Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance

I don't know what the critical consensus was on this sequel, but I liked it far more than the first. The climax is underwhelming, probably because the producers just ran out of money. The end titles essentially being block font letters gives this theory credence.

But the casting doesn't suck. Idris Elba is in this (but the movie gets demerits for killing him off). Ciaran Hinds replaces Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles (here called Rourke) and while he's not great, neither was Fonda, so it made no sense to cast that big a name. And frankly, I don't think that Nicholas Cage has grown into the role, but he's stopped doing the laconic, deadpan, jokey Elvis impression he's best known for from Wild At Heart. That was the main problem of the first movie, and while Cage's performance is shaky in places, he takes things a little more seriously, which helps.

It's also cool to see that any vehicle Johnny is in can become the Rider. The scene of Johnny turning a giant tractor and building into that was awesome and probably blew through the entire budget for one scene.

Anthony Head has a small role at the beginning.

This wasn't great. But it was diverting, and unlike the first one, didn't actually suck. ***1/2.