Christine an underrated film from Carpenter, really.

[Jason13thh]

I don't know for u but I really like this film and I like the main character a lot ( no, not Christine ! ) I mean Arnie.
His not one - dimensional and he evolves even if we don't see him evolving but I don't care.
My favorite part of the film is the - one when he speaks about his meaning of love with his friend while he drives Christine, I love this moment and this music, god !!

[JivaFox]

I agree. This film gets more flak than it deserves.

I enjoyed it because it was different, and I liked the book.

[deadeye]

Very cool movie with a great soundtrack of bubbly 50's music that totally went with Christine's attitude. Arnie was perfectly cast--I could've seen other actors in the best friend's and the girlfriend's places though.

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

Christine is awesome in both movie and book form.

Christine- 9/10

John Carpenter rules!

Matt

[DemoNBeaR]

definitly a 9/10. The closest movie from a King book ever. Plus, you gotta love that car...

[Psychocandy]

Originally posted by DemoNBeaR
definitly a 9/10. The closest movie from a King book ever. Plus, you gotta love that car...

It's a good movie. Close to the book? Nah. There's a lot of stuff missed out. Whole subplots are either mentioned briefly or discarded entirely. The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Stand Mini-Series, The Green Mile etc. All of these are closer to the source material than Christine.

Christine (Movie) - 8/10

Christine (Book) - 9.5/10

[DemoNBeaR]

Shawshank redemption. i forgot, my bad.

[Cronos]

I agree, this film is very underrated, it's one of my favourite Carpenter flicks but I love them all

[MotorizedInstinct]

Very underrated. Good performances and an interesting story, but i wished it was scarier. Evil cars just don't give me the willies. This is one of Carpenter's over looked classics. The themes of jealousy and obsession were handled beautifully.

[Quiver]

I'll always remember this film for one character in particular...the bully who is constantly harassing Arnie.

"Is this your lunch? Arnie Cunt-ingham?"

What a prick!

[Hack]

The book was much better, but don't get me wrong, the movie scared the shit outta me when I was a kid. Just imagine owning that car, crashing it, destroying it, and it always comes back. rock on King for your book and Carpenter for making a kick ass move.

[thirdeye]

Christine is great

I'll never forget that scene when the car is on fire and chasing that guy.

[Jewbo]

i didnt like it at all. had very few good bits but overall it was just really boring.

[ERIN_LoJ]

Christine had its good points but I wasnt crazy about this one either. Although I didnt find it boring, I didnt find it altogether interesting either. The acting was great, but the plot just fell a little short for me. A killer car causes people to change. Simple, and sometimes simple works, but in this case it didn't for me.

[Shatter]

Christine was just too cool looking a car for me to be afraid of. I wanted a Plymouth Fury after I saw this movie, just not an evil one, of course.

An 50's music aside, who could forget the opening with George Thorogood and The Destroyer's "Bad To The Bone" ?

[Final Girl]

CHRISTINE was great flick. Brooding, moody, and with one of JC's trademark memorable scores.

8/10

[sarah1980]

I loved Chirstine alot and it's high up there on my favourite Carpenter flicks of all time

[Miss Belladonna]

Originally posted by Shatter
Christine was just too cool looking a car for me to be afraid of. I wanted a Plymouth Fury after I saw this movie, just not an evil one, of course.

An 50's music aside, who could forget the opening with George Thorogood and The Destroyer's "Bad To The Bone" ?

Oh my god me TOO!!!!

Yeah the soundrack was kickin' !!

Definitely high up there in my fave Carpenter films.

[belial1134]

Yah the movie is awesome, nothing wrong with it at all. The music set the whole 50's mood, especially in the beginning. The transformation of Arnie from nerd to psycho nerd is great and not rushed.
I remember seeing this in the theatres in '83 (I think) and when the car was on fire I was thinking 'Firebird' for some reason..eh, I was 8 so what do you expect. lol
-Belial.

[DawnOfTheDead]

I loooooove Christine... awesome performances, great set pieces, and, as in all Carpenter flicks be they good or bad, haunting score. Doesnt beat Prince of Darkness or The Thing, though....

