Directors: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Writers: Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba and Christopher Lambert
Review by Stewart Loud
Cinema 3D might be a load of crap but this film definitely isn't. Directed by the guys responsible for the Crank films, this high octane fire fest is everything you could possibly expect from a film about a flaming skeleton who rides a motorbike. Nicholas Cage's hair is looking a lot better than it did in the first one too.
I liked the first Ghost Rider film. Sure, Cage's wig or whatever they'd done to his hair do looked a bit weird and most of the baddies turned out to be pretty useless once they went up against Ghost Rider but it had all the flash, bang and mirth I was looking for when I bought the dvd. Not award winning material but a nice bit of popcorn cinema.
Spirit Of Vengeance is massively better than number one. It's darker more serious tone combined with the deranged lunatic visual style of some of the action sequences make this a totally different animal from Johnny Blaze's first outing on the big screen. The special effects for Ghost Rider himself and his bike have been greatly improved making him look far more menacing and compared to his poultry body count in the first film this one's almost apocalyptic. Mother fuckers get lit up all over the place in a shower of sparks and ashes!
The story: “Johnny Blaze, a man who made a deal with the Devil who called himself Roarke at the time, is on the run trying to make sure no-one is harmed by his alter ego, The Ghost Rider. He is approached by a Monk named Moreau who tells him that he can help be him free of the Rider, but first, he needs Johnny's help to protect a boy, whom Roarke has plans for. “ (Courtesy of IMDB) And to be honest that's all you need to know about the plot. I didn't go to the cinema looking for a thought provoking epic about the infinite struggle between the forces of light and dark and mankind's role in the never ending popularity contest between God and the Devil, and unsurprisingly that's not what I got.
Nope, what I got was loads of fast paced action with Ghost Rider going up against dozens of goons armed with everything from sub machine guns to Javelin rocket launchers. Sometimes on the road at a hundred and fifty miles an hour and sometimes just standing around whacking great swathes of wrong doers into oblivion with his chains. Ghost Rider kept me entertained for the full hour and a half. Good performances from all the cast. Cage plays more of a man on the edge with a death wish, than the absent minded goof ball with a sweet tooth he was in number one. Kiaran Hinds looks fantastic as the Devil and it was nice to see a brief appearance from Christopher Lambert (Highlander) I did lament the absence of Eva Mendes' delightful screen presence though.
If you're a fan of Ghost Rider or just comic books in general then you should enjoy this. Just don't expect shakespear. I'll definitely be getting it when it comes out on blu-ray. The 3D on my telly is way better than the toss you get at the cinema!
SCORE 7/10
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