A Christmas Story Christmas

Just watched this and to be honest I was hoping for the best but really expecting the worst.. Thats why, I watched it early.. Well thank god... It was a very worthy sequel to the Christmas classic.

Never over doing it and keeping the character's real.

It also benifits from getting many of the original cast back and keeping them very likable. Now, without giving to much away, the story now set in the early 70s and follows Ralphie now in his 40s coming to terms with his fathers (The Old Man) passing and also dealing with percieved personal faliures. But his mother has asked him to make a special christmas and thats what he's going to do. (All this is in the trailer).

The film has all the style of the original and the new character's such as Ralphies wife and kids are very well drawn and acted.

I will be watching this again as part of double features with the original closer to Christmas.

All in all a very fine sequel that manages to bring the story full circle..

There are plenty of clips from the homespun 1983 holiday classic of which this is the 33-years-later sequel. Peter Billingsley returns as Ralphie Parker, no longer a BB-gun-obsessed cherub but now a struggling novelist and married father of two in Chicago. The story pivots around his father's unexpected passing and his return back to his Indiana hometown where his mom and most of his childhood friends still live. The sitcom-level shenanigans are little changed from the original as our familiarity with the characters. What's different this time is how Ralphie's cherished upbringing serves as the catalyst for unleashing his writing talent. Julie Hagerty replaces Melinda Dillon as Ralphie's mom and injects her welcome trademark ditziness. The rest of the cast serves the story well. Fans of the original will likely not be disappointed except maybe the extended time lapse.

It starts out slow as it tries to give a recap of how we got to this time and place. But about midway through, it breaks into a memorable movie with some laugh out loud moments and some very touching scenes. Obviously Peter Billingsley had a lot of input but Vince Vaughn also leaves his mark on the story. Might not be the classic that the original one is, but it is certainly a well executed sequel destined to someday run back-to-back with the original in an all day marathon.

Ralphie may not be screaming Bumpus! Every five minutes like Darren McGavin did but then he was never destined to have the same personality as his on screen dad. He's the character we all assumed he would grow up to be.

A Christmas Story is probably THE most classic of classic Christmas films.

I'm not always for sequels, but A Christmas Story Christmas pulls all the nostalgia off nicely.

Much of this only works due to the commitment of quite a few of the original cast you know and love from the original film. Ralphie (Peter Billingsly) looks much the same and carries the sequel very well. Flick, Schwartz and even Farkus return.

While some of the situations are different in this 1973 setting, they manage to carry on the humor of the original and you'll definitely have a smile and a chuckle whichever of the generations you fit into.

Oh my lord, what in the world, how was this so good?

The original Christmas Story is one of the best Christmas movies ever created, naturally I had high expectations for this film but to say it exceeded them is just an understatement, this film was just beautiful, and it's honestly just as good if not better than the original film, which I didn't think was possible.

A Christmas Story Christmas manager to perfectly use callbacks to the original film while also weaving in brilliant originality, beautifully bringing in real world issues and dare I say, it almost managed to make me cry on multiple occasions.

It's a truly hilarious film, and I wasn't expecting Polly from Malcolm in the Middle to show up, Peter Billingsley puts on a truly beautiful performance and it just managed to fill my heart with joy and is one of the best early Christmas gifts I could ever have.

I'm gonna give a Christmas story Christmas an A.