Day 5- Movie 6. Christine (1983)

It's rare that I see movies one after another that I would give the same rating. And yet, for the third time in a row here, I watched a movie that wasn't quite good, but wasn't really bad, either. Christine is the latest decent-but-not-quite-good-enough film I've watched during this challenge. I actually thought this one had some real potential. Yes, it's an early 80s horror film, but it was based on a Stephen King story, and directed by John Carpenter. There was really no reason for this one not to work.

And yet, it doesn't work completely. It was interesting to watch a story about an evil car and the impact it has on its owner. I always like when movies can take something harmless and make it scary (for example, The Birds). This movie takes a car- something specifically designed to protect us and keep us safe- and makes it frightening. That's pretty cool. And yet, this is still a movie about an evil car out to kill people who have done it or its owner wrong. That's a pretty silly premise, no matter what anyone says.

So, this is yet another movie that doesn't really make much of an impact on me. I don't hate this film, but I don't love it, either. It exists in that in-between. The most I can offer up for this movie is a shrug. I enjoyed watching it, but not that much. I would give this movie a 6.5/10.

Since I don't have a great deal to say about this movie, I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain how I rate movies. I use a 1-10 scale, with .5s to help differentiate between them. Most movies fall into the middle scores. Less films hit the extremes. It makes sense if you think about it, especially for someone who loves movies. Most movies I've seen fall in the following scoring categories-

6- okay movie

6.5- decent movie

7- good movie

7.5- really good movie

8- great movie

I kept it pretty simplistic here. I actually have a much more complicated process of arriving at these scores. It involves examining the entertainment value, what the movie delivered v. what it promised, was I engaged on an intellectual and emotional level, how does it compare to similar movies, and several other factors. The majority of movies I've seen are at least decent (this is somewhat skewed because I tend not to get excited about watching a ton of crappy movies).

However, films do reach the extremes. Lower than 6 is really just different degrees of crappiness. A 1 is the lowest score I'd give, and I save that for especially atrocious films- that is pretty rare (less than .5% movies I've seen score that low).

Scores higher than 8 similarly get increasingly more rare. Here's a simple view of those scores and what they mean-

8.5- really great movie

9- excellent movie

9.5- nearly perfect

10- as close to perfection as possible

These scores are pretty rare also. Less than 5% of the movies I've seen score 8.5. Less than 3% score 9. Only 1% score 9.5, and less than .5% of movies get a perfect 10. This is probably pretty normal as well- you've probably seen lots of good movies, but fewer movies that have really stuck with you or made an impact on your life.

Well, after the first five days, I'm in good shape- one movie ahead of the pace I need to keep. However, the next week is going to be interesting. There's a good chance I won't watch a movie over the next four days, and the weekend might allow me to get only 1-2 more in. I am willing to bet a week from now, I'm going to be behind schedule. I knew that would happen- there's some days where it's just impossible to find time to watch a movie. I was hoping to get further along this weekend- to create a bigger buffer. That didn't happen. Oh well, at least for today, I'm doing well. 6 down, 94 to go...