As I sail past the age of fifty, I find myself reminiscing more and more about my formative years - carefree days spent with my friends, life with no responsibilities and no pressures. For me, that would have been the late-1970s and the early '80s; for Stephen King, it was the late '50s/early '60s, which is when Stand By Me, based on King's novella The Body, takes place. Brimming with nostalgia, the film tells of a group of young school friends who embark on a journey to find the body of a missing child. It's a heartwarming tale of friendship, camaraderie and adventure, but also a melancholic story about the loss of innocence and the inevitability of growing older, with all the burdens that adulthood entails.Expertly adapted for the big screen by director Rob Reiner, with an excellent cast (River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack and Richard Dreyfuss), the film should appeal to all ages: youngsters will be able to identify with the central characters, while older viewers can watch and remember with fondness what it was like to be twelve, before reality came crashing down.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Stephen King makes his characters use so many expletives that they aren't real anymore. I was raised in the 1970s with the toughest kinds of kids in the backwater part of Pensacola, Florida called Ferry Pass. My friends were like the ones in The Outsiders and Mud. 'Gol darn you!' was mostly what I heard, with the occasional 'Dang!' and sometimes, under extreme duress, 'Dammit!' So, a possibly great story in STAND BY ME was demoted to just a good story because of the inaccuracy of the language and perversity. All in all, don't miss this one. River Phoenix was a young powerhouse. In fact, all of the boys were.

Stephen King is synonym with horror stories and rightfully so, but two of my favourite stories by him don't have anything to do with that genre. The first of course being Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and the second being Stand By Me. He as the ability to not only tell great stories, but to create such tremendous characters and that what this film is; a heavily character driven movie with child actors who can act.I've never felt such a strong connection to any characters before than this group of friends. Either you were one of those four kids or you knew someone who was one of those four kids. The dialogue is top notch and the scene that really hit me hardest was right at the end when it is discussed that they went to high school and none of these really spoke to each other again. It rings true that at one point you had these friends as a child and sometimes you just drift apart. They played such important roles in your growth only to be end up being distant memories. This film is the epitome of a story about growing up, there is none better in my opinion.

This is a film based on one of Stephen King's works, albeit a shorter one. What makes this movie great is how authentic it is. My only complaint is that I don't like to see the image of these kids smoking. It's also a little too short, but still good. Over the years, I saw clips of this film and was certainly glad to see the whole thing. The movie is narrated by one of the characters as an adult kind of like "A Christmas Story" or "The Sandlot". I do love movies like that with feature kids acting so realistically. This takes place in the 1950's, but I feel as though it's truly timeless. It's basically one scene after another of these kids doing stuff like swimming, roasting marshmallows and running. I guess Stephen King is pretty fond of bullies. I am reminded of the thugs from "It" especially with how tough they were. With so many "Children Of The Corn" movies, great to see a wonderful Stephen King movie. ***1/2