We watched the BluRay of Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. It's the 2011 sequel to the 2007 Ghost Rider. It's got Nic Cage back as Johnny Blaze and it's directed by the Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. It was mostly written by David S Goyer writer of Dark City, Blade and The Dark Knight. The critics don't like it much and there are a ot of haters on the IMDb but I'm on the side of the folks who mostly liked the movie. It's a bit twitchy and nervous but that's the style of the two directors. It looks pretty good and there's some good action. I especially liked the giant digging machine that Ghost Rider lights up with hell fire. He uses it to destroy some bad guys. The story has the devil on earth in human form. He had a son with a woman, one of his many deals, and he plans to use that superpowered form to pour his soul into. The body he's using is breaking down from all the evil inside and it's not long for the world. That transfer would kill the kid's soul and mind but what the does the devil care. The kid's mom tries to save him but she's not doing to well. A priest tires to help and eventually Johnny Blaze gets drawn into the fray. The priest promises to remove the curse if Johnny will help him. The kid is brought to head priest Christopher Lambert and his ancient cliff dwelling monastery. Their plan is to kill the kid, locking up the priest and Johnny to keep them from interfering. Things go poorly as the evil henchmen of the devil attack and take the boy. After Johnny looses his curse he still helps the mom and the priest in their effort to save the boy. They get captured and near the grim end of things the boy, rebeling against daddy, gives Johnny his power back again. This time he channels the fallen angel part of the Ghost Rider spirit and his flames turn blue. Pretty straight up story that moves along fairly quickly through the 95 minute movie. Not great but something I'd watch again. It doesn't take itself to seriously. At one point we see Ghost Rider pissing fire. That made me laugh.
The Donnie Yen movie 14 Blades was next. There wasn't as much to laugh about in the 2010 movie by Daniel Lee. I've only seen 2 others of his 11 movies. The 1996 Jet Li picture Black Mask, not a favorite, and Three Kingdoms: Resurresction Of The Dragon which I didn't care that much for. In 14 Blades Donnie is the head of the secret police, the Brocade Guards, and he's to assassinate a guy who's leading a rebellion. The Brocade Guards used to work for the Emperor but now the Eunuchs control them. Those Eunich's were real dicks and limp or not they are a pain the ass for everyone. The whole country suffered from their evil plotting. The Eunuchs are in league with Prince Quin (Sammo Hung) to move on the Emperor. To their aid they have stolen the Emperor's seal and they are planning to affix it to an order that will give them more power. Handy when they sieze the throne. There are a lot of people interested in the seal and they are a blood thirsty lot. There's a bit of ill fated romance mixed in with the sword fighting but it just slows things down. The fights are fair to middling and sadly most everyone dies. It was a bit long. Not something I would put on the list to pick up now that I've seen it.
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