Thus, I present to you Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, an international production that seems to have been created for the sole purpose of fleecing as many foreign investors as possible. I loved the first Ghost Rider, feeling that Cage's crazy eyes alone were worth the price of admission. In this iteration, Cage's Johnny Blaze lives in a place labelled "Eastern Europe," but which could only be Bulgaria (Which leads one to wonder, why not have the subtitle simply read Bulgaria? Would that be too confusing?). He's a hermit, fighting his ghost rider - hood like a deadly addiction. But then Idris Elba shows up to make him a deal. I'm here to tell you, when Idris Elba offers you a deal, you take it.
The deal? Oh, it's it's some mumbo-jumbo about an ancient prophecy (one of the laziest screenwriting tropes of them all), a sacrificial child who must be saved, and the Devil (Ciaran Hinds, having a great time). Did I mention that the child has a fetching mother with a cute Bulgarian accent? Or that her ex is a demon of decay who can only eat twinkies (Hey, I laughed.)?
Why bother with all this setup? Well, two hours of Cage in a studio making crazy eyes at the camera sounds great in theory, but a little narrative structure, some scenery, and a few gags make for a much more interesting mix. And all this does its job, but let's face it: you came for the id. You came for the crazy eyes, and Cage delivers in spades. He doesn't overact so much as überact (I'm telling you, when you can make Christopher Lambert look like a restrained thespian, you're on to something.). His Johnny Blaze carries the crazy just below the surface. When it starts to break through and transform him into the Rider, the film uses a clever combination of (first-rate) CGI and no-limits acting to give us the joy of letting go and letting our fires burn.
Bottom line: this movie is fantastic. Even if it only served as an excuse for actors you like to ham it up, it'd work. The fact that it lets the great Nicholas Cage cut loose in a symphony of 'splosions and loud music makes it that much better. I dare you to watch Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance without a great big smile plastered across your face. This is an exuberant, wacky, gloriously unrestrained time at the movies. I give it two big, burning, skeletal thumbs up.
