last sunday i went to see the new Ghost Rider movie. i was dreading going because i am a pretty hardcore fan of the original Ghost Rider series and you all know how picky i can be. my brother convinced me by saying that i should just ignore the plot and the fact that nicholas cage is hideously miscast as Johnny Blaze and go and revel in seeing Ghost Rider on the big screen, brought to life and on his flaming bike.

so i went.


the director is the same guy who did Daredevil a few years back. i don't understand why they put it in his hands. his abilities at writing and directing are very marginal. the plot here was weak, the script pretty lousy and disjointed, and a needless departure from the original series on endless levels.

all that said, Ghost Rider brought to life on the big screen and on his flaming bike is pretty darn cool. but what really almost made it worth the price of admission was Sam Elliot as the caretaker. i love Sam Elliot just on principal to begin with, but here he was awesome! unfortunately i can't even find a cool picture of him to share. just take my word for it.

final analysis: even despite my bias, this is just a bad film, but visually it's got some cool stuff and if you're at all a fan, it's worth sitting through at least once.


some notes: my first encounter with Ghost Rider was in the above Marvel Team-up (i was probably about 12 or 13 years old). I was immediately hooked (a good guy who looks like that ~ !) and shortly thereafter went about collecting every appearance of the character i could find (to date, i think i am only missing a few issues of The Champions (a short-run team spin off) because it was a lame series, but otherwise i have every appearance of Johnny Blaze in Marveldom, ever (even the really rotten stuff). I also have a pile of the original original Ghost Rider (back when it was a western, with Carter Slade).

one year for my birthday, my brother made me a Ghost Rider cake (i need to find a picture of that!), but one of my best birthdays ever was more recently: my brother got me an original page of Ghost Rider art from issue no. 5 (the one page that is quite possibly my favorite ghost rider drawing ever) and a sketch, both signed by jim mooney.

i have the best brother in the world.

: D
apparently oliver stone is remaking Son of the Morning Star ~ my first reaction was: so soon? jeepers! then i realized that the gary cole version came out in 1991. i guess it's been a while (geh!) they don't make the 1991 version on dvd, which is irritating. even though the production is a wee cheesy, i love everyone in the cast and the costumes are great (even if the dead horses do have seams ~ honestly, whoever was in charge of shooting that battle sequence and put custer behind a stuffed "dead" horse with its seams showing shoulda been fired.

no word on the casting of the new film or any other details that i could find readily (or even if the project is stilla "go". i'm all for more westerns, but i wish they'd stop rehashing the same stories. we don't need anymore variations of the little big horn, or tombstone, or billy the kid (really, we don't). Unforgiven is one of the best westerns ever and it's an original script! can't we have some more of those, please? maybe this is what i get for complaining about the kitchen-sink of Into the West.

well, either way, something to look forward to, along with spielberg's lincoln movie.



little awful autie
at the bad little big horn


one of those stories about my childhood which will indicate just how big of a geek i am ~ with photos! )
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