Based on the
Stephen King short story The Body,
Rob Reiner's easygoing nostalgia piece is set in Castle Rock, OR, over Labor Day weekend, 1959. A quartet of boys, inseparable friends all, set out in search of a dead body that one of the boys overhears his brother talking about. The foursome consists of intellectual Gordie (
Wil Wheaton), born leader Chris (
River Phoenix), emotionally disturbed Teddy (
Corey Feldman), and chubby hanger-on Vern (
Jerry O'Connell). The boys' adventures en route to the elusive body are colored by the personal pressures brought to bear on all of them by the adult world.
Richard Dreyfuss, playing the grown-up Gordie, narrates the film, while
Kiefer Sutherland dominates every scene he's in as a brutish high-school bully. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide