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"Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

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"Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Old 09-27-14, 05:05 PM
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"Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21





John Carpenter's Christine (1983)



Selected by Darth Maher



IMDB ENTRY

ALYXSTARR LINK

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These "October Horror Movie Challenge" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 FILM SUBSET list.

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day.
You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day.
Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.



Spoiler tags are unnecessary in here, so if you have yet to see the film BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
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2014 DISCUSSION THREAD | 2014 LIST THREAD


Last edited by Chad; 10-05-14 at 01:50 PM.
Old 10-21-14, 12:00 AM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

I love the introductory segment with Christine's manufacturing involving many injuries/deaths. Were those caused by her being a somehow evil car or did she somehow become malicious as a result, chicken or egg?

They do a good job of setting up unlikeable scum for an anti-hero car but Arny is a bit over the top nerdy at first.

Here's some interesting IMDB trivia, my how times have changes...
Originally Posted by IMDB
According to Bill Phillips on the DVD Documentary, the movie technically didn't have enough violence to justify an "R" rating. But they were afraid that if the movie went out with a PG rating (PG-13 didn't exist yet) nobody would go to see it. So he purposely inserted the word "fuck" and its derivatives in order to get the "R" rating. He then recalls that they were criticized at the time for their use of the word.
Good movie that holds up well, I'm surprised it hasn't been a subset pick earlier.

Epic bulldozer standoff.

Last edited by Undeadcow; 10-21-14 at 01:20 AM.
Old 10-21-14, 10:13 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

I managed to purchase the Twilight Time BD for this when someone had it for a ridiculously low price on Amazon (must not have realized its market value). This looks absolutely beautiful on BD. I bought it with the intention to flip on eBay, but I may just hang on to it while I have it.

Christine revving in DTS HD-MA... Mmmm...

And thanks for the pic, Darth. One of those I've been meaning to revisit for years, and now that I have I feel like I've found a sorely forsaken treasure in my movie library.
Old 10-22-14, 09:11 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

The effect of Christine fixing itself is still pretty cool.
Old 10-22-14, 09:50 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Hadn't watched this in years and was amazed at how well it holds up. Don't really like the lead actor, or the way he was directed/written perhaps, but most other aspects of the film work very well.
Old 10-24-14, 05:42 AM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

I am going to go against the grain a little and state that this movie has gotten worse with each subsequent viewing.

It is one of those strange movies where it is cast extremely well except the main lead. I just find him completely obnoxious and honestly unbelievable as both a total nerd and a super cool dude. And even though the rest of the cast is good, they all take a huge back seat to the car which is the star of the show and honestly has more personality than any of the human characters in this movie. That may be intended of course but when you are rooting for the car to kill everyone on screen, I doubt that is what the filmmaker intended.

The only human character I found completely interesting was Buddy Repperton. Now that is a character I would like to see a prequel for. Everyone had a 35 year old looking, super cut, total asshole in high school and this guy was perfect. And I never found Alexandra Paul's super attraction to the Arnie character believable.

There are a couple of stand out scenes in this movie that make it worth watching. Christine's self-repair, Christine tearing itself apart to get to a guy in a tight corner, and Christine's relentlessness at the gas station (Christine on fire is an awesome sight). So with those awesome scenes already, I always feel a little let down at the climax. It's decent but doesn't seem to have the punch of those other scenes.

Carpenter's score, while totally passable, is sadly forgettable and not very interesting. The choices of the 50's pop songs are outstanding though and really take the place of Carpenter's score.

And if the jock had seen Kelly Preston in Mischief and Alexandra Paul in American Flyers, he would have never given Paul the time of day in the library.

I am glad I passed on the Twilight Time BD now.

My rating: *** out of *****
Old 10-24-14, 08:13 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Originally Posted by Spiderbite
I am going to go against the grain a little and state that this movie has gotten worse with each subsequent viewing.
I would agree with that statement, except that I've never found Christine to be particularly good. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and thought that it was rather lackluster. My opinion hasn't changed at all. It seems to me that Carpenter's heart wasn't really in this one. And is it just me, or are there some really weird leaps in the narrative? Arnie seems to go from uber-nerd to cool guy overnight, and why does Dennis's spinal injury require a leg brace once he gets out of the hospital? When exactly did Arnie and Leigh hook up, and why?

