Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 1983. That movie is "Christine".
Yes, guys, this is another one of those movies that I've never seen before. And I probably should have, considering that this movie was directed by John Carpenter. The only other time that I reviewed a movie of his for this series was "Escape From New York", which was quite a long time ago, probably about several years or so. And I think I'm well overdue, so I decided to cover another one of his movies tonight.
Now, I can tell you right off the bat that this movie, apart from it being directed by John Carpenter, is based off a novel written by Stephen King. Admittedly, I have never read any of his novels, but I have seen at least one of his stories that was made into a miniseries. And that was the 1990 version of "It". The one where Tim Curry's character was acting like an asshole in that thing. And before anyone might ask, no, I have never seen the 2017 film, nor it's sequel. I could possibly think about covering it for this series, but I can't really promise that.
So anyway, back onto tonight's subject. I'm really hoping for this thing to be good. After all, it is from John Carpenter, so there is a high probability that this thing is going to be at least reach the standards of it being good. However, considering that I've only seen about two movies from him, there is also that slight possibility that this movie could be a misfire from him. However, I'm still gonna hold hopes here on this thing being good. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing *is* any good at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Christine".
3 minutes later
Well, guys, I know it's early, but I can at least say that the soundtrack is starting off on a good note. Why? Well, I know you can't hear it for obvious reasons, but it's the "Bad to the Bone" playing in the opening. I honestly haven't heard that song in quite a while, so hearing it again brings a nice touch to this movie already.
20 minutes later
Sorry, guys, if I'm not saying a whole lot right now, I'm sorta getting invested into the story here. It's really intriguing me so far and I'm hoping it stays that way.
16 minutes later
OK, I have a really dumb question here that I want to ask. So earlier, when Arnie bought Christine, the car's mileage was around 93,000 miles or so. And when Dennis went to check out the car himself, the car is now at around 88,000 miles. Now, I don't claim to be a car person, but is it even possible to lower the mileage of a car that's already been driven? I'm pretty sure that you can't, and considering the nature of the car itself, I imagine that Christine might've "magically" lowered the mileage herself. But I am sorta curious to know if that's even possible to do it for real?
8 minutes later
All right, guys, this outburst from Arnie's girlfriend about her claiming that he spends more time with his car rather than her seems kinda...off to me. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, but I am gonna try to explain it once the movie is over. Just thought I'd let you guys know.
11 minutes later
Well, I *was* gonna question why the hell Arnie's response to his car being destroyed seemed rather calm and subdued, and then when his girlfriend tries to console him, he gives out a loud outburst at her instead and tells her not to touch Christine. I *think* it's safe to say that Arnie's priorities seem rather distorted now at this point, in case they weren't already.
19 minutes later
Well, guys, I believe it's now time for Christine to get her sweet, sweet revenge against this prick of a bully by going on a taxidermy rampage on him. And I'm also gonna say that those shots of her on fire while driving looks awesome. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Oh, she also blew up a gas station, too. Still won't be as satisfying as when she kills that prick, but it was still really cool, nonetheless.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Christine". And we're closing out with the same song that was in the opening. As much as I'd like to continue listening to it, I have to review this thing. So, I'm just gonna shut the movie off here...OK. So, I guess I should probably start by saying that I really enjoyed this thing quite a bit. Now, is it as good as, say, "Escape From New York"? No. But then again, I am somewhat more biased towards that thing, so that's just more of a personal thing on my part. And I'd also include "They Live" as well, the other film from Carpenter that I've seen. That said, though, this movie is still really good on it's own standards, so I don't want you to think that I'm gonna be dumping on this movie entirely just because I prefer a couple of Carpenter's films over this one.
So, now that I'm done stalling, let's actually talk about why this movie is really good. And I'm gonna start with the writing. The writing here is really solid, and there's two things that really help it stand out. The first is it's pacing. This movie has some of the best pacing I've seen in a long time. Mind you, the film runs at almost two hours long. And you'd think that this movie would find some way to slow itself down somewhat, considering it's runtime and all. However, that's not the case here. It goes by quick, and you're never gonna notice how fast this movie goes by. And I believe what helps it the most is it's director. John Carpenter knows how to pace his movies properly, just based on the 3 films that I've seen from him. Granted, "They Live" might've had a slight pacing issue, though it's only on the first viewing that I kinda noticed it. The more times I watched it though, it never became an issue for me anymore after that. But anyway, Carpenter, like I said, knows how to pace his films properly, And I want more directors to take note on how he does it. Follow his example, and you might have a better paced movie. I'll just leave it that that.
