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Ghost Rider
Sony Pictures Releasing

Ghost Rider reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 35 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.6 out of 10
based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 110 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for horror violence and disturbing images

Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue, and Sam Elliott

Superstar motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Cage) strikes a deal with the vile Mephistopheles for the most precious of commodities, his immortal soul. Now Johnny Blaze is forever destined to ride night after night as the host to the powerful supernatural entity known as the Ghost Rider. (Sony Pictures)


GENRE(S): Action  |  Fantasy  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Mark Steven Johnson (also screen story)  
DIRECTED BY: Mark Steven Johnson  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: June 12, 2007 
Theatrical: February 16, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
This time out, writer and director Mark Steven Johnson has bounced back with a movie so full of camp spirit it should come with tents and a marshmallow roast.
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60
Film Threat Zach Haddad
As a film on its own, Ghost Rider isn't amazing, but it is definitely a decent popcorn flick. As an entry into the superhero genre, Ghost Rider is only a couple notches above the "X-Men: The Last Stand."
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60
Empire William Thomas
A blockbuster that offers enough quirky pleasures to feel fresh and unpredictable.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
What sticks is a colorful, mesmerizing, at times breathtaking mess - it's like watching a bonfire on acid - and what slides to the floor is, well, you probably don't want to know.
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50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
With its cheesy special effects and blasphemously imbecilic storyline, one wonders whether the celluloid version of Ghost Rider will find an audience.
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50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The story doesn't arc so much as unspool like a stretch of desert highway, but the Ghost Rider is such a powerful amalgam of hot-rod iconography that this is still fairly watchable.
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50
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
iInstead of a buoyant, imaginative superhero movie on the order of Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" films or Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns," we get a lumbering, paint-by-numbers origin story.
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50
Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona
It's entertaining to watch ol' hothead do his thing with his fiery chain and his "penance stare," but for a comic book with a rebel spirit, the adaptation feels obediently conventional.
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42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
So much flatter than it was on the comic-book page.
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40
Village Voice Nathan Lee
Johnson's a hardcore, dime-store fanboy, not a revisionist-minded fauxteur like Christopher Nolan or Bryan Singer, and his giddy, goofball affection for the material sustained my goodwill until his underdeveloped grasp of form and rhythm let it slip away.
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38
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Ghost Rider is the kind of movie that's great stupid fun as long as someone else is buying the tickets.
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38
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Marvel-man Mark Steven Johnson, who wrote and directed "Daredevil" (2003) and scripted "Elektra" (2005), continues to demonstrate the wrong way to make comic book movies: Make sure special effects overwhelm the characters, let campy mannerisms go unchecked and be sure dialogue is declaimed rather than spoken.
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33
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Cage has some fun with the role, making Blaze a kind of Zen Elvis with a strange fixation on Carpenters songs, but the film's priorities lie with the digital effects and not the story, and even the effects aren't that hot.
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30
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
This dissociation leaves the supporting cast to its own devices, with no one suffering more than the appealing Eva Mendes as Johnny's true love, Roxanne. If Ms. Mendes ever finds a director willing to allow her to perform with her shirts fully buttoned, there will be no stopping her.
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30
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
All of [Cages's] natural charisma is unable to compensate for the plodding narrative and thin characterizations.
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30
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Has all the sugar-injected horsepower of a 6-year-old on a Big Wheel.
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25
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Ghost Rider has everything you don't want from your superhero movie, including lack of logic, boring action scenes, bad acting in the supporting performances, a brutally slow 114-minute running time and cringe-worthy dialogue.
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25
New York Post Kyle Smith
The movie's last words are "This is how legends are born." Make that stillborn, because when the makers of this one pitch the sequel, the only answer is going to be, "Ah HA HA HA!"
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25
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The real evil in this flick isn't Blackheart (Wes Bentley), the devil's son, it's the soul-sucking devil of modern cinema: Hollywood formula.
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20
Variety Robert Koehler
Though the superhero's fans have long awaited his close-up, the Devil's bounty hunter -- complete with a burning skull for a head and a killer motorcycle in flames --materializes in a movie that never measures up to his infernal potential.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 110 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
I would give it a 6, but Sam Elliot is great in the movie.

Peter C. gave it a0:
I really want the few hours I spent watching this movie back. They were the worst hours of my life.

Mike R gave it a7:
I don't follow the comic book of Ghost Rider.The dialog and acting was decent.But the action was awesome from start to finish.Nicolas was decent playing Ghost Rider but I'm not sure if any other actor could have done better.I don't think Johnny Blaze is an easy character to do.Yes the movie did try to be serious but ended up being a little cheesy but the action is where the movie really shined.This movie is definitely a fun popcorn movie and nothing special.

Robby H gave it a2:
It gets a 2 instead of a 0 because it was so bad as to actually be kind of funny. I couldn't help but laugh when Nic Cage slowly extended his flaming finger, dramatically, just to strike a pose before answering a yes/no question.

[Anonymous] gave it a2:
Thank god I didn't watch this in theaters. I got this on dvd and that was still a money grab!

Clint H. gave it an8:
A very well done movie. It's definitely worth a look.

Wade F. gave it a9:
A Hell of a ride. Cool Fx, good story, and good comic book adaptation.

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