The Ghost Rider: Just Another Dusty Cabin Standoff?

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s-style westerns that don't bother with fancy camera work or modern pacing, maybe. But if you get bored when people spend ten minutes just talking about a deck of cards, stay away. This is strictly for the folks who want to see guys in big hats squinting at each other in the desert.

Honestly, the whole setup feels a bit like The Lucky Horseshoe but with more grudges and less room to breathe. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s just trying to get from the jailbreak to the final shootout without breaking the bank.

The vibe is... dusty.

There's this one moment where Jim Bullard is hiding out in a cabin, and the tension is supposed to be thick enough to cut with a knife. Instead, it feels like the actors are just waiting for the lunch bell to ring. Classic, right?

The pacing is all over the place. One minute we’re talking about framing someone for prison time, and the next we’re obsessing over an ace of spades that shouldn't even be in the deck. It’s the kind of plot hole that makes you wonder if the screenwriter had a long lunch break.

Bits and pieces

• The cabin scenes go on forever. Seriously, I could have made a sandwich by the time the next guy walked through the door.
• The Rascobs are exactly the kind of bad guys you’d expect—lots of growling and not much else.
• There is a distinct lack of actual riding for a movie titled The Ghost Rider. Mostly, it’s just standing around looking tough.
• I kept thinking about the pacing in The Canadian, which felt like a marathon compared to this.

It’s not as chaotic as The Cohens and the Kellys in Africa, but it has that same feeling of being thrown together on a budget. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you that this deck of cards business is the height of suspense.

Maybe it is, if you squint hard enough. Or if you've seen too many of these and your brain has turned to mush. 🤠 Either way, it’s a quick watch if you’re curious about old-school western tropes.