Now the second thing that helps this movie stand out is it's characters. Specifically, I'm more referring to Arnie Cunningham. Because, when you first see him, he stands out as the stereotypical nerdy kid in high school who would get bullied a lot. And he does in this movie, at the beginning of it. But soon after he buys Christine from this strange old guy, his nerdiness starts to fade away, and he stops wearing his glasses. Which, in part, was mainly because one of the bullies broke them. And from there, he starts to develop into this no-nonsense guy with a serious obsession with Christine, his car. And at first, it's kinda off-putting. But it starts to become more noticeable when his mind becomes warped into insanity and there's almost no going back with his character. It's such a change that it makes Arnie stand out as the most memorable character of the entire movie. The other characters are fine, but Arnie easily steals the show as one of the best characters of the entire movie. Of course, Christine is an obvious second place.
If there is anything I could comment on, in terms of writing, that could be considered a negative, there is one thing that stood out to me. And I mentioned this earlier when I commented on it. So earlier, I mentioned something about the scene where Leigh's outburst on claiming that Arnie spent more time with his car than with her seemed a bit off to me, and I believe I may know why that is. See, Leigh says all this to him, but you *never* see it from her perspective from before that scene happened. The only other time you see both Arnie and Leigh together with Christine is when they're sorta making out at a high school football game, and you never saw that kind of issue between the two then. So, for her to make that sudden outburst at him now just comes right out of nowhere. And I know someone's probably gonna mention that it happened in the Stephen King novel, however, as I've mentioned before, I'm *not* reviewing the novel, nor am I making any comparisons between this and the novel. I always review movies by their own standards. So this scene kinda falters a bit because it just comes right of nowhere without any sort of context to it.
Now despite that one misstep, the writing here is still really solid. And even though the premise for it is kinda silly in concept, it's still executed really well in a somewhat serious matter. The acting here is also pretty good, too. The best actor, by far, would have to go to Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham. He plays this character up so well that it's almost frightening. And I'm mostly referring to when his character starts to lose his fucking mind in the latter half of the film. It's great stuff, and it easily makes him the best actor in the entire movie. The rest of the acting is pretty good, too. It's not exactly great, mind you. In fact, I would say the weakest actor in this thing would have to be Alexandra Paul as Leigh. She sounds a bit flakey at times with her performance. However, I will say that, when compared to the previous time that I covered a film starring a "Baywatch" actress, that being Nicole Eggert in "The Demolitionist", Alexandra Paul is definitely the better actress of the two. Granted, I understand that's not saying a whole lot, but it's at least better than nothing. So I can at least grant her that. Her acting isn't that great, but it could've been a hell of a lot worse, too. So, regardless of all that, the acting here is still pretty good from most of the cast, with Keith Gordon stealing the show as the best actor of the movie.
Special effects here are fantastic. Just about all of the effects are done practically, and a lot of them involve the Christine car. One effect in particular that is really fascinating is the way Christine fixes herself magically, I guess if you want to call it. From whenever she gets heavily damaged and destroyed to looking like she's brand new each time she fixes herself. It looks so impressive that I honestly could not tell whether or not it was done in CG. Now it's very well possible that it was also done practically, like just about every other film from Carpenter, but the illusion of it is done really well, if it indeed was done practically. So yeah, guys, the special effects here are really awesome.
Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit really well. The sound-mix is mixed fine. The music here, both in score and the soundtrack, is fantastic. The score is the same kind of synth music that you would hear in something like "Escape From New York". But then again, the music was done by John Carpenter himself, so I guess it's to be expected to hear something similar like that again here. The soundtrack consists of a lot classic pop and rock songs. One of them I mentioned before is "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. There are a lot of songs that are played in the movie on Christine's radio that conveys what she's saying. One example I can think of is the song called "Little Bitty Pretty One" by Danny & The Juniors, where one of the bullies from earlier notices the Christine car from far away and the song will play, telling them to come and talk to her, as if to tempt the bully to come closer to her. It's subtle hints like that which make Christine that much more dangerous, and all for the better. So yeah, guys, the soundtrack, overall, is great, as is the entirety of the score as well.
In the end, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Christine"? Most certainly yes. Like I said, while it's not exactly one of Carpenter's best films, in my opinion, it still holds up really well on it's own standards. If you were a fan of any of King's novels-turned into film adaptations and you haven't seen this thing yet, then I can most certainly recommend it. As for myself, well, I already said that I enjoyed it, so I'm definitely gonna be holding onto it for my DVD collection. And I'm kinda glad that I was able to check out another one of John Carpenter's films for this series, because it was way overdue for me, to a point that I almost neglected them entirely. I do have a couple of other films from him that I'm hoping to cover for this series, hopefully at some point. But for now though, I'm gonna go and watch another film from John Carpenter. I'd love to watch "Escape From New York" again. However, I've kinda seen that one a little too many times, so I'm gonna go watch the other film from him that I haven't seen in a good long while. I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "They Live" again, because I have to be reminded of how awesome that movie is. So that's what I'm gonna go do next once I get done writing up this review.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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