Rating: 
Summary: Excellent DVD!
Review: This special edition DVD re-release of "Stand By Me" is of generally high quality. The video presentation is true to the film's original aspect ratio (1.85:1), and is anamorphically enhanced for those with widescreen displays. Generally, the video is quite good, but it is marred slightly by some unwanted (and unneeded) edge enhancement. Fortunately, it isn't overly distracting. In every other respect the video is well done, with excellent background detail which effectively captures the beauty of the film's outdoor environments.The audio is mono, implemented as Dolby Digital 2.0. A remix of the audio to allow for the use of the surrounds for some outdoor ambiance would not have been totally unwelcome, but what you get is true to the film's audio roots, and gets the job done. The "special features" are excellent. There is a documentary about the making of the film that features interviews with Stephen King, Reiner, and most of the film's major cast members. It is a wonderful look at the production of the film, and one can't help but feel newfound respect for the job Reiner did in putting this film together. Reiner's commentary is good as well -- it is very conversational and makes you feel as if he is sitting in the room with you, sharing the experience of watching the film and contributing tidbits here and there relating to how certain scenes were shot, or something amusing that happened on the set, etc. Well done. In all, this DVD represents a fantastic treatment of a wonderful film. If you are a fan of Stand By Me, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of all time
Review: First off, if you don't buy this movie because some off his rocker reviewer called this the best "gay" movie ever, you are missing out. In actuality, this movie is devoid of sex/sexual interests, besides the occasion juvenile rantings of a typical boy coming into puberty. This movie is about friendship and has absolutely nothing to do with sexual preference. That being said, the movie is one of those experiences that take you back to your own childhood. The innocence,loyalty, friendship, and adventure that you can really only have all at the same time at one part of your life. As someone else has already mentioned, you can watch this movie again, and again without getting bored with it. It reminds you of the deep lows and very high highs in that time where being accepted by your peers and belonging was the most important thing in life besides your family. If you are a guy over 25, you have to see this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: STAND BY ME
Review: I would have enjoyed Stand By Me so much more if the profanity had been missing but Hollywood is under a delusion, that there are only two types of kids, the cheerful boy scout type that jon provost enventually became in time as the Lassie tv series went on and the smart mouth brat type, believe me hollywood kids vocabulary is not limited to golly, geewilikers, thank you mam or up yours you motherf----. In 1959 and especially in Oregon kids may not have talked like beaver cleaver but they certainly didnt talk the way kids did in Stand By Me but like I say its a delusion Hollywood is under unless somebody says cut the b.s. the movie will get a g -rating and hollywood assumes all g rated films have to be like mary poppins with everyone smiling and singing, which is false
Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: Stand By Me is easily one of my favorite movies ever. It just never gets old, and this DVD is a must have. The kids in this movie are your adverage twelve year olds going on a journey to find a dead body. The storyline might not seem like much, but once you see it, you will like it. The acting is great. Even though this movie is rated R due to profanity and strong language, young kids may still even like this movie. I saw it when I was young and I still love it. The special features are good. This DVD version is remastered. Its in widescreen. I would reather it be in full screen, I prefer that, but whatever... Theres bonus trailers, too, and more special features. Just go buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Stand by Me
Review: As the screen lit, exposing a man sitting in a car on the countryside and a beautifully orchestrated take on B E King's classic hit, "Stand by Me", I knew I was in for something good. I really hadn't an idea of what the film might have instore for me, but it had left a good impression. As the movie rolled on, I found myself completely involved with the world of our protagonists, and caught up in every vowel spoken and every movement made. It's very rare that I find a movie so captivating, so entertaining, and so emotional. However, "Stand by Me" was one of the few films that I found very very few flaws with. The dialogue was easy to follow, the atmosphere was perfectly corresponding with the scenes, and the story was amazing. The film is about four twelve-year-old boys, like any other twelve-year-old boys in 1959, who engage on a journey they'll never forget. As the innocent, lighthearted "fat kid" Vern was looking for a lost jar of pennies under his porch, he overhears his older brother talking about a kid they found who died three days earlier. In search of stardom and becoming home-town heroes they leave home and follow the railroad tracks to where the body supposedly lies. Along the way, they face what's been eating away at each of them individually and have an emotional experience that is deeply profound to the characters. The boys face the end of their childhood by the end of the story, and come back to their town completely changed. This is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: This Movie Isn't What It Seems To Be
