The "Cover-Up": "Ghost Rider" Apparently Sucks?

Don't you love this age where we can tell when a studio is really nervous about a movie? It starts becoming a bit too obvious when we see promotions for it everywhere and the studio is very cautious about revealing it to critics. Normally when this happens it means the movie, more than likely, blows. Rewind to 1998 when the atrocious American "Godzilla" (GINO) came out. Promotions were everywhere. As it got closer and closer to the time of the film's release commercials were seen on almost every channel, on every program’s break. Taco Bell had the infamous "Here lizard, lizard..." campaign. Bus signs and building drops saying, "His foot is as long as this bus" or "He's as tall as this building” were all over the place. Super Bowl Ads. New Year Ads. Name it and this awful movie had it! What did it amount too? Nothing, it flopped. Well here we are again, 2007, and not a lot has changed. You can always tell when a movie is probably going to suck because you start seeing television commercials for it non-stop and each one is different. Film studios do this when they feel they have a flop on their hands. The last few weeks before their potential flop is released they will dish out another million or so dollars to fill the minds of people and get them curious enough. "Ghost Rider" has fallen in to this hell and it makes me wonder, if it didn't work for "Godzilla" almost a decade ago, why would it work now?

I've watched a lot of TV this week thanks to "24" and the remarkable return of "Lost" and often while I'm working I'll have it on for atmosphere. The one preview I remember constantly coming on was "Ghost Rider". Now, since this is from the director of the atrocious "Daredevil" (Mark S. Johnson) I already figured this movie was going to be horrid. But after noticing all the previews for the movie I started thinking, "Wow. This thing must be REALLY bad." Sony Pictures has been pulling out the stops for "Ghost Rider" and not just with television commercials but billboard ads as well. A commercial with some insurance company tie in has aired enough times to make me giggle. What does insurance have to do with "Ghost Rider"? Is it from all the fires his motorcycle causes?

The argument against this is that lots of previews don't always mean the production company is scared. For example some movies will release "exclusive" footage with a television program due to all the hype. "Spider-Man 2" did this mostly to appeal to fans before it was released and the third movie has already done this. So is the attitude toward “Ghost Rider” fear or hype? Well, for starters hype doesn't normally spend too much time and money on tie-ins with other products or companies. If the "hyped" films are tied in with something it normally isn't advertised much. "Ghost Rider", on the other hand, wanted people to know it was tied in with an insurance company. Meanwhile, "Spider-Man 3" is tied in with Fruit Rollups and the only reason I knew that is because I went to Wal-Mart.

Furthermore, Sony Pictures is not screening "Ghost Rider" for critics. For those who don't know, screenings are events shown only for critics and they happen a week, sometimes more, before a film is released. This is done so critics have a chance to write an article on the film before it's released and tell people whether it’s a hit or miss. Normally studios don't allow screenings when they think it will receive a lot of bad reviews and hurt the film's performance at the box-office. Not many people will heed to a critics' warnings though. Many people, including myself, will read that a film has received generally negative reviews and still go see it. But if a film studio won't even screen the movie, it must be a real catastrophe.

This is common with big budget films. A company lays down the money to make a movie, they go a direction they think would be favorable and stick with it in hopes it will work. But if they see the final product and think they spent a great deal of money on crap, they'll do everything they can to cover it up and get as many butts in to the theatre to see the film before word gets out. Of course, I don't know what possessed Sony to use Mark S. Johnson for this movie. The best-case scenario is the movie might actually do well and the studio might use him again. But unless that happens Sony is probably not going to be in favor of Johnson doing any more projects anytime soon-- And that's something I'm in favor of as well.

UPDATE: A reader had informed me that it is apparently being screened this Thursday. However that means the Friday edition reviews will probably be rather sparse. One has to wonder why it's being screened so late though. Perhaps late post-production delays. (Which is absurd since the movie was suppose to be out last year.) And why so many sources say the film is not being screened is in question as well. Overall I can't say it boads well for the film as a whole. This whole miscommunication is awfully muddled in negativity that's for sure. And one more thing, I've seen, at the very least, 6 ads on television for this movie since I posted this. Kind of funny in any case.