Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Sam Panico Christine was not a film John Carpenter had planned on directing, as most of his films were personal projects, not just jobs. But after the poor reception that The Thing received, he needed a project that would jump-start his career. It may not be frightening. But sometimes, you need to make money to live on.Richard Kobritz, who produced Salem's Lot, was given some two unpublished manuscripts from King to consider for their next film adaptation. He chose this one over Cujo, as he felt that story was silly. One was "Christine" and the other was "Cujo." Korbitz chose Christine because he thought Cujo was too silly.This film was already in production as the book was being published. In its original prose form, it's made clear that the original owner of the car, Roland D. LeBay, is the one possessing it. But in the film, from day one, there's an evil force that powers this 1958 Plymouth Fury (a '57 and two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to create the car).That malevolent spirit shows up on the assembly line, when Christine cuts a man's hand off and then kills another worker who dares to ash his cigar on her upholstery.Fast-forward 21 years and Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon, Dressed to Kill) has only one friend - Dennis (John Stockwell, who became a director and helmed Blue Crush, Turistas and Crazy/Beautiful, amongst others). His life gets better when he buys Christine for $250, an action that no one understands.Arnie not only restores the car, he restores himself. Tossing his glasses, he begins to become more arrogant and dresses like a 1950's greaser. That allows him to hook up with the new girl in town, Leigh.Dennis worries about Arnie, so he begins to study the dark past of his car - like how it killed its previous owner and his family. It tries to do the same to Leigh, jealous of anyone who gets close to its owner.After a fight with Arnie leads to him being expelled, Buddy Repperton and his gang completely destroy Christine. As Arnie watches, it comes back to life, repairing itself and hunts the gang down, one by one. There's an incredibly directed scene here where a flaming Christine (obviously this scene influenced the close of The Strangers: Prey at Night) chases Buddy to his death.The murders don't stop there, as Christine even kills Darnell (Robert Protsky, Grandpa Fred from Gremlins 2), the owner of the garage where Arnie fixed up the car. This leads state policeman Rudolph Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton, always a welcome face) to investigate Arnie.Dennis and Leigh try to save Arnie by luring Christine to Darnell's. They think it's just the car coming to battle them, but Arnie is behind the wheel as it crashes, sending him flying through the windshield to his death. They finally get the car into a crusher, but even as it's deposited into a junkyard as a cube, it's already reforming to the tune of "Bad to the Bone." If you look close enough, the singer of that song, George Thorogood, is working in the junkyard.There's a lot more that was jettisoned from the book, like how crooked Darnell was, the romance between Leigh and Dennis, Junkins getting killed by Christine and her coming back and hunting down the rest of the gang after she's crushed.There's just enough Carpenter (and a great score alongside frequent collaborator Alan Howarth) to make this movie worthwhile. It's not the best of his films. Nor the best King film. But it's an enjoyable enough way to pass ninesome oddodd minutes.

zkonedog Right off the bat, there are two ways of interpreting this film: If you haven't read the novel, you might find it a decent effort from filmmaker John Carpenter. If you have read the Stephen King masterpiece, you'll be left feeling more than a bit unsatisfied.For a basic plot summary, "Christine" tells the story of an evil car who first grips young Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) with "her" menace, then schemes to murder his best friend Dennis (John Stockwell) & girlfriend Leigh (Alexandra Paul).The one nice thing I have to say about this film is that, if having read the book, it provides some nice visuals. The characters are roughly what I pictured while reading, and the car scenes are very well done.Unfortunately, the pleasantries end there. The plot (so magnificent at the pen of King) is an utter mess via Carpenter's camera, while the characters are more like caricatures of the actual King lifebloods. I realize that some things need to be chopped in the name of film, but this was one of the worst jobs I've ever seen. Without the knowledge that the book gives, I can't see anyone getting into this movie on an level deeper than "horror flick".To top things off, director Carpenter tries to add his "Halloween touch" by using the same visual style and music (almost to a "tee") as the first two Halloween films. What a rip-off! It really doesn't add much to this middling effort, and just made me think of Carpenter as a one-track wonder.Thus, this film can easily be skipped before or after reading the novel. If the material must be covered in some format, leave the storytelling to Mr. King...in this case, where it belongs.

dworldeater Of the many Stephen King film adaptations, Christine is one of my favorites. This is directed by John Carpenter who made many of my favorite movies, including this one. This project was not quite as bleak as his previous film( The Thing), but is really well done and a classic as well in my book. The two lead actors in this film are now directors. Keith Gordon delivered an excellent performance here as leading man Arnie, who goes from nerd to Fonzie like coolness to evil psychopath. His friend Dennis(John Stockwell) is also good here as well and these two actors make their unlikely friendship believable and had great chemistry here. Alexandra Paul was stunning, but also gave an excellent performance here and sold her relationship with Arnie as the hottie with a heart of gold. While this is a movie about a haunted car that turns Arnie, a socially awkward nerd into a 50's greaser maniac. The storytelling, performances and dialogue are very strong and elevate the material far beyond typical slasher fare and other killer car movies. The score is a mix between 50's rock n' roll and Carpenter's signature score which provides great ambiance and helps build suspense. Character actors Robert Prosley, Robert Blossom and Harry Dean Stanton all are highly excellent and delivered memorable performances. Overall, Christine is excellent and John Carpenter did an amazing job making this. Christine is very under rated in my opinion and I can find no problem with this film whatsoever.

talisencrw One of the most intriguing coming-of-age stories in cinema, and this tends to be overlooked, both as a Stephen King story and horror film, in place of the more sensationalized frolic and mayhem of works such as 'The Shining', 'Carrie', 'Misery' and 'The Shawshank Redemption', which is a crying shame, because: a) John Carpenter is probably the finest director (at least Top 3) ever involved with King adaptations; and b) it perfectly conceptualizes, like earlier short experimental films by the likes of Kenneth Anger, the downright uncomfortable sleaziness and fetishism that has existed, mainly in America, between men and their cars.Keith Gordon does some really fine acting here (as he did previously for Brian De Palma in 'Dressed to Kill') as all possible dynamics along the range from nerd to psycho. It's impressive that, while growing up in film, he obviously learned some of the tricks of the trade from such cinematic greats (at least of American film of the past 50 years) and ended up becoming a decent film helmer himself.9/10 for me; Grade A Carpenter. It simply isn't top-tier for me, of his oeuvre, because I know he, like Sir Alfred Hitchcock, De Palma and other greats, is capable of cinematic perfection (Halloween, The Thing, etc.).