[Duke Nukem]

Upon first renting "Christine" a couple years ago, I loved it and watched it all the time. Upon getting it for that Christmas, I still loved and watched all the time. Really one of Stephen King's best book-to-movie adaptions. But, how is underrated? From critics (there's always a few skeptics, but not much), the mainstream audience, schmoes on this board, or just because it's less known? I thought it had a good rep going for it.

[Mr Bones]

I wish I had a haunted car like her :(

[Whiggles]

It's a fun movie. I saw it on TV once and quite enjoyed it. Not superb or anything, but a good 2 hours' viewing.

[Cyclonus]

Just watched Christine for the first time tonight. Some thoughts:

-Keith Gordon is terrific in the lead. When we first see him he's a nerd, after getting Christine he's a much different person--and not for the better. He made this transition very convincing, sometimes chilling.

-My favorite scene: Christine regenerates. Cool effects.

-Another cool part: the bully is run down by the car from hell--in flames!

-The film gets points just for including Harry Dean Stanton of Alien fame. One of Roger Ebert's "movie laws" is that no film with him can be bad.

-Never read the book, so don't ask me to compare.

-Note: I watched this film in two seperate increments. When it was about half over, my friend Marcus called me and we ended up going to see a second-run screening of Old School. After I got back I watched the rest of it.

-The first half of the movie is kind of slow, but it picks up eventually, and the rest of it went by much faster for me.

-In the back of my mind I was secretly hoping Christine would anthromorpize, Transformer-style. ^__^

-Overall, one of John Carpenter's better films, dug the slick camerawork. I'd give it a 6.5 or 7 out of ten.

[Frank the Tank]

It was good but my brother overrated it alot because it was one of his favorites. I gave it 6.5/10

[teenkiller]

A killer car movie would be a pretty tough one to make and although I have never seen it I am sure Carpenter did at least a decent job with the source material. I'm bringing this thread up because I am considering buying the film this week... if I can find it cheap enough that is. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[JJFlamingo]

Not THAT good...Not a fan of Keith Gordon at all, he always looks like he just got done eating some ass...What the FUCK was with the radio playing the exact 50s song that matched Christine's mood, did the thing have a fucking jukebox under the hood or something...the scene where Arnie stands up to his dad after mouthing off is an inspiration to abused children everywhere...next to Invisible Man, this is probably one of the WORST and certainly overrated Carpenter Movies Ever...

[!MorganOnyx!]

I like it but it's certainly one of CARPENTER'S horror collection that I regularly forget about. A killer car just isn't scary enough for me and I feel that CARPENTER was surely just picking up a cheque on this one. He's such a creative, talented man I can't see him being enthusiastic about such a silly idea. Maybe he gave the script points for originality and decided to tackle it? I don't know.

I loved the bully character! He was straight out of JOHN TRAVOLTA'S CARRIE school for bullies! :D

[jagged halo]

A killer car is no more ridiculous than glowing green slime that reanimates the dead, i think it's easy to forget that Horror is fantasy at the end of the day.

[!MorganOnyx!]

Originally posted by jagged halo
A killer car is no more ridiculous than glowing green slime that reanimates the dead, i think it's easy to forget that Horror is fantasy at the end of the day.

You're right, and that's why I still think CHRISTINE is a kick ass film. The difference is that most of the films with a reasonably plausible plot enhance the scares. A simple ghost story like THE CHANGELING scared me way more than something like DOLLS. CHRISTINE is a fun film, but the fact its antagonist is a car reduces the fright factor. :(

[teenkiller]

I just bought the film about an hour or so ago just for the fact that Carpenter's name is on it. I'll be watching it later so I'll let you guys know what I think afterwards. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoees.

[jagged halo]

Originally posted by !MorganOnyx!
You're right, and that's why I still think CHRISTINE is a kick ass film. The difference is that most of the films with a reasonably plausible plot enhance the scares. A simple ghost story like THE CHANGELING scared me way more than something like DOLLS. CHRISTINE is a fun film, but the fact its antagonist is a car reduces the fright factor. :(

It's not the Car that's supposed to scare you, it's Arnies transformation.

