Ghost Rider

Released February 2007

I will admit that during my teens I was a big comic book fan. How big? I used to work at a comic book distribution warehouse so I could read the comics before they even got to the stores for sale. Cut out the middle man, I say. It was actually a great job that I had for many years until I finally left for the military.

But never a Ghost Rider fan. Come to think of it, Ghost Rider was never a big sale for Marvel. You might think that if Marvel was smart about their franchising they would go with something more collectively appreciated like Thor, Captain America, New Mutants and several other profitable choices. On a sidenote I have a similar thought process about the Silver Surfer in the new Fantastic Four movie. Silver Surfer was such a morose, lazy character. He was a surfer for crying out loud, though he had all the power of the cosmos, he was stuck in Earths atmosphere because of his much more compelling master Galactus. Okay, took a quick turn for the nerd there...sorry.

Ghost Rider.

I can guess exactly how this movie was made. Some CGI geniuses and amateur gamers got a bunch of big wigs to sit around a big oak table and closed them from a CGI perspective, which is done quite well, and by the prospect of doubling their money on X-box. This script is made for a video game.

Forget the script. For get the plot. Johnny Blaze, disillusioned stunt rider makes a deal with the devil becoming Ghost Rider. To repay that debt he has to fight the devils own son who is the Big Badguy and his henchmen. Each time they meat another henchman is dispatched. Its almost as if Ghost Rider moves up another level till the ultimate fit with the Big Badguy.

Nic Cage looks positively gaunt in this flick. Ghost Rider was drawn in the comics as a lean spectral creation and Cage nails it. In fact the following day I watched National Treasure with Cage and he looked twenty pounds heavier in Treasure. In Rider he is shredded lean. Not his best work but if your a fan of manic Cage you will absolutely love the first change scene into Ghost Rider.

I believe any movie with Sam Elliot should be watched, doubly so when he plays an iconic cowboy. Elliot has made his career on slow talking, deeply preceptive characters and his much needed acting ability needed for this film is cut short.

Peter Fonda, as Mephistopheles, plays the deepest character of the movie. Though only in a few scenes he is by far the greatest acting presence in the film and his very silence in some parts shows a great range. You believe that Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze are but one pawn in his quest for power, not his sole purpose of being. When Mephistopheles praises Blaze on his motorcycle, its quite the inside joke as its the same model Fonda rode in Easy Rider.

Eva Mendes is forgettable as the love interest. Donal Logue has a few scenes built to his quirky sense of humor which is nice, he is a great actor.

Overall not really worth the effort. If you are partial to any of the main actors you certainly won't be swayed to watch the movie but there certainly better demon type movies out there.

What's Playing the week of February 19th, 2007

Mighty Mo has been getting a little overwhelmed on Power Ranger watching, actually Mistress, aka Wife, is tired of Power Rangers. PR are now for those times when he needs to have a long medicine treatment for his conditions which is still fairly often and not every time, but we are talking two hours a week rather than two hours a day.

Land Before Time #12 comes out next week and we are hoping it will reinvigorate his little boy passion for 'eat-meaters' and dinosaurs.

The Guardian

No DVD review today on this movie staring Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) and Ashton Kutcher (That 70's Show). I watched this in my hotel room in Las Vegas.

Directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), The Guardian is a movie that finally gives the Coast Guard their due, in a way that GI Jane could never do for the Navy. Also starring Sela Ward (House M.D.) and the great Clancy Brown (Highlander) and Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers) along with John Heard (Home Alone).

Costner plays Ben Randell, the veteran rescue swimmer for Kodak, Alaska's U.S. Coast Guard. After an accident at sea, Ben is sent to recuperate while acting as the chief instructor at 'A' school for new rescue swimmer recruits. His story arc is a predictable movement from dedicated military man with a train wreak marriage, to anger, empathy and redemption.

Kutcher is the best of this movie (who'd a thunk?) as a Jake "Fish" Fisher is a hotshot varsity swimmer who is beating his personal demons with the desire to save others lives. Kutcher plays Fish with equal aplomb to the airhead he played on That 70's Show, you totally buy it. He is seen by Randell not as a threat but as a piece of unmolded iron that is shaped correctly could be a big asset to Coast Guard. Once Fish moves from student to rescue swimmer, Kutcher does an admirable job of transferring his self school persona to a determined 'hero'. I think the movie is considered so good based on word of mouth exactly because Kutcher makes the transition in the movie with such ease.

There are some holes in the movie, especially in regards to the shrinking size of the class. Characters with ample dialogue early in the film are just gone in the later acts. Otherwise an enjoyable, perhaps formulaic action/drama that is re-watchable. And isn't that the blessing to any movie.