Ghost Rider - Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
Supernatural themes, violence and infrequent coarse language
| Directors: | Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor |
| Actors: | Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, Ciaran Hinds, Johnny Whitworth, Jacek Koman, Anthony Head |
It has been several years since making a deal with the Devil and Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage), living in self-imposed isolation, finds himself as the only person who can help save 10-year-old Danny - and ultimately the world - thanks to his unwanted and uncontrollable power - his ability to transform into the hell-on-wheels monster known as The Ghost Rider.
| Status: | QuickPick |
|---|---|
| Run time: | 95mins |
| Origin: | UNITED STATES |
| Aspect Ratio: | 16:9 |
Ride on
by Simon Miraudo, 16/03/2012 9:58:00 AM
The mantra of the fervent but long-suffering Nicolas Cage fan is as follows: There are no bad Nicolas Cage performances, just bad Nicolas Cage movies. This is how we obsessed admirers come to the defence of the Oscar winning star of Vampire’s Kiss, The Wicker Man, and Trespass; even when the film is subpar, he brings his uniquely calibrated intensity and unrivaled level of commitment to every role. The talented thespian has plenty of detractors though, and thanks to his well-publicised financial woes, Cage’s recent, desperate choices have provided them with enough artillery for a dozen lifetimes of mocking. What a relief then to find Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance a legitimately fun time. It even features a meta moment in which he promises to work on his "decision making" skills. Noted. ...
The mantra of the fervent but long-suffering Nicolas Cage fan is as follows: There are no bad Nicolas Cage performances, just bad Nicolas Cage movies. This is how we obsessed admirers come to the defence of the Oscar winning star of Vampire’s Kiss, The Wicker Man, and Trespass; even when the film is subpar, he brings his uniquely calibrated intensity and unrivaled level of commitment to every role. The talented thespian has plenty of detractors though, and thanks to his well-publicised financial woes, Cage’s recent, desperate choices have provided them with enough artillery for a dozen lifetimes of mocking. What a relief then to find Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance a legitimately fun time. It even features a meta moment in which he promises to work on his "decision making" skills. Noted.
Directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have rescued the cursed Marvel creature from the clutches of Mark Steven Johnson, who was responsible for the deathly dull first Ghost Rider back in 2007 (deathly dull excluding Cage’s fine work in the lead, of course). Although Spirit of Vengeance never reaches the madcap heights of Neveldine/Taylor’s unhinged Crank, it’s an inventive, wonderfully weird, and surprisingly focused one-shot comic-book adventure.
At the picture's open, daredevil Johnny Blaze (Cage) is still encumbered by the demon rider, who pops his flaming head up whenever evildoers are in close proximity. This has become such a troublesome, anti-social issue, Blaze has had no choice but to flee civilisation and hide in Eastern Europe (we’re sure the tax breaks a studio gets for filming there played no part in the selection of this setting). Living alone in the Bloc is the price one pays for making a deal with the devil (Ciarán Hinds) and allowing yourself to be possessed by a soul-claiming minion from the bowels of hell. French priest and fellow biker Moreau (Idris Elba) seeks out Johnny and promises to return his soul should he help him with one final mission: locate Beelzebub's earthly spawn (Fergus Riordan) and prevent his ‘Antichrist’ programming from being activated. After some contemplation, Blaze uncages (geddit?) the Ghost Rider and allows it to take over his corporeal form. But crazy is a lot like toothpaste; it’s a lot easier to squeeze out of the tube than it is to cram back in.
Almost all of the jokes fall flat; mercifully, Cage’s knowingly bizarre and discordant line readings make for genuinely amusing viewing (some great 'Cackling Cage' moments, particularly as he tries to keep from morphing into his dementedly demonic alter ego). His reliability as a screen presence is like that of a loyal friend or warm blanket: always there for you no matter how bad things get. He’s both aware of the audience’s expectations and entirely dedicated to the character, and that is a balance no other actor working today (or perhaps ever) has fully grasped. Also, unlike so many of his recent endeavours, Cage is not the only delicious ingredient. Neveldine and Taylor - working from a screenplay by David S. Goyer, Scott Gimple, and Seth Hoffman - provide an urgency and immediacy to the immersive action scenes that feel novel and exclusive to their oeuvre. The pair's lo-fi aesthetic meshes rather well with the CGI here; the Ghost Rider himself moves like a Rankin/Bass stop-motion creation (albeit, a particularly violent one), and that only adds to this delightfully nutty experience.
3.5/5
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Member Reviews (32)
32 Member
Reviews
JD
says
Only if you are very bored!
Lisa
says
Bit of a let down from the first one
GailL
says
Sequel had nothing on 1st movie.
Kelly
says
I wanted an over the top action movie and Nicolas Cage provided it. One of those 'so bad it's good' movies and excellent fun if you don't take it too seriously
says
Original was good this was a shocker, poor story line and acting
says
The first one was quite good, this is shockingly bad.
