GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE (2012)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
"Spirit of Vengeance" has Johnny Blaze aka Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage) getting summoned by a wine-loving French mercenary and former (?) monk (Idris Elba) to help locate a gypsy child, Danny Ketch (Fergus Riordan) and his mother, Nadya (Italian beauty Violante Placido). Both are being hunted by Satan himself (the magnetic Ciaran Hinds) and his minions headed by the cold-blooded Ray (Johnny Whitworth). Satan needs a new body vessel and who better than this little kid whom he fathered with the help of Nadya. This was a deal with the Devil to help save Nadya's life - a deal that the Ghost Rider understands all too well. It's Johnny Blaze meets "Rosemary's Baby" mixed with some lethal fiery chains and a charred black leather jacket.
Nicolas Cage is his fervent, over-the-top, theatrical self - he is always entertaining as long he yells and does his erratic double-takes. Gone are the days of Cage's restraint in films like "Leaving Las Vegas" and, to some degree, "Bringing Out the Dead" or "Peggy Sue Got Married," etc. Cage is the new anarchic cult figure of the B-movies but he seems to have cast adrift the serious work he used to do. Still, Cage rocks as a heavy-metal actor delivering his lines with as much vigor as possible. I cheered for him (gasp!) and for Idris Elba who could make a whole film where he presses vinyl albums and I would be entranced. Ditto the slightly underused Violante Placido, a more stunning woman than Eva Mendes in the original (though there is no romantic relationship between her and flaming skull, there should be for "Ghost Rider 3"). I also thoroughly enjoyed the decaying presence of Ciaran Hinds's Roarke, the Devil Incarnate, and Johnny Whitworth who is reincarnated as Blackout, an albino demon who can create a dark field which dampens all visible light in a given area. He can also burn everything to toast with his hands, though a Twinkie proves indestructible. I laughed at that scene.
"Ghost Rider 2" is enjoyably fast and furious (thanks to the "Crank" filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor) with plenty of self-parodic gags (such as the image of Jerry Springer as the human manifestation of Satan). I also love the animated breaks in the action with Cage's voice-over. Most of all, this is also an excuse to see the incredible sight of the charred, flaming skull of Ghost Rider in action. As I mentioned, the movie falls short of the devilish charms of the first "Ghost Rider" and, considering the character is an anti-hero of the Marvel Universe and something of a monster, it will not appeal to those who love "The Avengers" or Spider-Man, comics and otherwise. Cage gets to show some real emotion at the end, but the film lacks the support of someone like Sam Elliott (and the mythology hardly follows the canon of the comics or the original film). For cult movie buffs and fans of "Highlander," you can't go wrong though with the appearance of Christopher Lambert. Cage defines anarchy, and anarchy defines this movie. Hell, yeah!
