Christine (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Christine (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Christine
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed the movie and the extra scenes were great. A classic. Definitely worth seeing.Movie Review: Happy with purchase
Summary: 5 Stars
I was happy with the price of the product and the time frame it was shipped in.Movie Review: Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is a classic! A hit at the theaters and a classic today!Movie Review: "It seems like nobody likes my car these days."
Summary: 4 Stars
While watching Christine (1983) last night, I couldn't help but think how sweet it would be to have a car like the one in the film...oh, I don't mean all freaky deaky possessed with an evil that will ultimately consume you completely and stuff like that, but having a car that regenerates itself after a fender bender...your old buddy here had a few accidents a long time ago and knows body shops charge an arm, a leg, and your first born...and if you mess up the frame, forget about it...based on a novel by Stephen King, directed by John Carpenter (Halloween), the film stars Keith Gordon (Jaws 2, Back to School), John Stockwell (Losin' It, My Science Project), and Alexandra Paul, whom many may recognize as the comparatively less buxom than the rest of the female cast Stephanie from the Baywatch television series. Also appearing is Robert Prosky (The Great Outdoors), William Ostrander (Mulholland Dr.), Roberts Blossom (Escape from Alcatraz), Kelly Preston (Mischief), and Harry Dean Stanton (Cool Hand Luke, Alien, Repo Man).
As the film begins, we roll into a character establishment sequence as the year is 1957 (the date is displayed on the screen) and we're watching newly built cars coming off an auto assembly line (check out those fins...even if they didn't show us the year, we probably could have guessed it based on the design of the cars). We end up focusing on one in particular, a red beauty, and given this is a John Carpenter film based off a Stephen King novel, you know something nasty bad is going to happen soon, and it does, indicating this car may be more than just the sum of its parts. Anyway, flash forward to 1979 and we meet Arnie Cunningham (Gordon). To say Arnie is a nerd would be an understatement. If you took all the nerdy, gawky, awkward, nebbish, constantly picked on, harangued by their mothers schlubs you can remember from high school and rolled them into one, you'd probably end up with Arnie Cunningham. But for as much as Arnie has going against him, he does have at least one thing going for him in his sincere friendship Dennis (Stockwell), the very cool and popular dude who drives a bitchin' car and happens to be the star of the school football team. Arnie's life isn't ideal by any means, especially since he's just recently run afoul of the school bully Buddy Repperton (Ostrander) and his gang, but what are you gonna do? Well, I guess you could buy a possessed car named Christine...and that's what he does (okay, he doesn't know it's possessed)...the car is a piece of junk, but Arnie sees something in it, and begins working on restoring it, causing his other relationships to suffer, but, as the car comes along, we see Arnie changing as well (he actually develops a sense of confidence and a personality to boot), dropping the nerd routine and even garnering the attentions of the new girl (Paul), but, as with any silver lining, there's always a dark cloud behind it, and the price for Arnie's newfound coolness may be more than he's willing to pay...
All right, you must be thinking `A John Carpenter movie based off a Stephen King book? This movie must be scary as hell!'...well, it's not...it's not very scary at all, at least to me it wasn't, but then I've been desensitized by years frightening cinematic visages. There was one part that makes me jump a little every time I see it, but I'm not going to tell you what it is...what this film lacks in frights, it makes up for in being not only entertaining, but also just really cool. I liked all the characters, and I thought Keith Gordon did really well embodying the complete nerd who finds love in an unlikely place, a love that most of us think we would want (not for the damn car, but the essence represented in the car, in terms of it being an entity like ourselves) until we realize it's not so much love as a crazy, obsessive, all devouring devotion intent on taking us to a place no one should ever have to go...I thought the supporting cast did all right, but I would have liked to seen a little more of Stanton (he played a police detective) and Ostrander's characters as they seemed interesting despite their limited roles. There was one sticking point with me with regards to the characters in that I find it very hard to believe any normal guy would choose Alexandra Paul over Kelly Preston, as John Stockwell's character did...both women are attractive, to be sure, but come on...I've seen Preston in the film Mischief (1985), so I know what she's got going on, and let me tell you, it's a lot. Anyway, I thought the direction was very good as Carpenter did an excellent job in creating not only a living, breathing, tire squealing character in Christine, but maintaining an appropriate atmosphere throughout the film, especially by his choice of music. There are some minor gaffs here and there, but nothing that spoiled the overall experience. I think my favorite scene comes after a gang completely trashes Arnie's car, which then `heals' thy self through whatever bad mojo it's got going on, and then seeks revenge against those offenders (Arnie's uses a different term, one I can't put in the review). There's a scene involving a car, engulfed in flames, speeding down the highway...very cool...
