Armond White Thinks GHOST RIDER: SOV Was Better Than ZERO DARK THIRTY

Armond White Thinks GHOST RIDER: SOV Was Better Than ZERO DARK THIRTY

Well, the movie has at least one fan! The notoriously contrarian (and downright odd imo) critic has posted his annual "better than list", and seems to have seen quite a bit more depth in the fan-blasted CBM sequel than anyone else..

By MarkCassidy - Jan 11, 2013 07:01 AM EST
Filed Under: Other
Source: New York Press

Armond White is always good for a few headlines - and many believe that's the whole point of his shtick. I don't know if he is just looking for attention, or if he actually is delusional enough to believe the things he writes, but it's always good for a giggle one way or the other. White has posted his "better than list", which isn't too OTT for the most part (I even agree with him on one or two) but there are a couple of glaring exceptions. It seems Mr White is a big fan of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's mess of a sequel to Ghost Rider, even going so far as to draw comparisons with Katherine Bigelow's gripping (though admittedly slightly overrated) Zero Dark Thirty..



Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Taken 2 > Zero Dark Thirty
Neveldine-Taylor and Olivier Megaton revealed the post-9/11 zeitgeist in genre tropes, while Bigelow reduced the zeitgeist to an enigmatic comic strip, a “mission accomplished” delusion.


I must have missed the post-9/11 zeitgeist in Ghost Rider: SOV, but then I did only see it once and was probably too distracted by Nic Cage's tremendous performance to notice. Click the link back to The New York Press below to read White's list in full.









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manymade1
manymade1 - 1/11/2013, 7:36 AM
Guess everybody has a right to an opinion. Just so happens, his is crap.
jessepostal
jessepostal - 1/11/2013, 7:38 AM
All depends what kind of movies you like. Obviously sov isn't anything for the books but I thought it was fun. Sometimes fun is better. It's a movie, don't take it too seriously. That's why it's called entertainment
drfate
drfate - 1/11/2013, 7:46 AM
I don't know who the hell that guy is, but Ghost Rider SOV, was awesome. I loved it; screw all the haters.
TheAbomination
TheAbomination - 1/11/2013, 7:52 AM
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiggghhht.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/11/2013, 7:57 AM
There's nothing wrong with being contrarian if you can back up your views/opinions, but sometimes people go against the grain just for the sake of it, and are found out when they try to explain why.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/11/2013, 7:58 AM
Right you are Monkey, thanks
shamo
shamo - 1/11/2013, 7:59 AM
nothing wrong with his statement. alot of deluded people just seem to think that their opnion matters more then someone elses. or multiple opinions matter more then a single opinion, which isn't true either. at the end of the day, whats good and bad is subjective, its all in the eye of the beholder.

imo, i think Ghost Rider was trash as a film and an adaptation but to each their own.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/11/2013, 8:05 AM
Shamo, nothing wring with expressing your opinion..unless you're Armond White;) ah no, of course he's entitled to think anything he wishes, it's just the sheer madness of his reasoning that provokes debate. Is he nuts, looking fir attention, or doe she believe it for real?

I also didn't "get" 21 Jump St..just another mediocre buddie action comedy for me.
AlexDeLarge87
AlexDeLarge87 - 1/11/2013, 8:07 AM
I dont see how you cant even compare these two films??O_o

