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Parents' Guide to

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Crazy, violent, dumb action sequel quickly burns out.

Movie PG-13 2012 95 minutes
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 7 parent reviews

age 14+

THIS MOVIE SUCKS

I actually decided to watch this film since it's from Neveldine/Taylor, two of my favourite filmmakers, but as soon as I popped it on. I realized how dumb I was for wanting to watch it. If you hated the first one, this one is WORST. And I thought Fan4stic was bad, man this ranks up there for the worst MARVEL movie with it. Just why?!?!?!

This title has:

Too much violence
age 12+

Not a good movie, but teen Marvel fans may enjoy

Only 1 scene with implied sexual content, that's a win in my book. The CSM review is accurate, there's a scene in which the female lead, Violante Placido, allows a man to believe that he's possibly soliciting a relationship of some kind. All implied, nothing overtly stated nor shown, not even physical contact of any kind. Lots of violence, that's really what the entire movie is about - special effects and death/decay/redemption somewhere in there. Some language... Oh and lots of Nicholas Cage being overly dramatic, in the way only Nicholas Cage can be. At least our youth can learn to appreciate Nicholas Cage, right? A very light treatment of satanic rituals, not too concerning overall, as goes with the setting and the story line. Some parents may be concerned. The only thing shown are disturbing eyes turned all black; no blood, not too much weird stuff. Just fine for bored 12 year olds, if they can handle big violence, large burning objects flying around the screen, and a dude on fire eating people's souls (spoiler alert perhaps? Hope you caught that this is Ghost Rider, that's what he does).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7 ):
Kids say (23 ):

There's some gleefully twisted stuff here (for those who like that kind of thing). Johnny tries to fight off the transformation to Ghost Rider, speeding down the street, screaming and cackling with the effort; he also switches from a flaming motorcycle to an enormous flaming crane in one shot (apparently it doesn't matter what vehicle he rides). For this sequel, the Ghost Rider franchise changed directors; now we get the demented team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the boys behind Crank and Crank: High Voltage. The result is a slight improvement in style, but unfortunately, the movie still lags behind in the script and character departments.

The story -- loosely borrowed from Superman II -- is sluggish and uninspired, with several bald spots of logic, and it has a distasteful penchant for violence against women and kids. The cardboard characters never inspire any connection; Cage plays his character as a touch too crazy, though Placido is genuinely appealing.

Movie Details

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