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Rating:  - Great Movie
I just watched this classic film last night for the first time ever. I have to say I LOVED it. I am def. going to buy this dvd in the near future, I HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of classic horror and or Stephen King movies.
Rating:  - EXTRAS & SPECIAL FEATURES AMAZON INSIST ON IGNORING
Commentary: A fine commentary track with director John Carpenter, and star-turned-director Keith Gordon.
Deleted and Alternate Scenes: 20 scenes of varying length. Runs to around 26 minutes and presented in the aspect ratio of the main feature.
Featurettes: There are three of these featurettes.
Interviews; with most of the principals: John Carpenter, screenwriter Bill Phillips, stars Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, the producer, stunt co-ordinator.
Christine: Ignition 11 mins 52 secs.
Christine: Fast and Furious 28 mins 53 secs.
Christine: Finishline 7 mins 17 secs.
Filmographies
Rating: - excellent transaction
very happy with this movie. I saw it when it came out and now our Son loves it too. I wanted to get a better copy then the old VHS so that why i purchased a DVD versio. It is excellent..
Rating: - the return of Christine
I was re-reading the paperback, (with its excessive use of scotch tape) and decided to come and seek out the movie. The book was of course, phenomenal, and what made me laugh was the part where Darnell asks, "Where the hell do you buy HALF a grill?" because when they mentioned it, I wondered the same thing.
I kinda missed that in the movie. i would have loved to feel the anxiety of the car nuts KNOWING you can't buy half a grill.
I liked Darnell's and LeBay's characters in the movie, but in the book, they mentioned repeatedly that Darnell was smart enough to have been "in business" for a long time...so why would he go sit in the car after watching it pull into stall 20 driverless? Smart guys tend to operate on feel and instinct, not logic.
Also, most brilliant use of George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone," possible. I vote it best title song since either "Casino," "Psycho," or (my personal favorite) "Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke;" using War's "Low Rider."
If you like "flubs" in props, note Janet Lee's eye twiching twice at the shower scene conclusion, and in Up in Smoke, note the Ludwig Vistalite drums (ie, John Bonham, Karen Carpenter (blue set, no bottom heads on the doc "Remembering the Carpenters"--amazing jazz player!!!), and Keith Moon (clear set, no bottom heads in Carmine Appice's "Classic rock Drum Solos"--GREAT video--the BEST!) in the back seat with the drumhead on and off several times in the same shot.
For some reason, note the band arguing onstage in the latter, also.
In "the Blues Brothers," I noted the other night that Dan Ackroyd is singing on the track, but NOT at the show. Not to mention the drums on the track in several spots don't match the movie drummer.
The mall they drove through was the Dixie Square in Harvey Il, was closed two-three years before the movie, and is online was it is now at [...] which is a great well-documented site.
There's a worse case of drums not matching audio in the movie, "Auto Focus." Really, the worst case of mismatched audio music/drum to track drums/music I've ever seen...Also features a gorgeous maroonie-red '74 Lambo Espada. Which'd be worth watching the whole film for even if you hated it. But, no, it's still a good movie, and fun, like "Christine."
There's a bit of this phenom in "The Gene Krupa Story," which is THE movie to buy if you ever loved a drum part. It's forgivable, as Sal Mineo ("Rebel Without a Cause") was very good (as he'd have to be to fake Krupa), but the audio's Gene Krupa himself!!
Rating: - "Okay...show me."
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.
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