They belong in different genres and to me that makes the comparing impossible.
Growler
Growler - 1/11/2013, 8:08 AM
I loved the Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance flick and agree wholeheartedly with DexterMorgan75.
AlexDeLarge87
AlexDeLarge87 - 1/11/2013, 8:09 AM
All you can say is which genre you like more.
LAXtremest
LAXtremest - 1/11/2013, 8:17 AM
Ghost Rider 2 was by far the worst movie of last year.
Jolt17
Jolt17 - 1/11/2013, 8:21 AM
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was not only one of the worst movies of 2012, but is also of CBM's in general. And maybe it's one of the worst movies ever made.
LordoftheThrones26
LordoftheThrones26 - 1/11/2013, 8:40 AM
Ghost Rider is the WORST Nic Cage movie ever! Zero Dark Thirty is just shitty american propaganda! I mean the guy wasn't dead for a month and they said they were making a movie WTF!!!!!! The sad part is that ZDT will probably win a bunch of awards over movies who deserve it more! Just look a the Hurt Locker that movie was shit boring and Jeremy Renner had NO emotion in that film yet it still won best picture and director over James Cameron who IMHO should have won those oscars I mean Avatar was a masterpiece and James deserved those awards! Now ZDT will get them because ''it brings a good message'' bullshit!I just hope Ang Lee or Spielberg win big!
theartofoneness
theartofoneness - 1/11/2013, 8:45 AM
im never going to watch zero dark thirty because of the propaganda machine behind the movie but I dont think its worse than ghost rider lol. that was a pretty bad time. i felt like i was watching some crappy student film with good graphics. That style only goes so far. and that acting was not good at all.
JatevinM
JatevinM - 1/11/2013, 8:46 AM
I actually enjoyed Spirit of Vengeance.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 1/11/2013, 9:05 AM
The reasons behind why it was made doesn't take away from the fact that Bigelow made a damn good movie. Maybe it is propaganda, but at least it's entertaining propaganda!
darkbeefstakes
darkbeefstakes - 1/11/2013, 9:08 AM
Zero dark thirty really does trivialize the whole incident. Bigelow made a movie that accurately, or at least attempts to accurately portray the events by playing the scenario straight with "gritty" cinematography. But really, as soon as you hire a cinematographer, and add music, and sound effects then you are still making a movie. Thus, trivializing the event, however, you can still use this trivializing to socially comment on the events. However, Bigelow does not do this, she plays back the events as verbatim as a Hollywood movie can ever achieve, and thus sheds no insightful light on the situation, and raises no personal queistion or social commentary. She could have used the assassination of Osama and queistion the audiences satisfaction of watching people get murdered, and questioning whether an eye for an eye is justifiable ( personally I believe it is justified, but the film should have been tried to dig deeper into the events and force e audience to queistion themselves, unfortunately Bigelow does not achieve this) she almost achieved it in Hurt Locker, which asks the audience to forget there sympathy for the soldiers fighting, since most of those soldiers not only chose to be fighting, but actually enjoy it more than living a regular life.
darkbeefstakes
darkbeefstakes - 1/11/2013, 9:10 AM
In addition, 60 percent of the film was boring. Unlike hurt locker which was suspenseful all the way through.
darkbeefstakes
darkbeefstakes - 1/11/2013, 9:11 AM
Although as for almond whites opinion, he is a child. And his opinion is irrelevant to any educated conversation.
IIIAdamantiumIII
IIIAdamantiumIII - 1/11/2013, 9:23 AM
ZERODARKTHIRTY was an ok film. If you know anything about the actual raid and events leading up to it, you will be able to pick out all the faults and mistakes that were shown in the film.
StrangerX
StrangerX - 1/11/2013, 9:35 AM
SOV wasn't that bad. The villains sucked, but it wasn't as bad as ppl make it out to be.
JoeMomma29
JoeMomma29 - 1/11/2013, 10:20 AM
LOL! That is all I have to say about that!!!
SuperSpiderMan5778
SuperSpiderMan5778 - 1/11/2013, 10:21 AM
if that's his actual picture then yeah it makes sense...obviously the guy is smoking crack
Scooby
Scooby - 1/11/2013, 10:42 AM
PapaEmeritus
PapaEmeritus - 1/11/2013, 11:45 AM
I agree with him! No doubt: GR 2 is way better than ZDT! Hurt Locker is mediocre and boring, a military propaganda piece of shit. I think Bigelow is a mediocre director and a hack, working for a dangerous agenda.

But hey - just my opinion. ;)
ShibblastFromThePaztSon
ShibblastFromThePaztSon - 1/11/2013, 12:03 PM
!
@Dr.Fate.... our numbers SWELL! in my op there are only two camps... Those who loved GRSOV and the others.... Wolverine SnOrigins and the like. TDKR us, Green Lantern them. Shibazz us.... Kevin them.
PapaEmeritus
PapaEmeritus - 1/11/2013, 12:17 PM
Ror, don't be silly: there is no such thing as "entertaining propaganda". There always something bigger behind it.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 1/11/2013, 1:20 PM
I like the things that Darkbeefstakes said!

And no one actually takes Armond White seriously, Rotten Tomatoes doesn't even use his reviews anymore because they are so clearly made purely for the sake of contradiction.
dancingmonkey08
dancingmonkey08 - 1/11/2013, 1:31 PM
hahaha, wow, I normally respect any opinion but that was stupid


although I didnt hate Ghost Rider SOV, it was good fun for what it was, a fun movie where you switched off your brain and let Nicholas Cage go insane but beyond that, it was nothing special

but saying that, I want Ghost Rider to take a long rest, let Marvel Studios get the rights back, then once we get to the end of this decade and people are beginning to get sick of Avengers related movies, then move on to the supernatural characters and have Kevin Feige, some good writers, a good director and the rest of those fine people at Marvel Studios make him into a movie that can emulate the quality of the first couple of Blade movies
DaCottDamnBatman
DaCottDamnBatman - 1/11/2013, 2:20 PM
I LIKED SOV. THOUGHT IT WAS WAY BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE. AND THE FIRST ONE WAS OK IMO...
NanoMachines
NanoMachines - 1/11/2013, 2:34 PM
Armond White is like the real life version of /tv/ from 4chan.
TheGothamKnight1939
TheGothamKnight1939 - 1/11/2013, 4:41 PM
@LordoftheThrones26

They were making the movie before he was killed, they had to change it after his death.
Leader313
Leader313 - 1/11/2013, 6:33 PM
Cocaine is a hellava drug!
WelcomeBackFrank
WelcomeBackFrank - 1/12/2013, 9:33 AM
Who let this child write reviews? Granted the man knows how to use big words, but "Ghost Rider 2" flat out sucked... as in "Punisher: Warzone" sucked. Cage hammed it up even more, the villains were just as worse as the first film, and there was nothing redeemable about it other than seeing the Rider's piss become a flamethrower.

But to say it's better than "Zero Dark Thirty" is to say the Teletubbies is a better TV show than "Walking Dead" or "Game of Thrones." What a complete assclown.

Why the man isn't fired is beyond me because he clearly seems to be... "I'm going to go against the grain of other critics." It's one thing to have a differing opinion of a movie, but to compare it up against a movie that has no value or quality... ugh.

Maybe "Zero Dark Thirty" is a tad propagandist and red-blooded American in its approach and style (haven't seen it yet so I don't know) but we spent heaping amounts of money and blood tirelessly to find Osama Bin Laden and kill the dirty bastard. Kathryn Bigelow knows how to shoot a film. She knows how to get a lot out of her actors. Did fricking "Ghost Rider 2" have that? Hell no.
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