[teenkiller]

Well here is what I have to say. The film was okay but I KNOW John Carpenter is capable of much more than this.

!MorganOnyx! you should have warned me dude. As soon as I saw Stu Charno I nearly died of a heart attack! Nice to see that dude in something other than FRIDAY the 13th Part 2 even if he hardly had any screen time.

What about Moochie, the guy who ends up getting crushed to death by Christine in that narrow alley? Did it ever occur to him to just jump on the hood of the car and go over it instead of just slowly waiting to get killed? He kind of reminded me of that villain from Austin Powers who spends a whole minute yelling and screaming while not bothering to move out of the way of the vehicle.

I suppose it turned out about as good as a movie featuring a killer car can possibly get. I guess it has to be better than the killer elevator movie The Lift... Why does Christine's odometer reading keeping changing though? When Arnie buys the car it has around 90,000 miles. Then later on it goes down to 80,000. In the scene where Arnie and Dennis are talking about love it goes down to 60,000. Was there any point to this or was it just for the fact that so many different Christine "stunt doubles" were used that they forgot to keep track of this small detail? Not that it matters.

For the most part the soundtrack worked but did they really need to cap off the film with Bad to the Bone? That just seemed cheesy.

Christine - 6/10

Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[Cronos]

SPOILERS

Originally posted by teenkiller
What about Moochie, the guy who ends up getting crushed to death by Christine in that narrow alley? Did it ever occur to him to just jump on the hood of the car and go over it instead of just slowly waiting to get killed?
that's one of the only things that's ever really bugged me about Christine and every time i watch it i just wonder why the fuck he didnt just go over the car, it was moving so slowly as it forced itself into the gap that even his fat ass could have gotten onto it.
Why does Christine's odometer reading keeping changing though? When Arnie buys the car it has around 90,000 miles. Then later on it goes down to 80,000. In the scene where Arnie and Dennis are talking about love it goes down to 60,000.
i think the book goes into more detail about that, as i remember its running backwards as it moves closer the death of Arnie kind of as if the cars counting down the time that it has left with him and hits 0 at the end.
did they really need to cap off the film with Bad to the Bone?
yes!!!!!! i frickin love the use of that song in this film :D

i really need to get the SE DVD of this, a very overdue purchase for me

[teenkiller]

Originally posted by Cronos
[i think the book goes into more detail about that, as i remember its running backwards as it moves closer the death of Arnie kind of as if the cars counting down the time that it has left with him and hits 0 at the end.

Ahh... thanks for the explanation. That really makes sense. I thought there actually had to be a reason because in the final scene we watch it hit zero. I just couldn't connect it between Christine's relationship to Arnie. Cool. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[!MorganOnyx!]

Originally posted by jagged halo
It's not the Car that's supposed to scare you, it's Arnies transformation.

So JOHN CARPENTER wasn't trying to scare us with the numerous scenes that focused purely on the car, including the "chase" and death of MOOCHIE?!! Hmm, I think he was! The fact that it didn't work is bad luck for him, worse luck for us.

We we're supposed to be scared of ARNIE??!! Shit, if I had have known that I would've looked at him alot differently, and not dismissed him as a weedy MILHOUSE lookalike geekboy with a chip on his shoulder! :)

If there were moments that I was even marginally scared, it was because of the car and definately NOT because of some pasty skinned 8 stone loser who all of a sudden thinks he's the shit! :D

[!MorganOnyx!]

Originally posted by teenkiller
!MorganOnyx! you should have warned me dude. As soon as I saw Stu Charno I nearly died of a heart attack! Nice to see that dude in something other than FRIDAY the 13th Part 2 even if he hardly had any screen time.

I didn't even notice the little dick! :(

My bad.

[teenkiller]

Yeah he was one of the big bullies cronies. He only appears in a couple of scenes and I'm not even sure that he has any lines. I had to check IMDB to make sure it was him and sure enough it was.

As for Christine and Arnie? I didn't think either were particularly freightening. A story like this is a tough one to bring to the big screen and I just feel Carpenter could have used his talents for something more riveting. Still not a half bad film though.

Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[BigSugar]

The thing about this movie, and the book as well, is that the horro in it comes from the fact that it's ultimately a tragedy. It's about addiction and what happens when a kid become esconsed in something beyond his control. Now, that it's a haunted car that gets this kid is something for another argument. Be that as it may, I think the movie did one helluva job capturing the tone of the book, something very few movies based on King's books have managed.

Also, I always thought that this movie had one of the best cues in a Carpenter film, when the bullies sneak into the garage and proceed to destroy Christine. Love it.

[Misery]

I could hardly bare watching the movie after having read the book. I really enjoyed the book, but the movie literally felt like a slide show in comparison. They should have added another 30 minutes, fleshing out the scenes and developing the characters more.

The movie was a complete let down, 2/5

[Kaos]

Originally posted by teenkiller
Ahh... thanks for the explanation. That really makes sense. I thought there actually had to be a reason because in the final scene we watch it hit zero. I just couldn't connect it between Christine's relationship to Arnie. Cool. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.


Actually as a big fan of the book, I gotta correct you on that. The odometer ran backward all the time causing Christine to regenerate. It may have been different for the movie however. The book does go into that detail quite often though. Almost all the main and some of the minor characters comment on it, and it even mentions that Arnie used to drive around the junkyard at about 5 MPH after the garage was closed "to check for a shimmy in the front end" but in reality *minor spolier to follow* he was helping to regenerate Christine and becoming more taken over by Roland D. LeBay.

[Cronos]

interesting, i think it's about time i read the book again :p

[teenkiller]

Hmm... pretty cool. It's hard to get people to pick up on that kind of stuff in movies without spelling it out for them overtly. The novel sounds better than the film turned out at least. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[Kaos]

Originally posted by teenkiller
Hmm... pretty cool. It's hard to get people to pick up on that kind of stuff in movies without spelling it out for them overtly. The novel sounds better than the film turned out at least. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

Yeah, I think I spoiled myself by reading the novel before watching the movie. I understand that due to the length of the book that some parts would have to be cut, but I still can't help but go "Where was that part, what happened to that sub-plot" The same thing happened to me when I watched IT and The Stand.

[Hack]

i think i saw a special edition of Christine out on dvd. does anyone know if i was dreaming or not?

[Cronos]

Originally posted by Hack
i think i saw a special edition of Christine out on dvd. does anyone know if i was dreaming or not?
no you weren't dreaming

[jagged halo]

Originally posted by !MorganOnyx!
So JOHN CARPENTER wasn't trying to scare us with the numerous scenes that focused purely on the car, including the "chase" and death of MOOCHIE?!! Hmm, I think he was! The fact that it didn't work is bad luck for him, worse luck for us.

We we're supposed to be scared of ARNIE??!! Shit, if I had have known that I would've looked at him alot differently, and not dismissed him as a weedy MILHOUSE lookalike geekboy with a chip on his shoulder! :)


Whether you were scared of Arnie or not is irrelevant, it's patently obvious the heart of the story is about a teenager who changes from geeky nerd to obsessed lunatic!!;)

[teenkiller]

I think the posession of the character itself was supposed to be the horrific thing. How easily he went from being a really likeable nerd to a douche that didn't care about anyone but his car. It's a moot point for me though cause I didn't find Arnie's transformation NOR the scenes focusing on Christine herself all that engrossing. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[BigSugar]

There's a lot of comparison to the novel here, but the thing is, nobody is saying it's not a horror film because it is. You're not supposed to be afraid of Arnie so much as you're supposed to be afraid of the forces that are taking him over. It's not necessarily the change in Arnie, but what is changing him that's so horrific and sad. The book is really a sad story about loss. Anyway, that's how I saw it.

[jagged halo]

Originally posted by teenkiller
I think the posession of the character itself was supposed to be the horrific thing. How easily he went from being a really likeable nerd to a douche that didn't care about anyone but his car..

That's exactly what I was saying.

[!MorganOnyx!]