Joyce
says
I thought this sequel was quite good,. action all thru the movie. I won't be surprise if 3 be coming soon to cinemas.
Anil
says
Don,t waste your time.
says
Wish you could vote 0 stars - terrible story, terrible acting
Pfurball
says
This was fantastic with brilliant effects and even better than the first movie. Many twists and turns but I hope there is another to follow,.
Matthew B.
says
Oh so bad. Gave it a chance to see if it was better than the first one. It wasn't.
says
not as good as the first one but still very good on its own as a ghost rider movie :)
Henny
says
glade to see another ghost rider movie, hope there is an other
says
It's just not a good film, the story is stupid, the dialog is worse and the special FX looked like they were copied from a video co-pilot tutorial, if you want a better film to watch get hell boy or hell boy 2 or watch Q&A seriously anything would be better then this
Marg
says
I know follow ons are usually not as good as the first, but found this one to be realy bad.
Kazza
says
If you are an action lover, then this is still a great movie to watch, animation a lot better than the first, though one could almost sense what was going to happen each time, but still loved it, well worth a watch especially if you love Nicholas Cage...
allan
says
no where as good as the first 1 but it keeped you watching but let down in the say time
bi
says
The animation is good but the story line is predictable, still it's better than the first one in my opinion, worth watching.
John
says
I didn’t mind it, but I watch videos while I’m working out after work during the week. Their function is simply to be pixels on a screen that I have never seen in that combination before... This particular combination of pixels I indeed have never seen before in that sequence.... so... yeah. Different! But I admit Idris Alba was almost bad and that’s unusual. And the hottie wasn’t hot enough... where's Olga when you need her?
says
Garbage movie - no where near as good as the first one.
says
poor acting, simple story and bad directing, the colours were strange somehow and Nick Cage did a below par (yes, that is possible) performance. the fight scenes lacked depth and character development was non-existent. corny ending lines made it just that much worse, watch the trailer and read the synopsis and you've seen the movie at its best
do not get this DVD, as an alternative I suggest getting into a fight with a bear, it would be much more pleasant
Guy
says
At least 20 times better than the original tripe! I loved this despite Ang Lee style over directing. I think they were trying to give it a comic book feel. They came close. In many ways this was true to the comic series c1994, though Cage is rubbish as Blaze. The visualisations of the hellfire combined with good camera angles portrayed the rider's bike really well.
~Z~
says
This would have to be the worse remake of a great movie that i have ever seen. I'll give it two stars only because Cage was brought back in the main role.
I was happy they brought back Nicholas Cage, but the story line was terrible and why in film it in Romania? and not in america where the rider was first created. They changed so much of the law surrounding the first movie, In the first movie he couldn't become the ghost rider during the day, only at night, because it was a spirit of darkness, they explained this when he meet the old ghost rider ( played by Sam Elliott ) and showed the part at the end of the first movie when he was battling the son satan for the souls of the old town, he could only change when the sun went down or it was in complete shadows. But this bad remake, he was clearly riding as the ghost in the middle of the day in direct sunlight. The worst part was that his bike never changed into anything, all it did was shot fire when he rode it, the first movie the bike changed completely when he into the rider, it became a demonic being all to it's self and why do they allways bring in a child to a remake, every single great movie is ruined because they either bring in a kid or a son for the main character and try to force a storyline around the child, instead of around the main charracter, which is Nicholas Cage as the Ghost Rider.
Kristina
says
Nicholas Cage is always very entertaining but this film didn't thrill me I'm afraid. Special effects not too special and now it looks like there is another one to come.
andrea
says
what a load of rubbish.Wasted 30 mins of my life watching this big pile of doggy doo doo. Should have stopped at number one or at least make it along the same lines.waste of time.
lee
says
worst movie i ever saw
NC
says
So disappointed with this movie! I'm a big Nicholas Cage fan, but not even he could save this pile of rubbish. I'd give this horsepoo half a star if I could but it won't let me.
dan
says
nowhere near as good as 1st ghostrider.could even see marks on camera lense
FilmSchoolFailure
says
Terrible, senseless, over the top, but lots of fun. Neveldine/Taylor bring their signature insanity the the Ghost Rider franchise and I must say is a massive improvement over the first film (Which was horrific). They add a sense of flare and silliness that make Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance a great example of old school exploitation cinema revived with new skin. Plus as a comic book nerd I really dug the design of Ghost Rider himself, far better than last time around. Bad, but fun.
says
I was so looking forward to this movie, we enjoyed the first Ghost Rider, but this was total rubbish, what a waste of time.
Dont bother with another Ghost Rider.
Kim
says
12yo reckons it is ok but 13yo and 15yo reckon it is pretty bad, didn't watch myself so can't comment
KDski
says
was a little disapointed with the 2nd. but i think i was expecting a little too much. if you loved the first ghost rider may aswell watch this one. very obvious that different people were behind the making of this one, then the first. that's always a bad move.