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Christine

Christine (1983)

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 3

audience

62

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 61,614

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Movie Info

Director John Carpenter returns to the suburban landscape he explored so chillingly in Halloween (1978) with this lean, stripped-down adaptation of the Stephen King best-seller about a haunted car with a devilishly bad attitude and the teen underdog who falls head-over-heels for her chrome-accented charms. Shortly after geeky, horn-rim-sporting Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) narrowly escapes a beating at the hands of shop-class bully Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander) on the first day of his

R, 1 hr. 45 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Sep 28, 2004

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (9) | DVD (20)

This deja vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop-worn.

September 24, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Carpenter's thematic self-consciousness can't entirely overcome a shaky dramatic structure that sacrifices character logic to increasingly meaningless thrills.

September 24, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
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This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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Only a moderately engrossing film.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Proves Carpenter's mastery of both mood and the widescreen frame.

April 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Slickly made dumb horror flick about a diabolical car and a nerd transformed into a lady killer.

January 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment (1)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Fifties fetishism here is not nostalgia but critique, the cultural residue that deforms consciousness

November 16, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment
CinePassion

Tight editing and some decent scares make this one of the better King adaptations.

May 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Boils down to another average adaptation of one of the increasingly weak Stephen King novels that hit Hollywood like a bad rash in 1983.

September 24, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Off the page, a 1958 Plymouth is no more scary than the St Bernard which romped through Cujo.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment (1)

Very of-its-time horror.

November 3, 2005 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Tense and faithful adaptation of the Stephen King classic.

July 22, 2004 Comment
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Christine

A minor work by Carpenter but still thoroughly entertaining. Great character acting by Robert Prosky and Roberts Blossom as well.

November 2, 2011
Graham Jones

Super Reviewer

I usually don't tend to find possessed vehicle movies particularly frightening but there was something really menacing and chilling about "Christine" - the devilish Plymouth Fury that seduces a 17 year-old college boy into fixing her up to her former glory to get up to more murderous mischief. It's pretty tame violence

March 28, 2011
WrenchLT
Lee ?

Super Reviewer

    1. Leigh Cabot: God, I hate rock and roll.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. Buddy: Let's give this a**hole some of his own medicine.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. Arnie Cunningham: Oh man, there is nothing finer than being behind the wheel of your own car! Except 'maybe' for pussy!
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. Buddy: (to Arnie) I'll fix you, you're gonna wish you were never fu**ing born!
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)
    1. Arnie Cunningham: (about Christine) Whoa, whoa. You better watch what you say about my car. She's real sensitive.
    – Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

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