Wes Bentley turned in a superb performance as the devil's renegade son, Blackheart/Legion. (Visions of the Gadarene Demoniacs here!)

All of that aside, the true star of the show was the special effects. The flaming skeletons and the elemental demons were truly awesome. Others such as Johnny Blaze doing a rag doll routine while sliding down a ramp were just painfully realistic. It was cool to see Blaze morph into the avenging spirit of the Ghost Rider and the destruction left in his wake was staggering.

The settings were so old western and urban U.S. There was some comic relief including Johnny Blaze doing motorcycle stunts down a highway for a girl's attention, the drinking of jellybeans, some off color remarks about a dog named Lucky, and Blaze's glib remark about feeling his head was on fire the morning after his first ride as the Ghost Rider. Overall, this was one spectacular flaming success of a celluloid comic book adventure. Many adult critics have rated this film one to two stars for all sorts of justifiable reasons. Come on…it was exactly what it claimed to be…a fantastic comic book adventure on film. Coleman and I give this movie two thumbs up and I would rate this movie four and a half stars. The extra half is, of course, for the special effects extravaganza.