[REC]3

Trailer Alerts

Trailer For GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE Suggest Nic Cage May Need Some Antibiotics

by Todd Brown, August 19, 2011 8:05 PM


GhostRider2Poster.jpg
Dear Nic: While I don't speak from experience I've been told by those in the know that if you're pissing fire you should probably see a doctor. I'm just sayin'.

The directors of Crank take over Marvel's flame headed biker franchise for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the sequel to a movie that made okay money despite nobody really seeming to like it. Can they give the story the kick it needs? Well, they got Idris Elba on board, which is always a good move, but despite the generally positive reaction to the freshly released trailer I'm thinking probably not. The action is repetitive even in this short clip and, really, once you get over the fact that the guy's head is a flaming skull all you're really left with is some dodgy CGI and a limited range of tricks you can pull with an equally flaming chain.

Nicolas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze in Columbia Pictures' and Hyde Park Entertainment's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. In the successor to the worldwide hit Ghost Rider, Johnny - still struggling with his curse as the devil's bounty hunter - is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when he is recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the devil (Ciaran Hinds). At first, Johnny is reluctant to embrace the power of the Ghost Rider, but it is the only way to protect the boy - and possibly rid himself of his curse forever.
Considering that Nicolas Cage flopped badly in Drive Angry - which is actually a hugely entertaining film that was blessed with a far superior marketing campaign to this - with its somewhat similar storyline I was a skeptic before this trailer released and I remain one now. What do you think? It's online now at Apple.



5 Comments

user-pic

I like the trailer. And I'll give it a try.

user-pic

Huh? The marketing campaign for Ghost Rider 2 hasn't even kicked off yet besides this trailer so I don't see the point in comparing it to Drive Angry. I didn't bother seeing the first GR because it looked so dismal (not a fan of Mark Steven Johnson) but this trailer absolutely sells me on the sequel. It looks like a lot of fun.

user-pic

I think I'm with you HKFantatic, this trailer makes me smile.
And that shot of Idris flying off his motorcycle and spinning in mid-air to shoot at the car...besides having some insane wire removal involved with it tickles my cinema funny bone.
BTW: Even with 30 seconds of nothing but graphics on the front end, this trailer has more that says, "Ghost Rider" than the whole 90+ minutes of the Steven Johnson flick, your missing nothing by giving that one a pass.

user-pic

They're both hero from hell road movies, HKFanatic. The points of comparison are pretty obvious.

The bigger concern on this, though, is how many people were turned off by the first one and won't come to this as a result. Sequels generally draw less in the first place (there are exceptions but this is the case the large majority of the time) and when the first one was a bad film that made money only because the title drew hardcore fans on opening weekend ... it's not hard to see what's likely going to happen.

You see it in music all the time: When a big name band releases a bad album it doesn't really hurt the sales of that record because fans grab it early before they know it's bad. But that record sours the experience and when they next record comes out the numbers plunge because you don't get that 'must buy' rush on the release date.

Between the first film being bad, Nic Cage being unable to draw flies these days, and Cage having just starred in a similarly themed movie that tanked badly despite actually being really good, the signs aren't positive. Only thing it's got going for it is that it's directed by the guys who made the Crank movies, but those did crap business, too. They cut the budget back on this one - down to $75 mil from $110 on the first - but I still don't think they're going to make it back.

user-pic

Your forgetting one crucial box office element: The Lambert Factor!
The fact that Christopher Lambert is in this AND apparently still chopping people's heads off makes this must see viewing to me.
I mean come on what says box office draw more than the star of Knight Moves and Mean Guns!
Also he's back in monk robes, iT worked for the first Mortal Kombat after all! I'm telling you this one HAS a sleeper box office SMASH all over it.


Leave a comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails