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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 8, No. 9 |
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GHOST RIDER |
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Nicholas Cage's career
may be going up in smoke
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
Already a dozen years have gone by since Nicholas Cage stepped way up into the big leagues of Hollywood stars by winning an Oscar for his searing performance as a doomed drunk in "Leaving Las Vegas." It still lingers in my memory as one of the great performances in screen history.
But that was then and this is now. I've just seen Nicholas Cage's latest film, "Ghost Rider," in which he plays a guy who bursts into flames every night, climbs on his blazing motorcycle from Hell and goes to work as a bounty hunter for Satan.
Nick, baby, I think it's time for a long, soulful talk with your agent.
Sure, it's okay for an Oscar-winning star to do the occasional summer action movie to further display his versatility while introducing himself to a new generation of young viewers. I mean, have we forgotten that Robert DeNiro played Frankenstein's monster after winning two Oscars? Or that perhaps the greatest actor of the 20th century, the late Lord Laurence Olivier, played Dr. Van Helsing in a "Dracula" flick?
But this is definitely not summer when moviegoers expect to see lots of explosions and special effects on screen in movies that let us escape from our dull, humdrum lives. This is winter--the time for thought-provoking films and theaters with good heating systems. It's not the time for movies so bad that they inspire us to escape from the theater and rush back to our dull, humdrum lives.
"Ghost Rider" isn't in the league of Frankenstein or Dracula. It's not even in the league of "Curucu, Beast of the Amazon." Sitting through "Ghost Rider" makes an adult feel like he's been dragged back, kicking and screaming, at least two generations in sophistication. If the same thing happens to any teenagers who buy tickets, they may emerge from the theater with a puzzling desire to start wearing diapers again.
Yes, "Ghost Rider" is that bad. It is so lame that it reeks. What it does for Nicholas Cage's career isn't the question. Rather one must ask, "What will it do to Mr. Cage's career?"
As "Johnny Blaze," a daring stunt motorcycle daredevil, Cage just has to look fit enough to not fall off his bike before the stunt man replaces him for the action scenes. To his credit, Cage looks lean and mean. He seems to be in pretty darn good shape these days. As for the acting challenges, I'd say they consist of maybe two dozen smirks, seven or eight double-takes and a hungy look in his eye whenever his over-developed leading lady enters a scene. Cage is equal to all that.
What he isn't equal to is controlling the mirth that seems to want to crawl into every expression. I suspect that means he was having the devil of a time keeping a straight face while filming ensued, especially on those occasions when somebody comes into a scene and asks him, "Do you smell something burning?"
Cage has that look on his face that suggests he'd love to say, "Hey, stupid, don't you realize my whole body was aflame just a few minutes ago and my bike was a four-alarmer?"
Actors should be expected to control any contempt they may feel for the movie they're in, although, in this case, Cage and his co-stars can be excused.
Some of you who may be thinking, "Ghost Rider" is based on a comic book, so what does he expect? This is a tongue-in-cheek movie, dude!"
I accept that. But the "Spider Man" and "X-Men" movies are based on comic book concepts, yet somehow suck you into that make believe world where you can readily accept all the fantasy stuff. Like those two franchises, "Ghost Rider" comes from the Marvel Comics stable of superheroes. But "Ghost Rider" is a comic book concept from the early 1950s that was updated for modern readers and, like the remake of 1940s superhero "Daredevil," it doesn't work.
When I was an adolescent, "Ghost Rider" was a western comic book, no doubt inspired by composer Stan Jones' 1949 song "Riders in the Sky," which became a mega-hit by recording star Vaughn Monroe. It told about "ghost riders" cursed to chase "the devil's herd" of spirit cattle across "an endless sky."
In the comic book update, Johnny Blaze sells his soul to the devil in return for Satan sparing the life of Blaze's stunt cyclist father, who's dying of cancer. In return, Johnny has to ride the range every night, rounding up stray souls for Satan and dragging them back to Hell. He does it riding his devil cycle, which has flaming tires that lay down a path of fire wherever it goes. The Ghost Rider himself is bathed in flames and has a bleached white skull for a head. He carries a long length of heavy chain which he uses like a whip or a lasso to round up souls.
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Nicholas Cage as The Ghost Rider on his flaming motorcyle, but it's probably just a digital stunt man. |
In the movie, The Ghost Rider battles Satan's misbehaving son, who has rounded up a small gang of lost souls and hopes to use them to take over the dark regions of Earth. He wants Johnny Blaze to find a scroll of lost soul names that was stolen from Satan a hundred years or so earlier and turn it over to him.
To play Satan, the producers of "Ghost Rider" give us one of the year's great movie in-jokes by casting Peter Fonda, the legendary star of the all-time great biker movie, "Easy Rider." Since Fonda played a drug dealer who was killed at the end of that 1969 movie, we can assume he wound up in Hell and, with his natural leadership ability and the Fonda name, eventually assumed power there.
They also throw a bone to us old-time "Ghost Rider" readers by making the original Ghost Rider a character in the movie, played by veteran western star Sam Elliott. He becomes Johnny's "spiritual" adviser and gets to ride against Satan one last time, astride his own flaming horse, to the final showdown in a desert "ghost" town.
"Ghost Rider" might have at least impressed me with its special effects--like the scenes where Cage rides his blazing bike right up the side of a skyscraper--if they hadn't made the mistake of showing the trailers for "Spider Man 3" before "Ghost Rider" started. That has eye-popping effects while "Ghost Rider" seems ho-hum in that department.
Where does Nicholas Cage go from here? Well, I seriously doubt there will be a "Ghost Rider 2," so maybe, if he likes this career trend he's on, he should look into doing a remake of "Fire Maidens of Outer Space." He's already been to the top with his Oscar, so now he may be ready to try hitting the bottom.
©2007 by Ron Miller. This column first posted Feb. 26, 2007.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
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