How sad is this?

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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 But sometimes, you need to make money to live on.Richard Kobritz, who produced Salem's Lot, was given some two unpublished manuscripts from King to consider for their next film adaptation.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.

This is John Carpenter's film version of the Stephen King bestseller about an evil car. The film's namesake, a bright red 1958 Plymouth Fury, doesn't even make it off the assembly line before maiming and killing people. Cut to the present, and awkward, clumsy high school nerd Arnie Cunningham and his jock best friend Dennis. Arnie is a total social failure, the target of bullies and totally ignored by the girls. On the way home, he spots the decrepit wreck of the '58 Fury, and he's instantly obsessed. He buys the car, despite the protests of his friend and parents, and starts working to restore it in a large garage complex owned by the loathsome Darnell. As Arnie spends more and more time with Christine, as he's named the car, his entire persona changes from the sweet, if dorky, nerd to someone more confident and dangerous. And while he's now dating Leigh, the hottest girl in school, his heart truly lies with Christine. And Christine has a mind of her own...This is one of the better King adaptations, and Carpenter's excellent camera-work and pacing keep the film moving along even through the rough patches. His usual great synth scoring works well too, but will no doubt bother some viewers. There are lots of vintage rock hits on the soundtrack, as well. The cast is good, led by Keith Gordon as Arnie and John Stockwell as his worried best bud. Alexandra Paul is fetching, if a little wooden, as Leigh. Roberts Blossom has a great cameo as the disturbing former owner. But it's Robert Prosky, a veteran stage and screen supporting player, who steals every scene he's in as the grotesque Darnell. The great Harry Dean Stanton has a small bit as a cop, too, although his role goes nowhere. William Ostrander, a John Travolta lookalike, plays the lead high school bully, despite looking 35. Look out for Kelly Peston in an early role as another student. Incidentally, both male leads, Gordon and Stockwell, have gone on to successful directing careers in film and television.The scene of the unstoppable car, engulfed in flames as it slowly closes in on a victim on a deserted road at night, is one the better images in horror films of the time.

Without a doubt, Christine has got to be, next to Halloween of course,one of John Carpenter's best films. A movie about a teen falling in love with his car named Christine, which happens to be possessed by an unknown evil entity, proves to be a true horror masterpiece. Keith Gordon plays that teen, in an extremely strong, creepy performance, that is very memorable. John Stockwell as Gordon's best friend, and Alexandra Paul as Gordon's girlfriend, who sparks an intense jealous steak in Christine, are also excellent. In fact, in my opinion, the entire cast gives pretty good performances. Carpenter's direction is pitch perfect, done with ease and style, and a film that must be seen in its letterbox format, so you can truly appreciate each and every brilliant widescreen shot, absolutely amazing cinematography, I especially love the image of a completely engulfed in flames Christine speeding right behind one of Gordon's enemies, just beautiful. Also, Carpenter's score once again proves to be a major factor to the success of one of his movies, it's one factor that made Halloween so memorable, and Christine is no exception, it's a great score, every bit of music fits every scene perfectly, including the song "Bad To The Bone". Christine is suspenseful, gripping, and exciting. Filled with characters that are true to life, in ways, you can relate to them, especially Gordon's Arnie character. It's also interesting to see Arnie's transformation, from regular teen to an insane, obsessed psychopath. Furthermore, the visual effects are absolutely outstanding, seeing broken Christine, put itself back together again, is an amazing sight to watch. The revenge plot line in the movie...teen with killer car versus school bullies, may seem predictable, but who cares, it's always fun to watch jerks get what they deserve. By the way, it's also refreshing to see a horror movie be very effective, without showing too much blood. So, nevertheless, Christine maybe one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel, but in my opinion, It's one of the best John Carpenter movies of all time. Highly recommended.

Back in the mid-80s, novelist Stephen King was prolific and it seemed that barely a few months went by that a new film adaptation was not making its way to the screen, often with varying degrees of success. Christine was one of his more popular books of the time taking that old nutshell of the possessed car and making seem a whole lot more plausible and less silly than it should be. Hopes were raised when it was announced that horror director John Carpenter was helming the film. Carpenter was in a downswing and desperately needed a hit. After making the classic Halloween, Carpenter had a more modest success with the underrated The Fog. Unfortunately, his badly thought out Escape from NY tanked and his disastrous remake of The Thing (which now has an indefensible cult following) had been eviscerated by critics and imploded at the box office, so he was in need of a hit and King's novel offered fertile ground.Alas, it was not to be. King's story, told through the eyes of sensitive jock Dennis, recalling past tragic events involving his nerdy high school best friend Arnie and the dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury that Arnie falls in love with, buys and starts to restore with sinister impact, had a lot going for it. The story of a killer car is foolish, but King takes everything very seriously and populates his tale with sympathetic characters, has a good ear for how high schoolers talk, and has a strong number of requisite set pieces that stay in the memory long after one puts down the book. By contrast, Carpenter's film feels rushed, shallow and forgettable.Carpenter makes major changes in the plot and characters, ostensibly for budget purposes, and literally all of them function as detractions. Barring a couple of amazing shots of Christine's regenerative powers, the film looks cheap. Given how much Carpenter has excised, his film still has stretches of boredom. He seems incapable of garnering sympathy for his characters and even the villains come across as half-hearted cardboard nothings.His cast is not the best either. Veterans like Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Prosky and Christine Belford are completely wasted. The gaggle of actors playing the bullying tormentors of Arnie seem entirely too old to be in high school. In the lead, Keith Gordon, who has been much better elsewhere, makes the leap from nerdy doormat to arrogant, self-confident and ultimately psychotic with such speed that the audience never has a any rooting interest in his plight. Truthfully, this could more be the fault of the rush in the screenplay than the actor. As our protagonist, Dennis, John Stockwell is goofy, awkward and off-putting. Alexandra Paul is cast as "the prettiest girl in school", which is debatable here, and she as well has been better elsewhere. There is not much time placed in developing her relationship with Arnie so that anyone buys how badly his transition has impacted her or the lengths that she is willing to go in the film's latter portion.Carpenter's changes in story often make no sense. Truthfully, in King's novel, Christine was fairly neutral. It was the rancid soul of her detestable former owner that possessed her and galvanized the action and change in Arnie. By omitting that character from the film and oddly mixing the characteristics with a still living character, Carpenter makes nonsense stew. Carpenter also omits the clever touch of how the souls of Christine's victims become trapped in the car and end up making diabolical passengers during attack scenes.Worst of all, King's novel features some stunning attack sequences set in a wintry Pennsylvania, including the snow drift attack on Arnie's chief tormentor and a terrific sequence where another character is attacked in their isolated home during the height of a blizzard, but Carpenter axes all such sequences for incredibly cheap affairs. The latter character dies in the film when he inexplicably decides to hop into the driver seat of the still-smoldering car that he just witnessed driving itself into a garage and the car seat pushes itself forward so far that it crushes him. An incredibly memorable sequence has been swapped out for an unintentional embarrassment.This all combines to make Christine a misfire. The studio obviously was not willing to cough up the budget necessary for a good film, the cast fails to inhabit their characters, and Carpenter was not inspired enough to do much with what he had, so the end result is an exceedingly mediocre testament of what might have been had anyone cared.