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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Gho(a)st(ly) Rider


It was pretty fitting that a movie about a hero who sells his soul to the devil lacked that very thing - soul. Absolutely soul less, this Nicolas Cage flick turned out to be one more variation of good vs. evil theme that has been made innumerable times. It lacked everything that a big budget hollywood flick has and yet turned out to be one in the end. Typically, giving a movie an open ending is one way all hollywood directors tell us that they will make a sequel, God save us if the first movie makes some money. This leads to another mindless sequel being made, which hopefully, I will avoid.

Being a bike enthusiast, I was inevitably drawn towards this movie that promised to be a treat for Harley lovers. That is was and pretty much that was what else it was. The movie was another variation of the good vs. evil theme - nothing wrong in that, but the evil here was like 4 strange, gothic looking people, three of whom are destroyed pretty effortlessly by our flaming skull. Flaming skull, is incidentally our hero, Nicolas Cage, who for most of the second half disappears to make way for a guy with a flaming skull for a head. The lack of plot is pretty much evident by the way the director crams in stunts or sfx or scenes of Eva Mendes being gobbled up by Cage.

The casting is also not at its most imaginative. The couple next to me kept cooing about how cool the younger versions of the hero and heroine looked. They were way better than Cage and Eva Mendes. Eva Mendes is beautiful and all that, but she should probably stick to modelling. I would rather see her sculpted body rather than her acting prowess. Nicolas Cage looked jaded, he probably needed to look the part, but I thought he looked a bit too careworn for a cool stuntman. The comedy was forced, the punchlines of characters were cheesy and corny to say the least. I flinched a number of times and I think so would've Cage, hadnt he required some quick shopping money. Mainly because, I dont think any major hero (if he still thinks of himself that way) would agree to disappear for half of the movie and be replaced by a flaming skull.

All in all, a pretty disappointing movie. I think Im equally to be blamed for having major expectations from a movie that was made from a not so good comic series and one that was released a full six months later than when it was actually supposed to hit the screen. If the parents dont think much of their child, what business did I have to think tht world of the same!

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