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Saturday, February 18, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 3-D

When You Ride With This Rider, You Ride With Disaster


A visual effects moment from "Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 3-D", starring Nicolas Cage. 
Sony/Columbia Pictures

    

by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Saturday, February 18
, 2012

It's
been official for some time now: Nicolas Cage, Oscar-winning actor, is the patron saint of camp.  In Neveldine/Taylor's "Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 3-D", which opened in the U.S. and Canada yesterday without prior press screenings, Mr. Cage amps up the camp while alternately making the most of poor dialogue ("many times I've tried to suppress the Ghost Rider but tonight I need him").  Such lines are spoken with such a grim solemnity you believe that Mr. Cage is in on this joke of a movie.

"Spirit Of Vengeance" sees Johnny Blaze (Mr. Cage) incognito in Eastern Europe though not for long.  He must find the boy who's been cursed by Blaze's suit-and-tie nemesis Roark (Ciaran Hinds) so that Blaze can have Ghost Rider removed from him for good.  Moreau (Idris Elba), a seer of sorts, advises Blaze to tread lightly.  The filmmakers don't however, directing this "Ghost Rider" sequel with the kind of reckless abandon and irritating jump-cuts that worked in "Crank" but don't fit here. 

Stylistically "Spirit Of Vengeance" annoys with its continuous light array circles and irises numbing almost as much as the sledgehammer treatment Michael Bay delivers.  One thing this movie has going for it though are its rather impressive visual effects, which replicate the comic book admirably and vividly, especially in 3-D, which otherwise does little to enhance the visuals.  The effects are particularly good in the film's second half, by which time any semblance of a story has been jettisoned.

In Mr. Cage's hands what should have been an outrage is actually a cartoonish and hilariously foolish film, what with the actor's hammy theatrics as he overemphasizes lines and syllables to such a degree that the film becomes a guilty pleasure.  "If you don't tell me... then I'm gonna let him...AA-OUT-TAH!", Mr. Cage giddily enunciates, threatening to unleash Ghost Rider as the visual effects crackle and flicker.  Mr. Cage is a pure preacher of sermon, literal fire and brimstone, as he tries to get bad guys to give him information needed to end his curse. 

Several audience members (including myself) laughed continuously with Mr. Cage and at the film, and then sometimes at Mr. Cage in serious moments as he uttered the film's putrid lines.  Likely to be a cult hit among fanboys in some way shape or form, "Spirit Of Vengeance" isn't as awful as it could have been but it's pretty darn close.

"Spirit Of Vengeance" gets to be even more silly in its final half hour, with a séance better suited to the masked ball in "Eyes Wide Shut".  Though a vehicle from Marvel's stable, too many characters look like people from other movies, including a villain who is brought back to life as a white-haired man who resembles those white-dreadlocked twins in "Matrix Reloaded".  "Spirit Of Vengeance" is comedy unlimited, and if you can look past the pathetic excuse for a film it is and the obsession with the Ghost Rider urinating fire, then consider yourself entertained and lucky.  But that Ghost Rider?  He definitely needs to see a doctor for some antibiotics, if nothing else.

With: Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth, Fergus Riordan, Anthony Head, Jacek Koman, Spencer Wilding, Christian Iacob, Vincent Regan, Christopher Lambert.

"Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 3-D" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for intense sequences of action and violence, some disturbing images, and language.  The film's running time is one hour and 36 minutes. 


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