A friend and I watched Christine last night. He and I watched it way back when it was originally released at the drive-in, and then we both have seen it numerous times since then.

Christine is one of my favorite King novels, and I have always loved the adaptation. Even while I find it somewhat frustrating.

On the plus side, the casting is all dead solid perfect. Arnie, Dennis, Leigh, of course, but also the supporting roles. I can not imagine better choices for the movie. Robert Prosky steals the show with endless repeatable lines like "You can't polish a turd".

I also love the photography. There are some great shots, such as when Dennis is walking by the girl who adores him in the library, and when Arnie looks up at Buddy Repperton's sadistic grin as his glasses get crunched.

The score is excellent, and the effects are top shelf. See what they could do before CGI took the guts out of special effects?

The frustrating part of the Christine adaptation is how rushed it seems. King's novel is a long one, and the detail in it adds so much to the story. Arnie's Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation/assimilation into Christine happens too quickly. It takes a lot of humanity out of the friendship of Arnie and Dennis, which is the heart of the story.

Still, the movie has a comfortable 80's high school vibe that I always find to be irresistible.


I downloaded the Hearts in Atlantis audiobook at a Downpour.com sale the other day, and I started listening to it this morning. Hearts in Atlantis is a ray of sunshine in a time when I didn't care a lot for most King publications. I'll never consider it to be among my favorites, but I like it one hell of a lot more than Rose Madder, Insomnia, From a Buick 8, Desperation, The Regulators, Dreamcatcher, and some others I could mention. Like the Dark Tower series.

I am aware that there are DT connections in Hearts in Atlantis, but thankfully one can read it without plowing through those books. I got bogged down on the fourth one in the Dark Tower series, and I have never looked back, nor have I regretted that decision in the least.

The Hearts in Atlantis adaptation isn't bad, but it always seemed astonishing to me that they named it after a different story in the book than the one they filmed!

I am still on the first part of Hearts in Atlantis, which is called Low Men in Brown Suits.



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