On 18 Cinema Lane, most of the movies that I’ve reviewed so far have been Hallmark movies. While I enjoy watching and talking about these kinds of films, I also try my best to provide a variety of movies to discuss on my blog. Recently, I had the chance to watch Christine and felt that it would be a good opportunity to talk about something new on 18 Cinema Lane. This was the first time I had ever seen a John Carpenter directed film, but I have definitely heard of his cinematic projects over the years. While I don’t review rated R movies often, I watched a TV-14/PG-13 version of this film, so I consider Christine to be an exception. Now that we’ve gotten through the introductions, let’s buckle up and cruise through my review of Christine.

Things I liked about the film:

The acting: I thought the cast of Christine was talented! The one actor that stood out to me, though, was Keith Gordon! His portrayal of Arnie Cunningham was so memorable and captivating, his performance stayed in my memory long after I watched the film. Arnie’s evolution was showcased so well in this movie, with Keith bringing the right amount of versatility that a role like this could have asked for. This is definitely one of the best acting performances in any of Stephen King’s book-to-film adaptations!

 

The soundtrack: Though most of the music in this movie was meant to sound and feel like tunes from decades past, I think it was a great component to the film! The collection of songs that was featured in the movie was all great! Whenever Christine was reacting to a particular situation, there was always a perfect song to match what she was thinking. I also liked the instrumental tunes that were used during suspenseful moments, as they really set the tone that the film wanted to achieve.

 

The cars: Even though the movie is all about Christine, she ended up stealing the show. The red car that was used to portray the titular character was absolutely gorgeous! Besides Christine, there were other nice-looking cars as well, such as Dennis’ blue car and Buddy’s silver car.

What I didn’t like about the film:

The underutilization of Dennis: John Stockwell did a good job portraying the character of Dennis Guilder! This character was not only well-acted, but also well-written. However, Dennis was not in the movie as much as I would have hoped. While the movie primarily focuses on Arnie’s transformation, it seems like most of Dennis’ significance is to, simply, be Arnie’s friend. Dennis does gain an important role in Christine, but that comes toward the end of the film.

 

The bullies: Similar to what I said about Dennis, each of the bullies in this film were well-acted. But I don’t feel that the bullies were well-written characters. To me, it seemed that these characters being mere bullies is what defined them. If that definition were to be taken away, these characters would be pretty weak. There also wasn’t any depth to these characters, like they were written into this story just for the sake of Arnie needing to have a conflict.

 

An anti-climatic ending: I’m not going to spoil anything if you haven’t seen Christine, but I thought the ending was very uneventful. For starters, this movie wasn’t as “scary” as I had expected. I know a story about a villainous car can sound silly, but this story was based on the novel by Stephen King, who is known for such literary works like Misery and The Shining. The plot itself did have some intrigue, but I just couldn’t take the idea of an angry car very seriously.

My overall impression:

John Carpenter is known for directing some pretty scary films, such as The Thing and Halloween. Stephen King is famous for writing some pretty scary stories, such as Misery and The Shining, which were previously mentioned. On paper, this sounds like a one-in-a-million, horror movie “dream team”. Because of Mr. Carpenter directing a movie based on one of Mr. King’s books, I expected Christine to be scarier and more frightening. In reality, this movie did not reach my personal expectations. Though the film fell short of being remotely scary, I don’t think it was a terrible film. I have seen other movies based on Stephen King’s stories and while I don’t think it’s one of the best adaptations, it’s definitely not one of the worst. I think that a story about a villainous car was a creative concept, but in the end, it felt more silly than scary.

 

Overall score: 6.5 out of 10

 

Have you seen Christine? What’s your favorite Stephen King adaptation? Let me know in the comment section!

 

Have fun at the movies!

Sally Silverscreen