I suppose I should try to watch it again. I tried once and didn’t make it more than 20 minutes. Or maybe it’s just me. There are several everyone-loves movies that I couldn’t wade thru.
Did you also not like Princess Bride? That is also directed by Rob Reiner. If so, maybe his style of directing, doesn’t work for you?
I liked (but didn’t love-love-love) Stand By Me, but The Shawshank Redemption is a movie that I will probably never watch again.
Thanks! Did not know. Been a long time, probably due for a rewatch.
Interesting that the two most beloved King adaptions, this and Shawshank, have no supernatural elements whatsoever. I don’t know what that means, if anything. Maybe non-supernatural plots are more universally relatable?
Hmm, I’m getting a notion now to make a ‘Best King Adaption’ poll. Not sure how I’d go about building it yet. Include movies and miniseries? Limit to 10 or so highest-rated adaptions? I’d have to draw the line somewhere, since there’s a lot of King-adapted stuff out there, and much of it is crap. Allow 3 choices per vote? If I only allowed one per vote, it’d probably be 99% between Stand and Shawshank. At least, 3 choices would give the also-rans a few votes. Or make a list of the best adaptions that are NOT Stand or Shawshank? Well, I probably wouldn’t get to it until tomorrow, if at all, so I’ll think on it. Apologies if this is a hijack.
My guess is The Shining (which King didn’t like) and Misery (also directed by Rob Reiner) will be in the top 4.
Probably either Carrie or Dolores Claiborne to round it out.
I wonder how well remembered The Dead Zone is, that is one of my favorites and would be my #5.
I always enjoyed The Running Man but forgot it is based on a King story. It is pretty far from the source material.
Love it, as well as When Harry Met Sally. It’s not Reiner. Who knows? The story just didn’t hold my interest. Some movies are like that.
King and me both. The Shining is the first King novel I ever read, at 14, and it made a big impression on me (I was nervous about opening the shower curtain for quite awhile afterwards). When I saw the movie a couple years later I was really disappointed in the liberties Kubrick took. I can appreciate the movie more now as its own Kubrickian thing, but if I was King I would have been pissed as well.
The original Carrie, on the other hand, I think might be the best supernatural adaption of a King novel, maybe even ranking up up there with the best horror movies ever made, and does stay pretty close to its source material, if I recall correctly.
Can’t leave out The Green Mile.
Dissenting view: I pretty much can’t stand King, in book or movie. His stuff insists upon itself. 
But I liked Stand By Me. I guess I can see myself in those kids, even so.
I was mildly annoyed later when I found out the film left out the boys getting beaten by the gang. Sort of takes away the happy ending, doesn’t it?
When it comes to Stephen King adaptations, The Mist is at the top of my list. Some folks don’t like the way the movie ended, but King loved it. I recommend watching the B&W version if you haven’t seen it.
I agree on the superiority of the movie ending. A very effective gut-punch of a twist.
One thing that’s been said about King is he often can’t seem to come up with a satisfying ending to his stories. His ending to The Mist was not his worst, but was kind of vague and wishy-washy (going purely from memory): as they drive off in the mist, not knowing if they’ll ever get to safety, they hear the one word ‘hope’ among the static on the radio.
In addition to no supernatural elements, neither film is horror, which some (like me) avoid.
Annnd while we’re at it and since someone mentioned this movie, Fred Savage could do the same for the adult narration of Kevin in the Wonder Years, when they had Daniel Stern do it originally. Savage ended up with an adult voice 1-2 octaves below Stern’s.
On the subject of movies that I finally got around to seeing after years of saying “I need to see that”, about a year ago I finally got around to seeing “The Goonies”. And by far the least enjoyable part of that and “Stand By Me” was Corey Feldman. I can’t quite put my finger on what bothers me about his acting. It just doesn’t seem natural… like he’s trying too hard or something. He winds up being more of a caricature than a character.
He is the worst major actor in Stand by Me, without question.
For Goonies, sillier movie, less asked for as far as acting. But he might have the least memorable character of the kids.
Upthread it was mentioned that it was a boys movie, but as a girl who was about the same age as the kids in the movie when it came out (or at least by the time we rented it on vhs), I still loved it for the vibe. Sure, they were grosser, but it’s not like my female friends and I weren’t running around the woods. And all the kids in the mid 80s in that age range that I knew cussed just as much, maybe even more, than the kids in the movie. Maybe it’s a New England thing and King’s story reflects us northeast potty mouths more than other areas.
OK, but we are talking about 1959–1960, not what kids were doing in the 1980s.
I have no idea how well-documented how much kids of that time cursed.