Christine Review
The movie Christine is an adaptation of the well known novel of the same name by Stephen King.
It tells a story centred around a nerdy high school kid named Arnie and his best mate Dennis. Arnie is struggling at school and getting bullied by a gang of boys whose leader is Buddy. Whilst Dennis and Arnie are driving home, Arnie sees a car in a man's front yard. This car is Christine. Dennis gets a strange sense of evilness from Christine and tries to talk Arnie out of buying her, however Arnie insists and faces conflict when he tells his parents he bought her. Because it can't stay at his home, Arnie stores Christine at Darnell's workplace (Darnell is the owner of the workshop where Arnie stores Christine) and strange things start to happen between Arnie and Christine, causing many problems for Dennis and his family.
The characters in the film are true to those of the novel. We see Dennis as an average and mature high school kid who would do anything help his friend Arnie and is eager to get the girls. This is seen when Buddy is picking on Arnie in the school's workshop and when Arnie wants to buy Christine. We see Arnie as your average high school nerd who is having trouble at school, has learning difficulties and is a target for bullying. This is shown when Buddy gangs up on him at school. Buddy is that high school guy who is not wanting to give in to something he did wrong, is a leader and likes to pick on the lower level students like Arnie for his enjoyment. He is shown as bully when he gangs up on Arnie at school. Leigh is one of the high school girls that Dennis is eyeing all the time. She is also very flirty but can get very firm when pushed the wrong way. This is seen when she is with Arnie at at the drive-in and she doesn't want to be near Christine. She is also portrayed accurately when she is walking down the corridor at school. All these characters are represented in the novel and the film the same way in my eyes.
Music in this film is well chosen and suits the setting extremely well. It is filled with lots of retro hits like Bad to The Bone, giving it that old style horror look and like I said before, it works well.
This film is strong to its source. I'm sure Steven King would appreciate the quality and effort put into this film. But like other adaptations, this film doesn't include everything and some parts that aren't in the book are added in, probably due to time constraints. But all in all it is very accurate portrayal of the book.
I found it enjoyable and because I have read the book I already knew what was going to happen in the end. However some scenes were a little distracting and irritating but most of it seemed to flow well. I would recommend to this to anyone who wants a good retro horror flick without much blood n gore.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Ingredients:
~ 8oz Soft Margarine (225g, 1 cup)
~ 4oz Caster Sugar (113g, 1/2 cup) (or any sugar suitable for cooking with)
~ 1tsp Vanilla Essence
~ 8oz Self Raising Flour (225g, 2 cups)
~ 2oz Drinking Chocolate (56g 1/2 cup)
Note: If you can't find drinking chocolate, you can use cocoa, but you will need to add some extra sugar in place of some of the drinking chocolate or your biccies will be very bitter
Method
1. Preheat oven to 375°F, 190°c, Gas Mark 5
2. Cream together margarine and sugar with vanilla essence until soft.
3. Work in flour and drinking chocolate.
4. Divide dough into small walnut sized pieces and place well spaced on a lightly floured baking tray.
5. Flatten each biscuit with a fork or potato masher
6. Bake in oven for 8-10 mins. DON'T LET THEM BROWN TOO MUCH. These biccies are infinitely better if slightly undercooked than if you let them overcook, in fact I often slightly under cook them deliberately!
7. Leave biscuits to harden for a few mins on the baking tray.
8. Lift them off and leave to cool.
9. Enjoy!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
How to survive public transport problems.
Public transport is made to help people get to where they want to be without the costs of fuel or peeling your bum off the car seat on a hot day. Public transport is also good for those without an automobile and is used quite often. Even I use public transport from time to time. Most of the world's public transport system consists of buses, trains, trams, planes, boats and even just our own two feet. However, public transport is not always reliable and is often said to be very expensive. Cancellations, delays, noise, abuse, vandalism, fare increases, hijackers and crashes are the many common things that go along with public transport. This guide will show you how to survive those many issues that can happen when traveling on a public transport system.
Cancellations and delays are obviously the most common issue to people who catch public transport. They happen predominantly with trains. There is not much you can do about this but just be patient, wait and find something to pass time. Usually the delays only last for about 5 to 10 minutes and be coped with pretty easily. Cancellations aren't as easy to cope with, especially if you have to be somewhere by a certain time. A cancellation can make you wait anywhere from 15 minutes up to a few hours, especially if the cancellations are continuous. When my town of Melbourne in Australia was suffering from 3 days of extreme heat, there were over 100 hundred cancellations across the whole public transport network, but mainly trains. The best thing we could do is just sit back and wait.
