Carnival of Cinema, Episode XX

Our recent Thunderball review is part of the 20th Carnival of Cinema over at Nehring the Edge. As always, the carnival contains a bunch of links to interesting articles and reviews about the cinema world.

On a related note, Kaboom Review will be the host for the March 30, 2007 edition of Carnival of Cinema. We’re looking forward to it!

Review: Ghost Rider

Year: 2007
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Peter Fonda

Plot
To cure his father, a carnival stunt motorcyclist makes a deal with the Devil. Many years later the Devil calls in his debt, turns the motorcyclist into the Ghost Rider, and sends him to hunt down demons that have escaped from hell.

Comments
Late in January, I watched the preview for Ghost Rider and predicted that the movie would score about 40 once I reviewed it. I think I hit the mark on many of my concerns about the film, but somehow the total sum of the parts wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Somehow, someway, Ghost Rider crawled over its problems to moderately entertain me for a couple of hours.

Don’t get me wrong: in many ways this film is awful. First and foremost, the acting and script are painful. Nicolas Cage seems lost as Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze, and never settles into the role. At times his character appears to be a total idiot. At other times it just looks like Cage forgot his lines, or wishes he were dead instead of making this movie—take a look at the nearby photo for a perfect example of this. It’s painful to watch. This may be the worst I have ever seen him act. He gets no help whatsoever from Eva Mendes, who plays Blaze’s love interest Roxanne Simpson. She consistently gave me flashbacks to Cindy Crawford in Fair Game. It’s that bad. Peter Fonda, as the devil Mephistopheles, is somnolent. The rest of the cast ranges from average to poor, with the notable exceptions of Wes Bentley, as the devil’s son Blackheart, and Sam Elliot, as the Gatekeeper. Both of these actors manage to carry a presence on screen that put them above the rest of the cast. On the whole, however, the poor acting and vapid script kill any chances the movie had to develop characters and get us more involved.

There are more problems as well. The pace of the movie never hits stride, and there are scenes that linger too long on many occasion. Just when things seem to be picking up, something happens and you find yourself waiting for the movie to get unstuck. To be honest, a lot of the pacing problems come from the uninspiring story and inability of the actors to convince you of anything. As a result, things just seem to happen as if there are on a track, and character motives feel artificial, as if the characters are actors playing roles in a movie. Oh, wait.

But just when I was convinced this movie was dropping into a fiery mess and just when I’d catch myself wondering when it was going to end, something interesting would happen. Maybe it was Ghost Rider’s flaming skull, or perhaps it was just a flash of Eva Mendes’ cleavage, or maybe it was simply the huge beer I had before the movie, but the movie would pick up again and I’d find myself entertained. There is just enough good in this movie to keep you involved.

The action scenes are well choreographed and above average. There are fights, bike rides up the sides of skyscrapers, whipping chains, and fireballs. The visual effects on the Ghost Rider and the ambient effects on the whole add quite a bit to the entertainment value of the movie, especially if you are into fire. Something for everyone here, and on the whole the action scenes are the highlight of the movie.

There are other plusses. The villains deserve praise. They reek of evil, and come replete with some snappy visual effects enhancements to improve their look. In the Babe category, we’ve got Eva Mendes, who appeared chunkier than I remembered her, but still is so hot that she can set her own photos on fire. She helps to pass the time during some of the slower scenes, which are basically all the scenes she appears in. In the Hunk category, Wes Bentley leads the way, but he doesn’t get much help.

Ghost Rider also has a tongue-in-cheek, campy, Western vibe that runs through it, and this adds some likeable charm to the movie. In particular, the Texas ghost town at the end of the movie is a brilliant accomplishment. The spooky, timeless, ethereal nature of the town raises the quality of the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Largely due to this, the final confrontation brings the movie to a satisfying close.

Overall, Ghost Rider sits firmly in the middle of the pack. It has serious problems that constantly make you want to head for the exit, but somehow the plusses keep you seated and entertained just enough to not give up on the movie. It never succeeds in pulling you in to the movie and making you care about what happens, but it can provide some decent B-grade entertainment if you are willing to overlook its significant drawbacks.

Fun Fact
According to IMDB, it took three hours to apply Nicolas Cage’s hairpiece every day.

Score
Pace: 48
Plot: 33
Action: 60
Consistent Premise: 52
Script/Quotes: 12
Characters: 48
Acting: 10
Villain: 70
Body Count: 20
Time to First Dead Body: Moderately Fast
Babes: 67
Hunks: 52
Explosions: 30
Special Effects: 60
Stunts: 48
Ending: 40

Overall: 48 (Needs beer)

Up Next: Ghost Rider

I ventured out in the aftermath of our big snowstorm to watch Ghost Rider last night. I hope to have the review up within the next couple of days.

