Standing by Stephen King

By Jennifer Makowsky

Childhood and the end of innocence are vividly portrayed in Stephen King's novella The Body, and Rob Reiner's excellent interpretation, Stand by Me. [5 March 2008]

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

The Princess Bride: Blu-Ray

By Marisa LaScala

Reiner and Goldman manage to marry timeless storytelling elements with modern comedic sensibilities in such a way that it will never feel corny, old-fashioned, or dated. [1 April 2009]

The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition

By Rebecca Chang

This itself modern through that little smidgen of precocious reflexivity, and a healthy does of kitsch. [6 August 2008]

The Bucket List

By Cynthia Fuchs

The Bucket List is the sort of movie you can watch in your sleep. [27 December 2007]

Rumor Has It… (2005)

By Cynthia Fuchs

For a couple of minutes, such slippage between movie myths and mythic divas looks like it might turn charming, or maybe clever. But it doesn't. [23 December 2005]

Stand By Me: Deluxe Edition (1986)

By Nikki Tranter

Stand By Me is always worth celebrating. [18 April 2005]

Alex & Emma (2003)

By Cynthia Fuchs

It is Alex's fantasy into which the film and Emma's seeming interests devolve. [19 June 2003]

This Is Spinal Tap (1984/2000)

By Jon Munn

Sixteen years ago, a young filmmaker named Marti DiBergi set out to capture, in his words, 'the sights, the sounds, and the smells' of a workhorse British rock band named Spinal Tap. [1 January 1995]

The Story of Us (1999)

By Cynthia Fuchs

Here's a terrifying thought: each of the major turning points in your life is reducible to the hairstyle you're wearing at the time. Your graduation, your first job, your marriage, your dead goldfish, your vacation in Italy: all of it is mucked up when filtered through those misty-water-colored memory glasses. If it sounds awful in theory, it's even worse to see it acted out, on a wide screen with lots of close-ups of teary, badly-coifed movie stars backed by a treacly Eric Clapton guitar score.

Jack of all trades: Nicholson stars as a dying man [2 January 2008]