I love it when critics pan a movie because, based on my experiences, they are usually wrong. So I will take my kids to see this movie on Friday with the hopes that the excitement will have died down by then. I watched the trailer in the movie theater last weekend and this morning. The special effects look cool, and Nicholas Cage seems to fit the ghost rider character pretty well.

Motorcycle stuntman, Johnny Blaze, makes a pact with a dark force, selling his soul to save his girlfriend. When the bargain goes sour and the girl isn’t saved, Blaze is transformed, gaining raging superpowers. Based on the Marvel comic series.

Yahoo! movie raters gave this film a B rating, while another reviewer stated that this film isn’t overly violent for young viewers (5 to 10). Where the violence scale is concerned, Ghost Rider doesn’t look any worse than Batman Returns.

Since 1979, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory made international headlines with its efforts to prove that thoughts can alter the course of events. This laboratory has been an embarrassment to the mainstream scientists of Princeton University because they felt that extrasensory perception (ESP) and telekinesis weren’t “real” science.

PEAR will close its doors at the end of the month because its founder, Robert G. Jahn, believes it’s time. The laboratory’s equipment is aging and its finances are dwindling. But the deciding factor in the decision was the lack of new resources to study.

“For 28 years, we’ve done what we wanted to do, and there’s no reason to stay and generate more of the same data,” said the laboratory’s founder, Robert G. Jahn, 76, former dean of Princeton’s engineering school and an emeritus professor. “If people don’t believe us after all the results we’ve produced, then they never will.”

Source: New York Times

After his son’s death in 1918, Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton began to experiment with psychic phenomena, investigating paranormal occurrences such as rappings, psychokinesis, ectoplasms, trance states, psychic phenomena, and apparitions. He conducted his experiments under scientific conditions that he believed would minimize errors and expose hoaxes. His work became known throughout Europe as well as the United States.

The picture above is one of 700 in this paranormal photo collection, which were taken in the beginning of the 20th century. To see more, visit:

http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/hamilton.shtml

I’ll start off by stating what I liked about this movie first. I liked the usage of the black and white photography of the house as well as the use of black and white film for the first scene, which involves the brutal deaths of the family who lived there prior to the Sullivans. The fact that they kept the killer(s) out of the camera’s sight gave it a strong impact.

From there, the movie spiraled into mediocrity. Like I said in my prior post, there wasn’t any originality to the storyline or with the special effects. I knew this before I walked into the theater, so I wasn’t disappointed. The thing that frustrated me the most was the acting.

Kristen Stewart (Jess) bit her lips so often that it was a wonder they didn’t bleed. Her behavior also bothered me. Let’s say that a pack of ghosts/monsters tried to pull you down into the cellar. Would you bother calling 9-1-1, or would you pick your little brother up and leave as fast as you can? Would you be carting him around the dark house afterwards, waiting for the next inevitable attack? That’s Hollywood, though.

The parents were such dweebs that I wished they had been killed off halfway through the movie. By the end, they managed to quell their hysterical self-centeredness for the sake of their children.

Overall, The Messengers was a decent B-movie. My suggestion is to wait until the dollar-theaters start playing it.