Christine

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Christine

64% Liked It
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Christine

Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Harry Dean Stanton, Stuart Charno

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with a evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it. John Carpenter brings Stephen King's best selling novel to life in this chilling thriller.

Id: 10905287

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Recent Reviews

Christine Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 8, 2009
    SirPant
    Not a great adaptation from Carpenter but then it is one of the most overrated books of all time. Quotable but not scary.
  • stopitgoaway
    July 27, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    There are no words that can truly describe the power and passion of Christine.

    Anyone who owns an older car will be able to associate with the obsession that takes over nerdish Arnie's life when he restores Christine, the beautiful Plymouth Fury.

    John Carpenter's excellent dire...( read more)cting brings the car to life to such a point where as you're watching, you become so entranced that you forget she isn't alive.

    The actors are well chosen for the roles they play, and give excellent performances. This, accompanied by excellent photography, special effects, timing and musical score make Christine a definite must-see movie.

    Please Note: The British TV edit cuts out some of the best scenes, so this movie is best seen on DVD or video.
  • kiriyamakazou
    March 28, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    Stephen King and John Carpenter teaming up? Excellent. Although the film is pretty successful, it doesn't match the horror or thrill levels you would expect from these two greats. It DOES, amazingly, make you forget that you are watching a film about a killer CAR. Never camp, but...( read more) sometimes comical, the credit can go to the pairing of the car with Keith Gordon. Gordon manages to go from Geek to Badass with a convincing performance. He also brings out rather odd chemistry between himself and the car. Also it's nice to see a Jock and a Geek start out as friends and work on that dynamic. The soundtrack is also perfect and always brings a sinister smile along whenever the radio kicks in.
  • FangsFirst
    May 31, 2008
    FangsFirst
    I've seen a slew of Stephen King films in the past year, despite having outgrown his writing some years ago. The titles of most of his books and many of his stories are ingrained for me, like with many other people in the modern world. A theoretical understanding of the value or ...( read more)quality of his works--and comparative lack thereof when it comes to adaptations--is also seemingly omnipresent, though one that I go against the grain on--not because I can, but because I simply feel that way. I tend to like more of the adaptations than I am "supposed" to, and fewer of the books than I am expected to. I bought this movie for two simple and possibly ridiculous reasons: first, I wanted a ticket to see 30 Days of Night (looking at the date of this review should tell you just how long it then takes me to get around to watching the movies I buy), and second, I wanted to up the John Carpenter content of my DVD collection. I have faith in the man to make an entertaining flick even when faced with monstrous scripts or incompetent actors (see: Ghosts of Mars). I ignored the middling to negative response to the film and simply made my own go of it on my own time, which is my preferred way of seeing movies (private home viewings can be helpful with this attitude as well, preventing the knowing sniggers of those familiar and the attempts to seem "cool" and deride many films by the unfamiliar also absent).

    Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) is a nerd. Pretty much your standard movie nerd: picked on by the bullies, wears unhip clothing, glasses, has controlling parents and no luck with women, which leads to an overactive libido. Somewhat unusually, his best friend is Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell), who is a pretty good looking kid, and a football player. Nothing is made of this, and I was pleased with the movie for that much of it this characterization. He and Dennis are driving home after a particularly nasty bullying by Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander--nice 'chops, Bill), they happen to drive past a rusting, dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury, which Arnie cannot resist. He quickly buys it from the previous owner, George LeBay (Roberts Blossom--yes, Deranged's "Ezra Cobb") and begins rebuilding it in the garage of one Will Darnell (Robert Prosky, who is Gremlins 2's "Grandpa Fred" to me, forever and ever). He seemingly disappears from sight, beginning to rebel more and more against his parents, dressing differently and becoming more aggressive, even winning the hand of Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul). Surprised by this at the wrong time, Dennis is nearly crippled in a football game, and watches from his bed as the occasionally-visiting Arnie slowly becomes more and more obsessed with his new car, named Christine. He confronts LeBay, only to find that LeBay's brother, the real previous owner, died seemingly at the very hands of his car. It's rather too late though, as the conflict with Buddy Repperton reaches greater proportions, his gang* managing to completely destroy and deface Christine, leading the car and Arnie to take murderous revenge, leading to a race to save him from the car's influence.

