Ghost Rider Pretty Much a Joke

Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star, Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

• Ben Rawson-Jones agrees at DigitalSpy: It's "a distinct improvement on its dire predecessor, although that is hardly a blistering recommendation of its quality."
• Writing in Empire, Helen O'Hara isn't so sure. She calls Ghost Rider "less a film than a tattoo that lasts 90 minutes," noting that "it’s neither as funny nor as balls-out fierce as it should be."
• The film is "a water-treading sequel offering just enough kooky color to keep less-discerning funnybook fans occupied," notes John Defore at the Hollywood Reporter. "Nicolas Cage spends stretches of the film on autopilot while waiting for scenes he deems worthy of his particular brand of crazy."

(More Nicolas Cage stories.)