Johnny Blaze and his father are a motorcycle stunt duo. When he finds out that his girlfriend is leaving town, he makes plans to run away with her until he finds out that his father is dying of cancer. And then a stranger arrives telling him that he can cure his father's disease if he makes a deal. A deal for his soul that will turn young Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider.
Ghost rider is an amusing film, with spectacular effects, but it is by no means the best film I have ever seen. The lead role, Johnny Blaze, played by Nicholas Cage, has a classic redemption storyline. He acts it well, but as with many films of the same ilk, I find myself far more interested by the antagonist leads. Mephistopheles, the devil (Peter Fonda) has a great blend of charm and evil. He pulls off the helpful stranger looking to make a deal, and then he pulls of the ironic trickster that causes the lead to fall. Likewise, the devil's son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley) plays a convincing evil bastard.
Roxanne, the female lead, lets the side down massively with her vacuous why-don't-you-love-me expression and her collagen face. Her role as journalist and love interest give her little opportunity to make a positive impact on the plot, and she mostly gets in the way. I found her very annoying, making the obvious observations and the very obvious responses to every situation that she finds herself in. Perhaps I found her more annoying having read quite a few Heroine Content reviews recently, but even so, Roxanne was far too typical of the superhero genre to be a very good character.
The plot of ghost rider is somewhat predictable, but still entertaining. The devil's son is seeking one of the devil's contract, which will give him the power of a thousand evil souls, which would give him horrendous amounts of power on Earth. Obviously, his father does not want this to happen, so he calls the ghost rider back into existence and sends him out to take his son and send him back to hell. Along the way, the rider fights the lackeys, upsets the female lead, has to show off his motorbiking skills to their grandest extent and of course there is the inevitable police chase. The police, of course, aren't put off by the fact that they are chasing a flaming skeleton riding a bike which is also on fire.
I think the main problem I had with this film was that it didn't have much substance beyond looking cool. There was no real underlying tension, and there was never any doubt that the good guy was going to win. Even the ending cue-for-a-sequel sequence was predictable, even though it didn't make a huge amount of sense. However, maybe I expected too much... Ghost Rider was a silly comic-book action flick, and operated very well within those borders. For cheesy entertainment, Ghost Rider is very watch-able.
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