Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
A possessed car becomes a vehicle of revenge for teen, September 4, 2004
"Christine" is about possession. In adapting Steven King's novel to the screen, director John Carpenter and writer Bill Phillips streamline King's narrative to focus on the true star of the book and film--the car itself. "Christine" tells the story about a nerdy high school senior (Keith Gordon in a very strong performance)who can't do anything right but his best friend college jock Dennis(John Stockwell)seems to do everything right. So when Arnie finds the perfect car that he can rebuild and put his love into, the car nicknamed "Christine" by its former deceased owner more than returns that love--she gives Arnie a thug makeover and turns him into a monster as bad as the the kids that used to beat Arnie up. Needless to say, Christine has some special abilities of her own and she becomes--so to speak--the vehicle for Archie's revenge and vice versa.
Dennis tries to intervene but once Arnie becomes possessed by Christine, he and Arnie's new girlfriend Leigh (the lovely Alexandra Paul in her first film role)are unable to reach him. A local police detective (Harry Dean Stanton)becomes suspcious but isn't able to prove that Arnie had anything to do with a mounting body count consisting of high school students from Arnie's school.
The beautiful transfer here manages to skip many of the flaws that have become a Columbia Tristar trademark; the edge enhancement is minimal and the sharp, detailed picture has vivid rich color recalling the original look of the theatrical cut of the film. The high definition transfer is as sharp as a rebuild car after a top notch paint job.
Duplicating the wonderful format that director John Carpenter has used on "The Thing", "Big Trouble in Little China" and "Escape from New York", the audio commentary features both the director and star Keith Gordon (now a director himself) discussing the nuts and bolts of making the film. Gordon provides a unique perspective as both the film's star and also an acclaimed director of small, independent films.
While I also like King's books, I'd like to point out that to make a feature film of a novel would take (as writer Bill Phillips astutely points out in the special features section)20 hours or more so novels have to be streamlined in the hopes of capturing the feel of the film. It's hoped that the visul style brought to the film will make up for the narrative threads that are lost and Carpenter's film does just that. While LeFey the previous owner of Christine played a major role in the book, it seemed as if he was the one driving the action. Carpenter and Phillips decided that Christine was just born bad and that evil spilled out to possess their owners as well. I found Carpenter and Phillips choices in turning the novel into a film to be very good ones.
Laurent Bouzereau's three excellent featurettes focus on the conception of the film all the way through the production and release. Oddly enough, though, Columbia has them listed out of order under the special features section starting with "Christine Fast & Furious", "Christine Finish Line" and "Christine Ignition" presented in that order. You should really watch the last one first, the first one second and the second one last. Of course, you can click on them in any order (they play individually)but it does seem a curious choice to present them this way. We also get 20 deleted/alternate scenes that provide an interesting addition to the original film. While Carpenter wisely chose to cut some of them, a small portion of the deleted scenes would have made a great addition to a "Director's Cut" of this film. Since Carpenter is technically "retired" (as he jokingly points out in his commentary), he certainly could spent the time to reintegrate key scenes. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that this special edition had the budget for such an undertaking. Regardless, I'm happy that Columbia Tristar elected to put out this special edition in the first place.
We also get the usual Columbia Tristar previews as well. This special edition provides a classic Carpenter film a second change on DVD. While the film was critically well received (Time called it "Carpenter's best film since 'Halloween')for the most part (many criticized the foul language. Writer Bill Phillips discusses how Columbia's executives asked him to add more foul language so the film could earn a hard "R" rating. He laughes as he recalls that "Scarface" would soon replace "Christine" with the most foul lanugage in a two hour movie), it only did fair box office business. It's nice to see this classic bit of Carpenter-King-Phillips entertainment finally the way it should be presented.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Super, November 27, 2005
I was waiting to see this movie after I read the book, because I have this thing where I have to read the book first, my imagination is at its strongest when not supported by visuals, but it was on TV all the time and I kept hearing how wicked it was and I cheated, I saw it before the book!
Well worth it; I still want to read the book, so I can weave my mind through King's web of twists and turns, but I'm glad I got to see this very popular movie.
I loved the whole retro feel; the 70s clothes and scenery. The car was also this bright tomato, something you can't take your eyes away from and I'm not even a car person. Everything felt true to time and to King.
Arnie was a geek. Sweet, awkward, bit of a klutz but nothing threatening and nothing wild.
Upon passing Christine with its For Sale sign in some stranger's backyard he is infatuated with it for life.
Everything he does revolves around it, he changes, he dresses better, and his attitude goes up a few degrees, dates a hot girl and has some bullies who want to bash what he loves the most, his car.
The car is an enigma from the beginning. We know it's a machine yet it's like a bad person, you can feel your hair raise on your arm as you watch this movie. Christine is basically a parasite, and when you give her your all, she will chew you up and spit you out, and Arnie is in the driver seat now.
Great flick, watch it!
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
"It seems like nobody likes my car these days.", April 6, 2005
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
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