Christine

I remember catching a part of this movie on television and not being very impressed. Watching it in full, though, does improve the experience somewhat.

It follows the basic plot well enough. Arnie's a nerd who buys a clunker that turns out to be evil. He becomes obsessed with it and drives away his friends and family. Interestingly, the influece of DeBay is removed entirely. The man who sells Arnie the car is named LeBay but it's his brother, as Roland had already killed himself.

Rather than imply that the car is haunted, Carpenter decided to go with a straight forward "evil car" approach. This is made evident in the opening when the hood smashes down on the assembly line workers hand.

The acting is pretty subpar. Keith Gordon, who plays Arnie, really hams it up, especially in the later scenes. He'll just constantly flash people the crazy eyes and it's more giggle inducing than it is unnerving. Arnie's parents don't really come off as likable either. I remember them being a bit more sympathetic in the book, but it wasn't the case here.

Carpenter did a good job of making the car look like a monster. The scene where Christine becomes engulfed in flames and the final shots during the climax effectively make it appear almost demonic in nature.

While there aren't any big name actors, you will recognize a few faces. Robert Prosky (one of those "hey it's that guy"s) plays the mechanic. When I was watching the movie, I noticed that one of the thugs (Rich Cholony) looked like the kid from "Ghostbusters". You know, the one who Venkman zaps in the beginning? I looked on IMDB and it turns out that it is the same guy, who's name is Steven Tash. Moochie also reminded me of Jonah Hill. He talks and kind of looks like the more modern actor. There doesn't seem to be any relation, so that was rather odd. Also, LeBay is played by the same guy who played the neighbor in "Home Alone".

The soundtrack is pretty effective and is somewhat reminiscent of "Halloween". It's not surprising considering the director, but I definitely picked up that vibe and it worked pretty well here. There are also quite a few oldies included as Christine seems to be fond of them. It does the job, but doesn't end up being as eerie as one would hope.

Like a few other King adaptations, changes were made, but they were minor in nature and didn't really have a huge impact on the story. My roommate was vexed that they changed the location to California and he worried that it was an indicator that the movie would suck, but it turned out decent enough. It's one of those movies that is, as tvtropes.org puts it, so okay it's average. It's not bad, but it's not really a must watch either.

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