Review: What does it seem to be? A slice of sentimentalism from the mid 80s spiced with adventurism and bawdy humor, a look back at an idyllic summer in the 1950s. It IS these things, but it's much more. It's the gold standard for the coming-of-age film and one of the most important movies ever made. Our lives are marked by climaxes including birth, puberty, marriage, and death. These are romanticized, surrounded by ritual and sacrament because they're too real to see in the raw--as soiling by blood or sperm, as radical irrevocable change. Pubertal transformation is particularly subject to lush romanticizing. Puberty is a time of confusion, the intrusion of sex, identity in flux. For boys, there's the added challenge of achieving manhood, a protean slippery status which is forever in question. And so, for this question, there is the quest. Four boys walk railroad tracks in rural Oregon hoping for a glimpse of another boy their age who's been killed by a train. On the way, they tell gross-out stories, muse about the pop culture of the 50s (Mighty Mouse, Pez, Paladin), argue, fight, and make up. Pubertal boys create a treehouse culture, a separate world from the world of females and the world of adults. It's full of boasts, smokes, and card games. It's marked by looking for ways to test themselves in the big bad world. So when Vern Tessio calls the quartet to adventure with the macabre question "You guys wanna see a dead body?" his peers are game. "Stand by Me" moves a couple degrees from innocence to experience. The idyllic 1950s move into the turbulent 60s. The sweet-tempered 12-year-old becomes the surly adolescent. Languorous summer tenses into autumn, smoky and chilled. But not just yet! Mirages curdle as literate Gordie, leaderly Chris, and two lesser friends hum 50s classics and walk the tracks toward junior high and their inevitable separation. This is the last golden summer before the fall. This is a movie of sunlight and leaves, of 12-year-old buddies and their nonchalant homoeroticism, of teary heart-to-hearts they will never have again as men, of incipient heterosexual awakening spurred by Annette Funicello's ..., of meeting Death (his sockets full of flies), of making jokes (the bawdier the better), of leaving town for the woods, of dangers from junkyard dogs, angry fathers, delinquent gangs, and leeches. This is the greatest gay film of all time, not "Philadelphia" or "Parting Glances" or "Burnt Money." The tenderness between Gordie and Chris is so natural, so easy, because it occurs in a world not yet policed by the taboos of adult society and not yet hardened by requirements for macho display. We get arms thrown around shoulders, hugs, and tears from these youths and we wonder if growing into manhood is an illness to be procrastinated. "I never had friends again like I did when I was 12. ... does anyone?"
Rating:
Summary: stand by me review
Review: Dear reader, stand by me is one of the best movies i've seen in a long time. River Phoenix is wonderful in this movie. He can just go in there and do his thing. He works so well with Wil Wheaton. Rod Riner did a great job at all the sceens. This movie has excitement, adventure, you'll laugh you'll cry this movie is so wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Classic
Review: This is one of the most unforgettable films ever made. It is based on the novel by Stephen King (The body) about 4 young boys, each of them having similar problems at home, and sharing the same feeling of being unloved. There will never be a movie like this one. I feel very sad when I watch Stand By Me, because of River Pheonix. I think it's a little coincidental that at the end of the film Chris Chambers dies later on in life, just like he did in real life, at such a young age, and how he died. It's a shame what happened to him. He was a wonderful actor. He had his whole life ahead of him. It's such a waste. When you hear of someone with true talent intelligence and a good heart, dying from drug abuse. Drug addiction is an awful thing, but people can be helped. I can't understand why no one helped him. The worste things happen to the best people.
Rating:
Summary: Still Standing As The Classic Coming-Of-Age Story
Review: It is a rare commodity in the film industry to come across a movie which depicts the process of growing up and the bonds that unite friends in such a heartbreakingly realistic fashion. "Stand By Me", starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell, is just that and more, spiced with humor, suspense, and not to mention terrific performances by its remarkable cast. Set in the small Oregon town of Castle Rock, it tells the tale of four friends Gordie Lachance (Wheaton), Chris Chambers (Phoenix), Teddy DuChamp (Feldman), and Vern Tessio (O'Connell), and the adventures and experiences they share during the summer of 1959. After hearing of a teenager missing in the Oregon countryside, they go in search of his body, and the approval of their hometown and each other. Little to their knowledge, Castle Rock's token hoodlums, the Cobras, led by a ruthless Ace, are also out for the body, and will stop at nothing to take it from them. The unforgettable journey brings them closer together, and reveals a strength and sense of trust they never knew they posessed.
Probably one of the most beautiful things about this movie is the chemistry all of the characters seem to have together on screen, as well as the individual talents each bring. Under the direction of Rob Reiner, each actor brings a different quality to their performances, and coaxes the traits of their characters with a natural ease. River Phoenix especially stands out. This being one of his earliest films, you can almost taste the raw and truly amazing ability and innocense he has within him, only adding to the sadness of his being taken from us too soon. Overall, "Stand By Me" is one of my personal favorites, and not to mention one of the classic first coming-of-age movies. And it has still, after all these years, set a high standard for films to come.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie, but sad...
Review: I think the movie, Stand By Me, is an excellent movie. It's excellent because it contains some things a movie should. It contains friendship, adventure, life, drama, and heart.
This movie is about of course 4 friends who come of age in the summer in the 1950s. In this movie, I think you learn a thing or two about what really matters and how things can change. The ending is good, but I thought it was a little sad. I understand that this is a coming of age movie, but usually coming of age movies and books usually have a factor which changes and new things come about from this.
This movie was wonderfully made. So see Stand By Me, and you'll see what I mean!
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