Originally posted by jagged halo
Whether you were scared of Arnie or not is irrelevant, it's patently obvious the heart of the story is about a teenager who changes from geeky nerd to obsessed lunatic!!;)

Yeah well that's all good, I got that much from it anyway. Besides, I really enjoyed the film. It's not a classic and it didn't scare me one bit but I will NEVER rag too much on a JOHN CARPENTER film. I would deserve to get bummed to death if that was ever the case! :D

[Kaos]

Originally posted by !MorganOnyx!
Yeah well that's all good, I got that much from it anyway. Besides, I really enjoyed the film. It's not a classic and it didn't scare me one bit but I will NEVER rag too much on a JOHN CARPENTER film. I would deserve to get bummed to death if that was ever the case! :D


<Starts the fire burning>

Just kidding:D I think part of the problem with the movie adaptations of King's novels is that he fully develops pretty much everything page length be damed, and that is something that can't be done in a film, so sub-plots, character development, even entire characters are trimmed down or cut out completely.

[teenkiller]

You just can't get inside a characters head in a film like you can in a book. In a book you can know the characters every thought as it happens. You can't recreate that in film.

On another note I am REALLY looking forward to seeing Carpenter's Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness on the big screen later this month. The anticipation is killing me.

Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[jagged halo]

Originally posted by !MorganOnyx!
Yeah well that's all good, I got that much from it anyway. Besides, I really enjoyed the film. It's not a classic and it didn't scare me one bit but I will NEVER rag too much on a JOHN CARPENTER film. I would deserve to get bummed to death if that was ever the case! :D

Rumour has it you'll offer your arse no matter what, as long as the price is right!!:D

[Mopar Fanatic]

I enjoyed this film rather than comparing it to the book I look at it the way it's brought forth to the audience. The book is taken too seriously. Two parts in the book that got to me though. I believe it's sandy seeing his dead friend while working the graveyard shift at the gas station sees Buddy's corpse lean over with a bottle of southern comfort saying "Drink up asshole you'll be dead like me soon".

Also the part where I believe the brother or some friend of Lebays is explaining the story of the prank pulled on Lebay to grab the rear bumper and lift up on the car so it stays in place when Lebay proceeds to drive off, in the process the car rips a finger off one of the pranksters. Not a possibility of putting FW drive in that plymouth way back then.

Anyways the few flaws that the movie has is that the transition point is way too fast between Arnie turning from 70's pussy into 50's badass. Also would have liked to see more character development along with two morbid scenes like the ones listed above. The best captions from the book didn't even make the final screening of the movie or any screening of the movie for that matter.

And for christ sake George fucking LeBay wasn't even in the movie just replaced with the acknowledgment that he's departed. One of the best characters cut from the movie entirely. A bitter asshole who takes his love and passion for the car the only thing that ever ment anything to him a step further by possessing the car on a hateful afterlife massacre capturing souls as passengers.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10

[Cronos]

Originally posted by Mopar Fanatic
And for christ sake George fucking LeBay wasn't even in the movie just replaced with the acknowledgment that he's departed. One of the best characters cut from the movie entirely. A bitter asshole who takes his love and passion for the car the only thing that ever ment anything to him a step further by possessing the car on a hateful afterlife massacre capturing souls as passengers.
when reading the book i couldn't help but think how awesome it would have been if they had kept his character in the film, both the parts when he was alive and a really hateful guy and while dead, some of the sections of the book i remember best are the ones which had him in it, i remember the parts with his ghost appearing in the car being awesome

i really want to read it again now

[!MorganOnyx!]

Originally posted by jagged halo
Rumour has it you'll offer your arse no matter what, as long as the price is right!!:D

Price?!! Bloody hell I suppose I could start charging! I didn't think of that! I guess I've been taken advantage of one too many times!

If VICTOR SALVA hears about this I'll end up being the lead in his next film! :(

Would that really be a bad thing?

*weighs up pros and cons:

pros - a career like JUSTIN LONG'S, from JEEPERS CREEPERS to DIE HARD 4!

cons - sore ass!*

Hey I'm struggling over here guys! :D

[poopontheshoes7]

Awesome movie. Love it. One of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies. Carenter rocks.


9/10