    I've never read Christine (does that sound familiar, to those of you who have read, well, many of my reviews--but especially the Stephen King variety?) so I cannot compare the two, nor do I particularly want to. This is a horror film from my favourite decade for horror films (well, film in general, but especially horror). There's a wonderful feeling of studios being behind horror films in the 80s, of giving them budget enough to do whatever they want, or close enough to it. John Carpenter knows how to shoot, knows how to film, how to light and how to score, and these things congeal into a very entertaining, if unspectacular, horror film. As I've said before, the sharp drop between the number of comedy films in the world to the number of horror films, let alone the percentage of decent ones, tends to make me easy to please in some capacity when it comes to these films. I don't know that I necessarily lower my expectations, but they seem more smoothly in line with my desires for a viewing experience, and this is no exception. It's not amazing or great, but it does it's job and does it well.

    And hey, Harry Dean Stanton plays the cop nemesis to Arnie. That's enough by itself.

    *If anyone else sees Buddy's gang, especially Trelawney (Steven Tash), and thinks, "I'll tell you what the effect is, IT'S PISSING ME OFF!"--you win brownie points with me for totally random associations and memory.
  • SilentWarProductions2009
    December 4, 2007
    SilentWarProductions2009
    Directed by: John Carpenter.
    Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul.

    Out of many of my friends on my list, alot them have it as 'not interested', my curiosity is why? As many know this is directed by none other then John Carpenter.

    Wh...( read more)at helps to make this a step above films more recent like these is its great execution, faith to its source material and an injection of life into one of its leading characters. When you get a film like this, you would automatically think it is silly that its about a killer car, I'd have to agree with you that the premise is silly, but it depends on what angle it is played at and how it is executed....Christine is one of those rare classics that works. For a majority of the film we are introduced to Christine, a beautiful red 1958 Plymouth Fury that stood out on its production line, throughout the film we learn briefly about the history of Christine and we see her ways up until the end of the film, that injection of life into this character is what I enjoy about films focused on something that isn't flesh and bone, it shows talent when you can do something like that and make it believable. John Carpenter was a great choice for a project like this, especially when he is a man who does really well at focusing on the protagonist, he executes the film extremely well and shows great control. The special effects are shockingly brilliant, first time I saw this I was expecting some cheesy special effects when Christine rebuilds herself but I was wrong, it is very, very impressive for its day. The acting is not really anything to jump up and down about, although I did like Keith Gordon's turn with his character, the rest of the leads are quite new and mediocre.

    There was one thing I wanted from the film, I wanted it to be a little darker and meaner, to give the main character a bit more of a scarier edge. But aside from that the film will remain a classic and like Halloween, is one of John Carpenters best.
  • gordws
    December 13, 2009
    gordws
    Stephen King adaptations either hit or miss. Carpenter's took a couple of swings at directing Kings work. This one misses. It is too middle of the road to be scary.
  • seaview18
    November 30, 2009
    seaview18
    I give it a 5 star rating. Its great to me!! :D
  • MightySparks
    November 28, 2009
    MightySparks
    Um... it was fun and the main dude was cool. And uh.. yeah not much to say about it.
  • luiser2gh
    November 25, 2009
    luiser2gh
    Stephen King y John Carpenter juntos, gran idea, mal desarrollo. L averdad vi esta pelicula solo porque se estreno el dia en que naci, y porque soy curioso, por cierto es el 9-12-83 no en junio como pusieron en flixster. Carpenter filma un par muy buenas escenas, como cuando Chri...( read more)stine muestra lo que puede hacer o cuando destruye la gasolinera y su persecucion en llamas; estas escenas solas, harian de Chistine una pelicula de culto, pero como no basta con eso, la verdad es que la pelicula se vuelve un poco tediosa, es ridicula y no es ni entretenida, ni da miedo o asusta, talvez de todos los carros con vida, Christine es la que menos personalidad tiene a mi parecer, claro es asesina y celosa, pero es tal dull, que no me dan ganas de saber de ella...
  • ythelastman89
    November 17, 2009
    ythelastman89
    Just about the best Stephen King adaption out there along with The Shining. John Carpenter was able to take this story seriously and make it believable, something nearly impossible to do in the 80s. It's a great dramatic piece as well as a horror. Arnie is great because he's comp...( read more)letely relateable and you can feel his slip into obsession all the more closely. The music choices were great and definitely creepier than one would expect.
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