This review is for the `Special Edition', and the widescreen anamorphic picture (2.35:1) looks really sharp. I was a little disappointed in the audio, which I think is available in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, as it was too soft at times. There are some extras including 20 deleted/alternative scenes, 3 featurettes titled Christine: Fast and Furious, Christine: Ignition, and Christine: Finish Line, filmographies, and previews. Again, this review was for the Special Edition, and I know there was a previously released edition, but I don't know if the features I spoke of are available on both editions, so make sure of what you're getting before purchasing, especially since Amazon has a tendancy to cross-reference reviews despite product differences.
Cookieman108
Movie Review: "Okay...show me."
Summary: 4 Stars
Keith Gordon gives a truly creepy performance as Arnie Cunningham, a geeky, intelligent, 17-yr-old outcast who is bullied constantly, seems to have no luck whatsoever with the ladies, or with anything else, really. He has only one friend in the world, Dennis Gilder, a popular, good-looking football player, played far less convincingly by John Stockwell.
Arnie falls in love with an incredibly dilapidated '58 Plymouth Fury. His feelings for the car are beyond those of which he has ever felt for any human being...and the intense feelings are mutual. The love turns into an obsession and doom for anyone who tries to interfere.
While Christine is one of my favorite horror movies it falls just shy of being truly horrific and scary, like most John Carpenter films, in my opinion. But thanks to Keith Gordon it most definitely leaves you with a very uneasy feeling and it manages to get under your skin a bit. Usually Gordon's self-pitying vibe and his dark demeanor which are somehow present in nearly everything he does turns me off, however, if in his acting career a part was made for him then this was most certainly it. If the look in his eyes during certain scenes in Christine does not give you the heebie jeebies then maybe you're not quite human.
A high point in the film is character development as far as the two leads go: Arnie and Christine. The movie certainly succeeds at making you feel for Christine to an extent. One scene in which the bully Buddy Reperton exacts revenge on Arnie by taking his wrath out on Christine is truly cringe-worthy partially because it's gut-wrenching (for some) to see a beautiful car trashed for no reason other than pure hatred, but primarily because by that point you feel that she is more than just some car.
We see Arnie evolve first from the dorky high school kid who gets pushed around into a man who seems to have confidence and charisma then into a downright scary, unpredictable, angry borderline lunatic. Gordon clearly portrays Arnie during each phase rather than falling from just one extreme to the other.
Another nice element in Christine is suspense. There are not any truly slow parts and there is a nice ambiguity as far as whether Christine is running around by herself taking care of business, or regulating as it were, or whether Arnie is actually with her during certain shenanigans. Once again, Gordon's performance is what sells it.
On to the less-than-good. The main thing about this movie that leaves me cold is the ending. It's a little silly, although no sillier than the entire premise itself, I suppose. I cannot even really say what I felt would have been better, if anything. It may simply be that the end of the film is carried on the virtually non-existent shoulders of the two worst actors in the film, Stockwell and the always-terrible Alexandra Paul who, as always, leaves me feeling befuddled as far as how she ever broke into the biz. At any rate it is possible that the ending is actually okay but the acting chops are not there to back it up.
Christine is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but if one can stomach some of the weak supporting cast and a lackluster ending it is certainly worthwhile.