Ghost rider and the pursuit of happyness

Had the pleasure of having an extremely rare “double movie Sunday” last weekend. Two flicks in the space of 24 hours. There might be people who’ve done more but in Nyscha’s life, 2 movies in a day is definitely talk-worthy and most certainly blog-worthy.

That morning at 11, Fred and I enthusiastically waited in line to see Ghost Rider. We’d been wanting to see it since forever and were finally glad we were getting to see it. But the joy didn’t last too long.

The movie was L-A-M-E. No matter what means the director employed to make it worth a watch, every scene just fell flat one after another right from the start. The movie is about a young stunt-biker, Johnny Blaze, who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for curing his father’s cancer. The devil then returns much later to ask an older Blaze to hunt down Blackheart (devils’ son) and destroy him. To complicate matters, Blaze’s old flame Roxanne turns up and reignites his hots for her.

The actor who played young Blaze seemed rather indifferent to his role. His emoting just didn’t come across. The younger version of Roxanne wore a strange, ill suited short dress that made me groan. Little did I know that the older version (played by Eva Mendes) would turn up in extremely figure-hugging, circulation-restricting clothes later on in the movie. The woman was annoying. She kept twitching and swinging her hips in an exaggerated fashion in a desperate bid to look saucy and enticing. Oh and not to forget her shirts that seemed to have buttons beginning from the upper reaches of the abdomen. She would’ve put our dear Pam Anderson to shame. All in all, every time she came on screen, she made me want to put my fingers through my eyes, all the way to my brain and swirl it around.

Nicholas Cage (Johnny Blaze’s older version) and Sam Elliot (played the caretaker) were the best in my opinion. Cage gets under the skin of the character with ease and one doesn’t have to work too hard to imagine him to be stunt-biker in Texas. I, personally found the parts where he changes into the ghost rider, pretty convincing. Darn good job. Sam Elliot does his bit rather well too. Both bring charisma to their respective characters.

If you’re looking for a convincing storyline, don’t cos there is none. The special effects were decent, though. Every time the bike changed into ghost rider’s machine, I couldn’t help grinning and feeling an odd little boy excitement well up in me. The scene where Blaze discovers that the caretaker is actually his predecessor and cheekily says “Lets ride” was corny but left me grinning from ear to ear.

Talking about dialogues, I’m pretty sure my 5 year old niece can write more sensible stuff. I mean how in the world can stuff like “he may have my soul but he’ll never have my spirit” be included without an intention to make the audience moan and slap their foreheads. Miserable dialogues.

If I were to rate the movie on a scale of 5, I’d grudgingly give it a 2 ; 1 for the special effects which kept me in the hall for 2 hours and 1 for Cage and Elliot’s prowess in acting. And I would banish Eva Mendes from Hollywood altogether. Sheesh.



That evening I came home and watched ‘The pursuit of happyness’ with Amma on dvd.

The movie is brilliant.

Its no candyfloss crap about how the protagonist gets whatever he wants within the space of one frame to another without any obvious effort. The real life story about Christopher Gardner, the movie is down-to-earth and heartbreakingly real.

In the movie, Will Smith plays Christopher Gardner, who is a single father struggling to make ends meet. The man is not dumb or useless. In fact the one aspect of the character that shines through the entire movie is his intelligence and fiercely stubborn will. Not to mention his patience with his rather unhappy wife and his little son played by Smith’s son in reality, Jaden.

Sometimes one finds oneself with all the right capabilities and traits only to find that the right situations to make use of those capabilities eludes one everytime. This movie is about how Christopher Gardner went from being the frustrated salesman of a not-very-popular medical scanner to a stock broker after fighting against odds repeatedly. The key word being repeatedly.

Will Smith’s acting is par excellence. Wearing a constant worried expression on his face, he efficiently plays the part of a father who roams the streets looking for a place to stay for the night while his young son hangs on to his hand and tells jokes that he scarcely realizes his father isn’t listening to. Jaden is a natural. Nobody could have played the part of the child better than him. It was just right. Never under performing, never going over the top either.

There are numerous touching scenes, the most tear-jerking one of which is the part where Gardner and his son spend the night locked up in the bathroom of a station because they’ve nowhere else to go. It shows Smith holding the child close, while tears stream down his face endlessly, when someone bangs on the door from outside. Another one shows Smith holding his son tight in his arms in a church, terribly guilty for having yelled at the child minutes before.

Gardner’s character comes across as an immensely loving and sensitive father, from the scenes where he stubbornly asks his wife to leave the child behind when she leaves, to the part where he tells the child never to let anyone else tell him what to do.

I could cite a million other scenes that I loved in the movie. But its best understood when watched. Wonderful movie and definitely a feather in the hat for first time English movie director Gabriele Muccino who had previously directed Italian movies.

I rate it a 4.5 on 5. Don’t miss it