Just saw Stand By Me for the first time.
 

Wow! I really liked the movie a lot. The performances were great (God Keifer Sutherland looks so young) Music was quite memorable, and just the whole coming of age story was done so well. I especially enjoyed the pie eating contest story. Came out of nowhere and surprisingly funny as Stephen King is not the greatest when he puts humor in his tales. This is by far one of my favorite Stephen King movies (Shawshank is still #1)

:5star:

Ok!

Carrie, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile are the only Stephen King adaptations I've seen that are truly worth a damn.

And yes, this includes you, Shining.

K

No Misery?

You dirty birdy...

I hear it's good, but honestly, I've set to see it in its entirety. It does effectively creep me out enough to stay away most of the time, though, so that's saying something. I also kinda remember liking Apt Pupil and Hearts In Atlantis but it's been so long since I've seen either, that I'm not sure.

Dreamcatchers I do remember being atrocious, and The Mist was highly overrated.

K

I am also a huge fan of Stand by Me ... I rank it above all of King's movies and consider it a top effort by Reiner as well (he was at the top of his game in the 80s).

It's a funny and poignant movie that very much reminds me of hanging out with friends when I was 13 (I was about that age when the Stand by Me came out). I've said on other threads that this flick has always resonated with me, especially as I get older.

Great narration by Dreyfuss, too.

:lol: perfect.

One of my favorite movies growing up, even though it is a movie about teenagers, the movie speaks to adults and doesn't really come off as a kiddy movie. The acting is great for actors their age, the story is interesting, and the drama is very ironic, especially the ending. I hate to say it, but they don't make em like this anymore.

How dare you exclude the Dead Zone from that list! This sir means war!

Am I the only Thinner fan here? I hope not.

God, I hope so. I hated that movie with such a passion.

Per The Dead Zone, I felt like it was just okay. Not terrible, but nothing special. Kinda falls into the "average Stephen King adaptations" category. Like Christine. I own both of them, but I'm not likely to watch them that often.

K

I thought Dolores Claiborne was quite good.

I didn't find Stand By Me all that great. I watched it a long time ago, though, and my tastes have changed. Someday I'll give it another shot.

Stand by Me is a movie I watched a lot growing up as well. Superb filmmaking.

Really Glad you liked Stand By Me.

This movie is one of my favorites of all time. I still watch this movie every now and then

I still think Stand By Me is one of the best movies ever about boys of that age (~12 to 14). I was that age when I saw it in the theater and I really related to Gordie (Wil Wheaton), even though it was set thirty years earlier. The music is great, the kids all really throw themselves into their roles, the voiceover is well used, and I love the direction and cinematography. :up:

Another one of the better adaptations is the longer version (not sure if it is a "Director's Cut") of Needful Things ... caught this one day on cable TV. Has it ever been released on DVD?

King gets a bad rap for his movie adaptations but looking at how many are out there, there more than a handful of solid ones:

the Shawshank Redemption
Stand by Me
Misery
the Green Mile
Carrie
Apt Pupil
Hearts in Atlantis
Pet Sematary
Dolores Claiborne
Nightmares & Dreamscapes mini-series (most notably the End of the Whole Mess and Battleground)
the Stand (while not perfect it's probably as good of a version as we're going to get)

Haven't seen but generally got good reviews:
1408
the Mist

Then on deck we have The Long Walk coming from Darabont which will be good I'm sure. The teaming of Darabont and King is akin to Pixar and Disney... and yes I just compared Stephen King to Disney. :lol:

There is a DVD of Needful Things. Reason I know this is that I was on my weekly pawn shop route of DVD's and debated on picking it up for $5.

One of my all time favorites. I can watch it again and again and again. The whole scene at the end with River Phoenix took on a new meaning after he died.

Kiefer looked young, and so did John Cusak.

Crazy to think Jerry O'Connell is the same person he is today.

Chopper, sic balls.

The pawn shop owner might be able to give you a better deal. You'll just have to do him a tiny favor...

Christine wasn't bad. Certainly not top-shelf Carpenter, but better than anything he's turned out in recent years.

Re: Just saw Stand By Me for the first time.
 

The thing that disturbed me the most about this film is how close Chris Chambers came to dying at the hands of Ace Merrill. Forget about Stephen King, folks.......Rob Reiner is the sicker fellow here. The novella didn't quite portray Ace as the psychopath - the worse he was going to do, in the novella, over the struggle of ownership of Ray Brower was break Gordie's arms. In the film, he was going to outright murder Chris with a switchblade. Talk about a dark turn, folks.

Reiner's film left the ending pretty open-ended, in regards to the four boys immediate fate. In the film, we're left to assume that Ace and his gang got their revenge. The novella, however, told how the four boys took their lumps - Chris and Gordie got it the worst, with broken arms and fingers (respectively), but I guess we don't necessarily have to see it to know it happened.

Re: Just saw Stand By Me for the first time.
 

(from not-starring.com:)

Corey Haim

According to an interview to promote his reality show, Corey Haim said he had to choose between an ensemble piece (Stand By Me) and a starring role (Lucas). He chose Lucas and River Phoenix got the part.
Actor who got the part: River Phoenix

I find it difficult to believe that Corey Haim, a squirt in his own right, could hold his own as Chris fucking Chambers, the tough kid of their crowd. Yeh-right.