Noise, abuse and vandalism are pretty annoying. There is not much you can do about this either. Usually there would be authorized officers around but sometimes you are left to sufferit. There a couple of things that I do that help me when I encounter this everyday on the way to TAFE(Technical and Further Education). I turn my music up and try to concentrate on reading a book or playing my Nintendo DS. This does work sometimes, but noise can override my music when there are lots of people chatting, laughing, yelling or even arguing. Otherwise, I just try hard to ignore the abuse, noise and vandalism thats going on; which tends to work more that music. Ignoring is the only help I can give if your going to encounter vandalism and abuse. If you become a target for abuse and vandalism, tell the driver through either pushing the red emergency button, going to the drivers seat or just hopeing that someone will help or an officer will appear. Dialing 000 or 911 might work too if it's serious.
When fares increases, it's usually due to the government wanting to increase taxes so they can pay for building new railways or upgrading other transport. It can also be due to economic problems. Not much I can say here but just deal with it. Fares are never going to go down and they will always be increasing. When I was young, fares used to cost around $2 Aussie Dollars for a day ticket. Now it costs nearly $6 Aussie Dollars and it is expected to increase again soon. I am dealing with it and it's the only thing I can do. They won't respond to my complaints about it so it's no use complaining. Just take it as a fact of life.
Be aware that hijackers and crashes can happen anywhere on public transport. Your best thing to do when a hijacker is on is just not move or say a word. Don't look at the hijacker(s) either as that may make you a target and you could be in big trouble at that stage. Crashes are more common and quite often happen on buses more than trains, planes, boats or trams. There have been many incidents in the media about crashes. If you do happen to be in one then try and escape as best as you can, or hope that someone will rescue you. If it is about to crash then break out with the emergency hammer and run for your life. It is very unlikely that we will see an incident like the Titanic again, but it too can happen at any time.
In conclusion, common sense is the main thing that can help you deal with all these problems. The help I have given you for the problems is all part of common sense. I hope this helps and gives an insight into what can be a hectic public transport. Good luck when using public transport because sometimes it's like a bloody lottery.
Cancellations and delays are obviously the most common issue to people who catch public transport. They happen predominantly with trains. There is not much you can do about this but just be patient, wait and find something to pass time. Usually the delays only last for about 5 to 10 minutes and be coped with pretty easily. Cancellations aren't as easy to cope with, especially if you have to be somewhere by a certain time. A cancellation can make you wait anywhere from 15 minutes up to a few hours, especially if the cancellations are continuous. When my town of Melbourne in Australia was suffering from 3 days of extreme heat, there were over 100 hundred cancellations across the whole public transport network, but mainly trains. The best thing we could do is just sit back and wait.
Noise, abuse and vandalism are pretty annoying. There is not much you can do about this either. Usually there would be authorized officers around but sometimes you are left to sufferit. There a couple of things that I do that help me when I encounter this everyday on the way to TAFE(Technical and Further Education). I turn my music up and try to concentrate on reading a book or playing my Nintendo DS. This does work sometimes, but noise can override my music when there are lots of people chatting, laughing, yelling or even arguing. Otherwise, I just try hard to ignore the abuse, noise and vandalism thats going on; which tends to work more that music. Ignoring is the only help I can give if your going to encounter vandalism and abuse. If you become a target for abuse and vandalism, tell the driver through either pushing the red emergency button, going to the drivers seat or just hopeing that someone will help or an officer will appear. Dialing 000 or 911 might work too if it's serious.
When fares increases, it's usually due to the government wanting to increase taxes so they can pay for building new railways or upgrading other transport. It can also be due to economic problems. Not much I can say here but just deal with it. Fares are never going to go down and they will always be increasing. When I was young, fares used to cost around $2 Aussie Dollars for a day ticket. Now it costs nearly $6 Aussie Dollars and it is expected to increase again soon. I am dealing with it and it's the only thing I can do. They won't respond to my complaints about it so it's no use complaining. Just take it as a fact of life.
Be aware that hijackers and crashes can happen anywhere on public transport. Your best thing to do when a hijacker is on is just not move or say a word. Don't look at the hijacker(s) either as that may make you a target and you could be in big trouble at that stage. Crashes are more common and quite often happen on buses more than trains, planes, boats or trams. There have been many incidents in the media about crashes. If you do happen to be in one then try and escape as best as you can, or hope that someone will rescue you. If it is about to crash then break out with the emergency hammer and run for your life. It is very unlikely that we will see an incident like the Titanic again, but it too can happen at any time.
In conclusion, common sense is the main thing that can help you deal with all these problems. The help I have given you for the problems is all part of common sense. I hope this helps and gives an insight into what can be a hectic public transport. Good luck when using public transport because sometimes it's like a bloody lottery.
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