Stand by Me

I just saw this movie it was recommended to me by a reel a watched I didn't expect it to turn out that good, one of the best movies of all time it was a bit short I wish they made it longer so I could watch this masterpiece even if they just added one more minute it. spoiler: I didn't even think any of the kids will die but at the first of the movie I thought why is he sitting alone in his car telling the store until I saw the gun I thought teddy the cracked with glasses is going shoot himself that's the only kid I thought will die but as of for Chris not even a single though came to my mind the writing of this movie is ahead of it's time. I'm 15 Turing 16 in less then a month hopefully one day I'll stop wasting my time as a teenager on social media and go out I really wish I had that type friends.

Stand By Me is a film that I consider incredibly overrated. I like quite a few of Rob Reiner's films, Spinal Tap and Princess Bride in particular. However, Stand By Me is just so pretentious and unpleasant to me, I can't find much in it to like. For child actors, the cast isn't actually too annoying, but that being said I didn't find any of the characters very likable and couldn't really get attached to them. Another thing I didn't like about this movie is that it's mean spirited. For a film about childhood, it seems to just be interested in countless instances of people hurting, destructing, bullying, etc, other people. Yes, I understand what it's going for/trying to say, but just can't get in to this overdone, pretentious movie that's not evenvery entertaining. This film annoys me, and the more I think about it the less I like it. Many people rave about Stand By Me, but I say it's not worth your time.

Stand By Me is a nice little movie, but it seemed average to me. I find it very confusing to see row after row of 10/10 star reviews for it. Ten stars is a pretty large scale to work with and I'm not sure I've seen a 10 star movie ever, because that would be pretty close to perfect. I would rate this film as average, or slightly above, but there are so many deeper and more entertaining films that aren't made as well out there. I'd rather watch something less well made but more entertaining, honestly. When I hear the rare criticism of this movie, it often involves the fact that this movie has very little plot. This is one thing I not only don't mind about the film, but applaud. Clearly, this film is about dialogue and nostalgia and those two aspects serve the coming of age theme the film strives for. A lot doesn't have to happen in a movie for it to be good or entertaining. But the film is mediocre in these important aspects. The re- creation of 1959 small town America comes up short. The looks, the haircuts, the dialogue just don't seem right. Perhaps I lived a sheltered childhood, but these kids would seem mouthy and brazen by today's standards and likely wouldn't exist in 1959. The dialogue feels very modern, as though 1980's style of speaking was flown into 1959 with a time machine. But, perhaps this is a minor flaw to be overlooked in favor of a broader look at the film's themes. I tend to think it is a major flaw because so much power rests on nostalgia, yet the kids seem overly bold to ring true and the time period seems wrong. Aside from the time period feeling fake and the kids seeming too bold and acid-tonged, there is a more general criticism here to be made. The film strives to be something of a general coming of age story that anyone can watch are relate to, but in doing so it becomes bland and generic. The characters seem like clichés with cliché problems: we have the sensitive, creative kid who's supportive older brother died, the tough kid with a heart of gold from the wrong side of the tracks, the feisty kid, and the fat dope. These prototypes are supported by Reiner with a heavy fist, when he finds time, sometimes in flashbacks. There is little to no time spent making a broader, more realistic portrait of any human in the movie, no attempt to go beyond archetypes. This makes all the crying and self exploration that occurs during the voyage seem a little empty and dull. As though the audience might forget that this is a coming of age film that leads to these kids becoming adults, we have to suffer through bookends and narration of grown Gordy, played by Richard Dreyfuss, spoon feeding us information with a very fake inflection. The excellent young actors try to save this film's messages and feel, while the bland sentimentality of Dreyfuss' presence seems to drag the film down. In the end, this film is a great forum to see excellent adolescent actors, but the power of their performances is brought down by the contrived feel and lack of depth in their surrounding stories. I found the scenes with crying slightly surreal, because as an audience we aren't given a strong enough feel for these characters and their backgrounds to have enough empathy to feel why they are crying (though we are told very clearly why). Reiner either spends time trying to support his material yet still fails to create a rich character, as in Gordy, or fails to spend any major time fleshing out, as in every one else. The result is a hand at once too light and too heavy. Reiner has done much better films. Slightly above average, 5 stars.

Four boys go in search of a dead body, but it becomes a journey of discovery about themselves. The premise of the story (based on a King novella) is stupid and generally uninteresting and the execution is clichéd. Reiner seems unsure of where he wants to go with the film; it just rambles on pointlessly. There is an irrelevant interlude about a pie-eating contest filled with gross puking scenes. The characters are either stereotypes (the teens) or cartoon-like (the parents and other adults). The big emotional scenes are corny and forced. The framing device, where the story is related in flashbacks, is meant to be poignant but it just falls flat.