Movie Review: Stand by Me (1986)

Synopsis: During Labor Day weekend in 1959, four 12-year-old boys lie to their parents and begin a trek to see the dead body of a missing boy. Along the way, the four friends discuss their feelings, face their fears and find their lives occasionally at risk, including from a group of bullies who are also looking for the body.

Who's in it? The movie stars River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, Corey Feldman and Kiefer Sutherland.

Review: It had been ages since I last watched Stand by Me, to the point the only things I could even recall about the film were the train bridge scene and the scene with the leeches. I came across the film on one of our movie channels yesterday and since my wife and I had some free time, we ended up re-watching it. Overall, the film was surprisingly better than I remembered.

This isn't your typical movie based off a Stephen King book. It's not a horror movie. There isn't any sort of weird twist. It's just a very simple coming-of-age drama with a cast of up-and-coming (at least at the time) young actors.

In fact, the best way I could describe this film is it had many of the same elements I would expect to see in a female-bonding chick flick but with male characters. I think you could even argue it was ahead of its time in that regard because, in addition to the conversations you would expect boys to have (such as talking about the size of a woman's breasts), there were some deeply emotional discussions about everything from abusive parents to grief over a deceased sibling.

What really surprised me about the movie was, despite what I said above, it wasn't bogged down by those things to the point it was boring. Instead, it had great pacing, some great songs and did a good job mixing in comedy and action. This included multiple interactions with a gang of bullies led by the sadistic Ace Merrill (Sutherland) that made me wonder just how that part of the story would play out and kept it from being as predictable as one might expect.

Final Opinion: It's a solid drama with a young but talented cast that manage to pull off the comedy as well as the emotional scenes. As I said, it's not a typical Stephen King film but it is one of the better ones, even today.

My Grade: A

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Here are some reviews of other movies based on Stephen King books:

Movie Review: Doctor Sleep (2019)

Movie Review: The Monkey (2025)

Movie Review: Salem's Lot (1979)