Cheap Christine (DVD) (Keith Gordon, John Stockwell) (John Carpenter) Price

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Customer Reviews of Christine

What's Under This Hood Is Purely And Simply EVIL
Stephen King's novels have formed the basis for a great many horror films over the last quarter century. Some have been superlative (CARRIE, THE SHINING), others just terrible (PET SEMATARY, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE). CHRISTINE can be counted among the superlative ones. Under the expert hands of HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter, this film provides the requisite chills and atmosphere minus a lot of unnecessary blood and gore.

Keith Gordon stars as a geeky high school student named Arnie Cunningham who is always getting picked upon by the local school bullies (sound familiar?). But when he eyes a rusted old 1957 Plymouth Fury, his life really turns around. Over the objections of his best friend (John Stockwell), he fixes it up at a local garage (run by a salty-tongued Robert Prosky) to a point where the car is as good as new. Gordon even starts up a relationship with the high school dream queen (Alexandra Paul). There's just one problem, though. Christine won't let it go that far.

For this '57 Fury is definitely possessed, and pretty soon it takes possession of Gordon. When the school bullies retaliate against Gordon by trashing Christine, the car repairs itself and goes after the perpetrators one by one. But the car also reacts in a jealous and homicidal way against Paul, who nearly chokes on a hamburger at a drive-in with Gordon. And when Paul and Stockwell come to realize that Gordon is indeed totally over the edge, they plot to destroy the car, using a bulldozer inside Prosky's garage. Unfortunately, Gordon dies in the final melee. And although Christine itself seems to be crushed to a metal cube, in the tag end scene, a metal piece can be seen repairing itself...

Although the setting of the film is changed from King's novel (there, it was western Pennsylvania; in the film, it's southern California), CHRISTINE for the most part stays true to the basic essentials of the book in its depiction of high school bullies and teenage life during 1978-79, which is the era depicted. There is a certain appropriateness to having Christine's radio play nothing but early rock and roll records, like Little Richard's "Keep A Knockin'", and Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One", while most of the other songs are of the late 70s ("Runaway" by Bonnie Raitt, "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers).

Carpenter makes sure that the emphasis on the movie is on the situations in Gordon's life that lead him to Christine, and how letting his life get totally dominated by that car eventually scares the living daylights out of Stockwell and Paul. Furthermore, he does this in the same suspenseful fashion that made HALLOWEEN work to such a tee. His and Alan Howarth's synthesizer-dominated music score lends further atmosphere to the proceedings. Some may complain about the slight excess of profanity in the screenplay, but it is typical of King's work and appropriate in the way it depicts teenage behavior.

CHRISTINE does, as many point out, bear a resemblance to the much underrated (or much maligned) 1977 thriller THE CAR. But it is unique in its own way. And for those seeking something more than mad slashers and buckets of blood, CHRISTINE is well worth watching.

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Still Worth The 5 Stars.
I actually read the book first which made me expect more out of the movie, oh well. The movie, however, is still worth the 5 stars I've given it because John Carpenter directed the movie and it turned out excellent, the special effects are awesome, AND that the story itself is by Stephen King. Now anybody who has read the book knows what the movie is basically about, but for those who haven't ventured this way, let me elaborate. The key characters are Christine herself (keep in mind she's a car), Arnie Cunningham, who falls in love with Christine, and Dennis Guilder, who is a friend of Arnie but an enemy of Christine. Arnie falls in love with Christine and buys her from George LeBay (Roland LeBay in the book, George is the brother), who is an eccentric old man. Arnie fixes her up to almost brand new, but all the other characters (Dennis, Arnie's parents, Leah Cabot) have this disturbing sense that Christine is more than what she appears to be. Turns out they're right when Christine slowly changes Arnie's personality from nerd to suave psycho. There's more to tell, but I don't want to give the movie away! The special effects where Christine rebuilds herself after each bashing is astounding! I'm still trying to figure out HOW did they do that. After seeing this you might think about the car you have. There is a lot of explicit language so this wouldn't be for those who are under age. An excellent car movie, but don't read the book first!

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Horrible- if you read the book
This movie was the biggest disappointment of any Stephen Kings books. If anyone read the book they would know about the deep characters built, and the story line. Instead the worthless John Carpenter skipped the real story of Christine, didn't even have the Lebay alive at the beginning and just his brother- please. This is like a movie version if you bought Cliff notes. I was never more disappointed in a SK book to movie in my life.