Ghost Rider Burn Out

Well I actually was wanting to see “Puccini for Beginners” this weekend, but got to the Midtown theaters and the place was swamped, no parking, huge lines. So decided to hop over to Atlantic Station. I decided to go with “Ghost Rider” the latest Marvel Comics adaptation starring Nicolas Cage.

As far as comic book heroes go, he’s supposed to be one of the hippest and more relevant. Basically, as a young man, the main character (played as a young man by a completely different actor) is a promising motorcycle dare devil following in the footsteps of his father. He makes a deal with the devil to sell his soul to cure his Dad of cancer. Years later the devil comes to call on him, enlisting him as the newest “Ghost Rider” whose job it is to track down escaped souls from hell.

At night, when evil is near, Ghost Rider, burst into flame. His flesh burning off until he’s just this skeletal figure covered in sterno gel. (Though somehow his clothes never burn).

This movie reportedly cost 120 M to make. The comic book had the Ghost Rider as a very haunted, troubled, hard drinking, lost soul seeking redemption. Apparently, part of the Nicolas Cage deal was that he would get to “tweak” the script. So the cursed boozing loner becomes a goofy, jelly bean popping, Karen Carpenter listening loner. Someone should remind Hollywood that just being “weird” does not translate into a character being interesting, deep, or sympathetic.

It’s a diverting enough movie, I did catch myself getting caught up in it from time to time, in that sort of very male high school way. Whenever in the presence of evil, Nicolas Cage catches on fire and becomes the Ghost Rider. Even his bike is transformed from a pretty cool custom bike, to this Bike from Hell. Also, it is worth seeing Peter Fonda as a very menacing and effective devil.

Okay, then there’s the flowers, as in hundreds of fake silk flowers. It’s set in Texas, so I’m guess they’re supposed to be Texas Blue Bonnets (which they’re not). There’s a recurring bit of set, a big oak tree on a hill surrounded by blue flowers, it’s used in several key scenes in the move. However, if you’re going to spend 120 MILLION on a movie, PLEASE don’t go out and have someone just buy 300 very fake looking blue silk flowers and stick them in the ground. That person should be shot.