I also agree with Spiderbite's assessment of Carpenter's score. In fact, I think that this is one of Carpenter's two or three worst films (although I'd give the nod to Prince of Darkness as his absolute worst). For what is ostensibly a horror film, there's nary a scare to be found in it. For me, the only bright spot in the whole film is Roberts Blossom's performance. The man was a national treasure.
Old 10-24-14, 09:59 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Originally Posted by rbrown498

I also agree with Spiderbite's assessment of Carpenter's score. In fact, I think that this is one of Carpenter's two or three worst films (although I'd give the nod to Prince of Darkness as his absolute worst). For what is ostensibly a horror film, there's nary a scare to be found in it. For me, the only bright spot in the whole film is Roberts Blossom's performance. The man was a national treasure.
Thank goodness someone else hates Prince Of Darkness. I tried watching it last year and hated it. I definitely don't understand the love that movie gets.
Old 10-25-14, 08:15 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Originally Posted by rbrown498
I would agree with that statement, except that I've never found Christine to be particularly good. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and thought that it was rather lackluster. My opinion hasn't changed at all. It seems to me that Carpenter's heart wasn't really in this one. And is it just me, or are there some really weird leaps in the narrative? Arnie seems to go from uber-nerd to cool guy overnight, and why does Dennis's spinal injury require a leg brace once he gets out of the hospital? When exactly did Arnie and Leigh hook up, and why?
+1 to everything except the crazy assertion that Prince of Darkness is Carpenter's worst film. Christine is definitely one of Carpenter's lesser efforts. There is probably a better movie lurking under its exterior, if you re-made the cast and shaped the narrative a little differently. This is the horror movie that is ripe for a remake to improve it, though I guess its obscurity doesn't help sell a remake.
Old 10-27-14, 06:01 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

As a long time fan of both Stephen King and John Carpenter I surprisingly have never seen this or read the book. I'm not a big car guy, and knowing Stephen King the book would mostly be full of childhood/teenage nostalgia, muscle cars, and rock and roll. Also the concept of a killer car was just too silly for me to take seriously After watching the movie that seems like a fair assumption. I have to say that it was all a lot better than I expected it to be, I loved the sound track and the fact that the radio playing classic rock and roll was the way Christine announced her presence. There were a few times where the headlights popping up and the engine revving actually startled me, and all of the car chase/attack scenes were really well directed.

This movie probably should have turned out much worse than it did. The reconstruction scene was great, that holds up really well. I liked how the car was evil but also had a negative effect on the owner, although I agree with others that the main character was a bit weak or they wrote him to be too obnoxious. You really wanted to punch the guy whenever he was on screen, and perhaps that was the point, but it seemed like the film couldn't decide which of the two guys were the main character.
Old 12-03-15, 01:43 PM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

I do wish lots of the book kills and other things were in the movie. Love how Darnell is killed in the book compared to the movie.
Old 10-06-23, 09:43 AM
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Re: "Christine" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 21

Originally Posted by Spiderbite
I am going to go against the grain a little and state that this movie has gotten worse with each subsequent viewing.

It is one of those strange movies where it is cast extremely well except the main lead. I just find him completely obnoxious and honestly unbelievable as both a total nerd and a super cool dude. And even though the rest of the cast is good, they all take a huge back seat to the car which is the star of the show and honestly has more personality than any of the human characters in this movie. That may be intended of course but when you are rooting for the car to kill everyone on screen, I doubt that is what the filmmaker intended.

The only human character I found completely interesting was Buddy Repperton. Now that is a character I would like to see a prequel for. Everyone had a 35 year old looking, super cut, total asshole in high school and this guy was perfect. And I never found Alexandra Paul's super attraction to the Arnie character believable.

There are a couple of stand out scenes in this movie that make it worth watching. Christine's self-repair, Christine tearing itself apart to get to a guy in a tight corner, and Christine's relentlessness at the gas station (Christine on fire is an awesome sight). So with those awesome scenes already, I always feel a little let down at the climax. It's decent but doesn't seem to have the punch of those other scenes.

Carpenter's score, while totally passable, is sadly forgettable and not very interesting. The choices of the 50's pop songs are outstanding though and really take the place of Carpenter's score.

And if the jock had seen Kelly Preston in Mischief and Alexandra Paul in American Flyers, he would have never given Paul the time of day in the library.

I am glad I passed on the Twilight Time BD now.

My rating: *** out of *****

I watched this again last night with a couple of buddies and gotta say that my opinion of this movie has not really changed much. But the highlights of the movie and how great the picture look on the UHD made be bump it up a notch to a rating of ***1/2 out of *****.

All the beer probably helped as well.

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