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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 70.75%
Worth A Look: 15.65%
Average: 4.08%
Pretty Bad: 2.04%
Total Crap: 7.48%
3 reviews, 129 user ratings
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| Stand By Me |
by Eliza
"The kind of film you can't get enough of."

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Stand By Me is the only film that I have been able to watch over 30 times in one summer without growing tired of it. I can probably quote it word for word, hell I could act it out for you if you were interested, yet I still keep going back for more. It's your ultimate (here comes the cliche) coming-of-age film, it's your ultimate 50s flashback film and it's the only film Corey Feldman has ever made that's got any credibility.I'm not saying Stand By Me is perfect - hell no! The amount of times you see the boom and the number of times you see a car/product/item of clothing etc that wasn't even invented in the 50s is amazing for a film that should have been pretty polished. But seeing all those cute lil pre-teen faces which we have now grown to know so well, is worth it all.
River Phoenix plays tough gang leader Chris Chambers, Corey Feldman is crazy Teddy Duchamp, Wil Weaton is the thoughtful and troubled Gordy Lachance and Jerry O'Connell is the token fat kid, Vern Tessio. Early on we learn that there is a kid not much older than the group (12 years) is missing. Vern overhears his much older brother talking to another member of his gang - they found the body but were in a stolen car at the time, and didn't want to tell the police. Of course Vern tells the boys and they set out on the biggest adventure of their lives. There are no end of mini-adventures, near mishaps and tearful bondings between the four unlikely friends on the way.
This film spits out line after line of quotable data...
Teddy, Chris and Vern- I don't shut up, I grow up, and when I look at you I throw up. Gordy- And then your mother goes around the corner, and she licks it up. Narrator (an older Gordy)- Finding new and preferably disgusting ways of degrading a friend's mother was always held in high regard.
Vern- Come on guys, lets get moving! Teddy- Yeah, by the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore.
and finally (from my repertoire that could be much, much, much longer)
Gordy- Alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy? Vern- If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy. Pez. Cherry flavoured Pez. No question about it. Teddy- A dog. He's definately a dog. Gordy- I knew the $60,000 question was fixed. There's no way anybody could know that much about opera. Chris- He can't be a dog. He wears a hat and drives a car. Vern- God, that's weird. What is Goofy?It has a sound track you AND your parents can sing along with, it has faces you know and some pretty classic dialogue. You have to see Stand By Me - as Vern says "This is a really good time..."
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1168&reviewer=159 originally posted: 10/05/99 23:57:32
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USA 02-Jul-1986 (R) DVD: 22-Mar-2005
UK N/A
Australia 02-Feb-1987 (PG)
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