Review: Alien vs. Predator

Year: 2004
Director: Paul Anderson
Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen
Kaboom Review Action Movie Rating: 79

Plot
Humans examine a temple frozen in polar ice, only to end up in the middle of a battle between aliens and predators.

Quick Review
On the whole—as an action movie—Alien vs. Predator does an excellent job of creating, telling, and presenting an entertaining science-fiction story. As a more traditional film it would score much lower. But AVP never tries to be more than the simple tale of some humans who get caught up in an ancient Alien vs. Predator ritual. If you go into the movie with no expectations from previous films, games, or books, I think you’ll be surprised at how enjoyable the film can be.

Full Review
Expectations play a role in every movie’s success, and Alien vs. Predator (AVP) is a movie that hit the screen with high expectations. Fans from the Alien series of movies flocked to see it. Predator fans flocked to see it. Fans of the comic book series, the games, and even the toy line came to see it. It had a fantastic opening week. And then it crashed. Reviewers ripped into it. Fans looking to see a titanic clash of Aliens and Predators were furious. Game fans and comic books fans were disillusioned. The movie was a disaster.

I, however, came to this movie with no positive expectations. I had no vision of what a clash between aliens and predators should be like, who was the tougher, who should win. All I knew about the movie was that AVP was universally considered awful. It was with some resignation that I sat down last weekend to watch.

By the end of the movie, I was blown away. AVP is a tight, fast-paced movie with some solid action. Pacing is good; the movie flies along after a sluggish start. The alien and predator fights are excellently portrayed. Special effects are clean and effective. The aliens and predators look great (although the aliens do that hissing-thing far too often). For a movie clearly focused on action, the plot is fairly substantial. For the most part, AVP stays within its premise, although there are some notable weather issues (the heroine ends the movie in Artic weather with no jacket and yet never gets cold) and a few disconnected location issues. But overall, there are a lot of positives with this movie, and they add up to make AVP highly watchable.

I have to admit, however, that I also felt a confused and concerned with my reaction: if every reviewer panned this movie and fans hated it, why am I the only one that liked it?

I think AVP failed with fans because of the incredible expectations they had for the film. Most importantly, there is no large scale fight between aliens and predators. Instead, the action in AVP focuses on a human party investigating a newly discovered pyramid frozen in Arctic ice. The action in the film is on a smaller scale, and sections of the movie fall more into the horror camp than they do the action camp. Fans of the movie must have been incredibly frustrated with the film for how it failed to deliver the ultimate alien vs. predator battle. Also, this is the first alien or predator movie not to be rated R; many fans surely felt that the bloodless action scenes were yet another way the film didn’t live up to expectations.

AVP failed with the critics because in many ways, it’s not a good film. There is next to zero character development (this is hard to do when much of your cast dies in the movie). The script limps along. The acting is generic, with Sanaa Lathan forgettable in the lead role. There is nothing groundbreaking here, nor anything particularly inspiring. The ending—although I found it to be an exciting action scene—is fairly predictable. So if you are a film critic, you pan this thing and move quickly on to the next film.

There are other negatives, too. Although traditional critics don’t evaluate this, the Babe factor and Hunk factor of the movie are on the low end. Sanaa Lathan is sandpaper, and the male side of the cast—albeit a bit improved by Raoul Bova—is on the low end as well. It doesn’t help that the movie is set in the Artic, so anything to look at is bundled up in layers of fur. Note to producers: next time, cast a beautiful woman in the lead role and put the pyramid on a tropical island!

On the whole, however—as an action movie—AVP does an excellent job of creating, telling, and presenting an entertaining science-fiction story. As a more traditional film it would score much lower. But AVP never tries to be more than the simple tale of some humans who get caught up in an ancient Alien vs. Predator ritual. If you go into the movie with no expectations from previous films, games, or books, I think you’ll be surprised at how enjoyable the film can be.

Movie Fact
AVP went from filming to completion in six and a half months—extremely short for a major studio film.

Related Reviews
Predator, Predator 2

Score
Pace: 78
Plot: 50
Action: 87
Consistent Premise: 72
Script/Quotes: 20
Characters: 83
Acting: 53
Villain: 90
Body Count: 52
Time to First Dead Body: Slow
Babes: 18
Hunks: 43
Explosions: 60
Special Effects: 86
Stunts: 50
Ending: 82