Ghost Rider

Rated: PG-13 (for horror violence and disturbing images)
Runtime: 114 minutes
Written and Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott

Being the comic book movie geek that I am, I was rather stoked about Ghost Rider when I first heard about it. I love the idea of the character, mostly for the same reasons I love the concept of Spawn. An evil protagonist who chooses to fight for good – a dark hero. And I’m sure Nicolas Cage was stoked about it too. The guy’s been dying to make a comic book film for a long time, especially after getting laughed off set when originally cast as Superman. Sadly this flick suffers heavily from supermodel syndrome – it looks really pretty on the surface, but there ain’t much going on in terms of depth or substance.

Johnny Blaze (Cage) is a daredevil motorcyclist who makes a deal with the devil, Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda), to save his terminally ill father. The devil keeps his end of the bargain and heals his father, only to let him die during a motorcycle stunt. Blaze packs up and ditches town, leaving the love of his life, Roxanne (the lovely Eva Mendes) behind. Flash forward much later and Blackheart (Wes Bentley), the son of the devil, has come to seek out an ancient contract which will grant him enough souls to overthrow his father and reign a new hell on earth. Enter Mephistopheles to claim Blaze’s debt – he is transformed into the devil’s bounty hunter, the Ghost Rider. And so he sets out, skull blazing, to destroy some demons and stop evildoers in his path.

The script is poor, with uncharismatic, flat dialogue and desperately undeveloped one-dimensional characters. There is no sense of immediacy or magnetism about any of the souls that populate this flick. It’s a shame too, as the character of Ghost Rider has so much potential. They never fully develop his personality, or how Johnny Blaze grows into him. It just sort of happens. And overall the acting is stoic, with extremely stiff performances from Cage, Fonda and Bentley (who can’t play a bad guy to save his life). In this area, the only real saving grace for me was Sam Elliott, who managed to harbor a gruff charm that kept his scenes alive. I was really disappointed in Fonda’s performance. And I honestly attribute it to poor direction. I mean COME ON! How do you drop the ball when you’ve got the star of Easy Rider playing the devil in a movie about a hero who rides a motorcycle? Inexcusable.

Mark Steven Johnson, who helmed the rather dismal Daredevil, returns to the director’s chair showing little in the way of growth. I’ll admit he does know how to showcase effects, but I struggle to give the majority of credit for this to him. Scenes awkwardly connect and often feel incomplete, with jarring and unsatisfactory editing – a character delivers a line slowly in parts as the camera completes its motion, then we cut to another character who does the same thing. It comes across as very tedious and melodramatic, with little to no sense of flow. And the action pieces are a mixed bag. Parts are rather thrilling (notably a vertical motorcycle ride up and down a city skyscraper) while others feel like something better suited for the small screen. Ghost Rider doesn’t really fight his enemies so much as just catch them and let them dissipate – this flick is desperately in need of a more conflicting challenge (and some killer stunt choreography).

There is something I LOVED about this movie though – the special effects. The photorealistic CGI flames and metamorphosis sequences as Blaze becomes Ghost Rider (and his bike becomes some sort of demon hog) are nothing short of phenomenal. Embers burn beneath Blaze’s skin as he screams in agony, his flesh searing away to reveal a vengeful skull engulfed in hellfire – cinematically gorgeous. The team at Imageworks (Spider Man 1-3, Superman Returns) has really outdone themselves here. Watching Ghost Rider simply BE Ghost Rider is definitely the highlight of the film. And the demons, while awkward character portrayals, look really sharp. The “penance stare” sequences (where Ghost Rider grabs an evildoer and tells them “the blood of the innocent is on your hands, feel their pain” and stares into their eyes, giving them a glimpse of all the hurt they’ve caused) look really kitchy and lackluster – but I resort this fault to Johnson’s direction rather than the effects execution.

Overall, Ghost Rider is a rather flawed flick that could (and should) have been great – a sort of road to hell paved with good intentions, if you will. A poor script, poor direction and stiff acting sort of butts heads with, and in a sense cancels out, some really brilliant visuals and decent cinematography. Check it out for the effects, keep your expectations for other cinematic substance low.

My Rating: C –

The Grudge 2 (DVD review)

Rated: PG-13/UNRATED (mature thematic material, disturbing images/terror/violence, and some sensuality)
Runtime: 108 minutes
Directed by: Takashi Shimizu
Written by: Stephen Susco
Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Sarah Michelle Gellar

It’s been a steadily growing and arguably tiring trend that American movie studios remake horror hits big and small from our darker, more unconventional (and quintessentially advanced) cinematic brethren in Asia. Adapted from the Ju-On series, The Grudge franchise got a strong start with its 2004 incarnation here in the states. Ignoring the stoic presence of Sarah Michelle Gellar, it emerged as one of my favored horror flicks of late. Plus Sam Raimi (the Evil Dead and Spider Man series) was passionate enough about the material to produce it, which is enough to buy my ticket. So now we have round two from The Grudge. Sadly, it’s quite inferior to its predecessor.

This time around, Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) heads to Japan in an attempt to bring home her sister Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who has survived the terror experienced in the first film. To catch up – there’s this haunted house where something awful happened. The saying goes that if someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born and anyone who encounters it will be consumed by its fury. So if you go in the house, stuff’s gonna haunt you till you die. Aubrey’s trip to Japan isn’t all that successful as the curse begins to spread through three separate groups of characters with intersecting storylines.

Takashi Shimizu, who has directed all previous Grudge films, returns to the helm. I like that he’s been given the chance to adapt his film in America, rather than have some slick Hollywood hotshot ineptly translate the material. I find it curious that Shimizu has formed a career from essentially making the same movie seven times now (2 direct to video and 3 theatrical films in Japan, and 2 American remakes). His style is very methodical and intricate, using minimalist lighting and old-school scare tactics, focusing meticulously on building tension gradually, like a pendulum, until what you know and dread is around the corner finally reveals itself to you – and for some reason it’s still creepy. I also appreciate that he overtly favors practical effects and trick photography over CGI-imagery, resorting to it only when necessary. So from a visual standpoint, his direction has been and does remain sound.

However, the narrative structure and overall story and character development in The Grudge 2 is severely lacking. How the film jumps between the groups of protagonists is awkward and erratic. When the end credits roll, hardly anything is wrapped up or explained. Rarely do the intersections or relationships make sense. Characters go crazy and we never really are privy to why. There’s a vague correlation between the original events that kick-started the curse, but its ultimately too ambiguous and underdeveloped. And there’s really no attachment to any of the characters, with numerous failed attempts at making them anything other than one-dimensional.

The flick does harbor some creepy moments, but they’re few and far between. And for the most part, the scares are unelaborated rehashes of instances from the previous film. The DVD sports deleted scenes (with an AWFUL alternate ending), featurettes, and some short films of more Grudge stories. As per usual, this is available in an Unrated Director’s Cut version with “footage too scary for theaters!” Only… not at all. I never saw the PG-13 cut, but this one didn’t have anything to merit a higher rating.

The Grudge 2 isn’t exactly a bad film, just a flawed one that fell way shy of its potential. It could’ve greatly benefited from a linear storyline and fewer characters (while taking the time to develop what’s there and amping up the creativity of the frightening scenes). After a really lackluster opening, the flick did pick up for a bit, but really dropped the ball in the final act. Far better than a lot of recent horror installments, but not quality enough to stand among the elite, The Grudge 2 might just be proof that some curses need to get over it and die.

My Rating: C +