Stand By Me: Movie Review

Tania Says:
I cannot count the number of times I have seen this movie. I loved this movie when I was growing up – but really what teenage girl didn’t? I will always remember watching this movie many, many times with my best friend Sarah and quoting it even more. I hadn’t seen it in forever though so I was excited to revisit it again. And – it is still wonderful! And touching. And funny.

In case you don’t know what the movie is about, it follows 4 friends as they take a long walk to see a dead body. Wow. That description makes it seems really dull but it isn’t because it is about growing up and family and friendship and it pretty much rocks. The four boys are Wil Wheaton (my close personal friend), River Phoenix (Oh River. How I loved you? I think I wrote you a fan letter. Did you get it?), Jerry O’Connell (How happy is he that he grew up hot?) and Corey Feldman (Poor, poor Corey. Will you be back for Surreal Life all-stars)? Also appearing are a young Keifer Sutherland and John Cusack. So you can imagine why it was a teenage girls dream. All of the boys do a great job – even Felddog (Sarah and I read in Bop that Corey Haim called Corey Feldman Felddog and Feldman called Haim Haimster.) I will also lament the loss of River Phoenix. Seriously, he would have been another Johnny Depp but he loved his drugs. And my buddy Wil – ok, so I played in one online tournament with him (and got mentioned in his blog) but I really don’t know him or have a reason to pimp him BUT he does a great job with perhaps the most difficult role. For a kid, he has a lot going on, a dead older brother that was clearly the family favorite which in turn creates a horrible family dynamic, he also has to deal with growing up to be Richard Dryfuss. Seriously though, the film is narrated by an older Gordy so he has to react to that and be aware. AND – he gets a leech on his privates. Yuck. Jerry O’Connell is basically comic relief but he is HILARIOUS – so it’s all good.

It was fun to revisit it again (Josh and I could both remember lines before they happened AND I still turn away during the pie eating scene!). It is just a great coming of age story with a lot of charm and heart. It is classic to me.

Josh Says:
What can I say? I love the Wheaton. When he's not writing about us in his blog (ok, you kind of have to hunt for it but we're Maureen73 referred to in this entry, a sad reference actually), we're watching his movies and writing about him in ours.

I too have watched this movie more times than I care to count, or even could if I wanted to. More than perhaps any other movie watching experience, this one was very nostalgic. It wasn't too far into the movie before I realized that, though I could no longer recite the movie verbatim right along with the characters, I was but one second behind throughout the entire film. And it's a good film. A film that anyone of any age can watch. In fact, I was surprised and very pleasantly so at how well the movie has aged (and even more impressed at how Jerry O'Connell has aged, who knew the fat kid from Stand by Me would be dating a super model in 2007).

Though obviously a timeless story, stylistically this movie has held up incredibly well. As an example, the lard ass scene is just so brilliantly out of place and surreal that it fits right in with some of the pseudo-eclecticly-avant-garde (huh?) stuff that's coming out of Hollywood and and indies alike time and time again these days.

The big downer of course, is the whole River Phoenix thing. I mean, what a wonderfully talented kid and what a tragic story. You can't help thinking about it as you watch him, so young but so obviously serious about 'acting'. I pretended to myself that Joaquin was in fact River Phoenix and that we didn't miss out on a potentially brilliant career, but rather, we are in the midst of it, reincarnated or simply deferred to Jaoquin (see Cash if you have any doubts about his skills, or our Gladiator review for that matter).
It's a rare cinematic experience that can make Corey Feldman bearable, and this movie, believe it or not, does that and a lot more.

And this concludes my cheesiest review ever.

P.S. Wil - See you on the felt!!!!!!

Movie Review: Gladiator - 2002

Tania says:
I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it was released and thinking – “huh, that was pretty cool.” I hadn’t revisited the movie since then and for some reason I was kind of dreading watching it now because I thought I might hate it. I’m not sure why. Either way, I didn’t hate it at all and ended up liking it more then I think I originally did – so bonus!

Russell Crowe is super good as Maximus – he is all subtle and you believe he is a man who would rather just be working his farm but got swept into a world that he can’t get out of. I read that the role was first offered to Mel Gibson and Josh and I agree that he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off because he is all crazy eyed and a little insane. Crowe gets it right.

Joaquin is super creepy which totally fits his part. He does a really great job and I think this is when people started to notice him.

So yeah, it is pretty much a fighting movie but it does try to have a little bit of a deeper plot by throwing in some stuff about revenge, Roman politics and just trying to be an all around good guy. Even with that stuff seeping in it would still just call it a big old fighting movie. The deeper stuff is pretty much on the surface but I don’t think it would have been the big hit it was if it delved much deeper. But even for a fighting movie, the story is interesting enough and the character of Maximus is sympathetic enough that it does set itself apart. I don’t really think it should have won Best Picture (although I look at the nominees and they are slim pickings’ too. I think Traffic was better.) But it is a good movie and worth a watch if by some reason you have never seen it. It’s long but it actually sped by really quickly when we watched. Plus it has a CGIed Oliver Reed in it – that could inspire a fun game of which Oliver Reed is real and which is CGI. (I mean no disrespect to Oliver Reed. RIP.)

Josh Says:
It's said that upon visiting the colloseum, Ridley Scott said that it was too small so they designed an oversized version of it for the film. This pretty much sums up everything about this movie I think. Everything is just done in a big way.

The fight scenes are big, the violence is brutal.

The characters are big. River Pheonix's Commodus is done in so close to an over the top manner yet just grounded enough to work brilliantly. The same is true for Crowe. The way in which he turns Maximus into a gigantic hero of mythic, almost godlike proportions yet simultaneously keep him down to earth is quite impressive and likely couldn't have been done by anyone else.

Which brings us to the solid but sometimes difficult choices that were made regarding the cast in this movie. Of all of these choices (Gibson as Maximus would have been bad, J-Lo would have been bad as Lucilla........thank god for their judgement there) there is but one that I am saddened by..........Sure, it's a small character, but rumors that the great Lou Ferrigno was passed up for the role of Tiger just have me perplexed. With all of the gigantic greatness going on in this film, how is it possible that the most gigantic man ever to have his own TV show could have been overlooked? I would have loved to hear his version of a British accent, not that historically, the British accents made much sense anyway but back to the point.......a green Gladiator? How awesome would that have been?

Other than that, I really can't fault much about this movie. Sure, it's a bit of a popcorn movie, sure, it's a big budget "Action" movie but it's all done so incredibly well in nearly every way such that it's actually one of my favorites. I'm not sure if it's a guilty pleasure type of a film or actually a great film but either way, I love it and it. I'm also a bit of a Russell Crowe fanboy. There I said it. I love you Russell Crowe.