I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: “Stand By Me”
I just finished watching the Rob Reiner classic film “Stand By Me.” Recently, I posted on Facebook that it was a movie I hadn’t seen. There was uproar. I didn’t grow up watching a lot of movies so all of these 80s classics eluded me. I’ve slowly over my adult life chiseled away at the list but I’m usually left disappointed. These movies are different when viewed through young kid eyes versus jaded, adult eyes.
What did I know about “Stand By Me” going in? I knew there was a dead body and I knew it had Mr. Romijn-Stamos in it. That’s it.
While watching it, I decided to jot down a handful of thoughts:
Is Rivers Cuomo completely influenced by Corey Feldman or just totally influenced?
It made me sweat a little to go so long into an 80s movie before I saw John Cusack but he thankfully appeared 10 minutes in.
I’m glad Jack Bauer got his act together when he got older because he was terrible.
The kids have no regard for keeping their clothes clean. Who walks through mud?
“Lollipop” is actually a pretty good song to do some amateur, crude tattooing to.
I don’t think any of them actually liked smoking. (Bonus points to Jerry O’Connell though for apparently studying Elizabeth Taylor movies for smoking poses.)
You could tell it was based on Stephen King because of the disturbing amount that whole town hated the fat kid in the story.
I bet the person who chose to go with Barf-o-Rama over Pukefest was pretty proud of themselves and went to bed nice and early that night.
I’m 40 years old and I haven’t gone as long without checking in with my parents as those boys did.
I thought the movie was good. I think it holds up well because it’s essentially a period piece. It’s not a window into the 80s and it’s not the 80s guessing what the future will be.
