Una storia di Natale 2

Ralphie obsesses over what he wants for Christmas, doesn't get it, then gets it after all. He says, "Oh Fudge!", wears an embarrassing animal costume, isn't able to have turkey for Christmas, and eats at the Chop Suey Palace. Mrs. Parker overdresses Randy for the cold weather. The Old Man yells 'It's a clinker!' fights the furnace, and gets a leg lamp. And, of course, Flick gets his tongue stuck to something.

You may think I'm talking about A Christmas Story, but sadly this is also the description for the completely unnecessary sequel, A Christmas Story 2. Clearly, there is no attempt made here to capture the magic of the original, only a blatant attempt to cash in on its success by recycling all its funny moments and adding tired family movie formulas. At one point, Ralphie blurts out what I'm sure the entire audience is already thinking, "Oh no! Not again!" It could easily have been the tag line for the movie posters.

Despite all this, A Christmas Story 2 is certainly not as bad as it could have been, considering the current family movie genre's obsession with vomit and flatulence. If you're just feeling a bit nostalgic for A Christmas Story, A Summer Story and Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss are far better sequels with fresh material, though they, too, pale in comparison to the original classic.

It's five years later and Ralphie Parker is now a teenager. He is learning to drive from his father (Daniel Stern). His impossible crush is the beautiful Drucilla Gootrad. All he wants for Christmas is a used 1939 Mercury model Eight convertible. He causes $85 in damage and has to repay it before Christmas Eve. His friends, Flick and Schwartz, join him in the retail workforce to earn the money.

The childhood goodness is all gone. Peter Billingsley is long gone. He doesn't even have a cameo as the adult Ralphie. There is only an older doppelganger trying very hard to do an imitation. The first one is adorable but this sequel is no longer adorable. Flick gets his tongue stuck once again and it's no longer fun. There is another leg lamp but it looks different somehow. It is nice to see Flick and Schwartz are still his friends. It's not until the tire that the movie finds a purpose. The movie still screws it up but at least it tries. Wouldn't it be better for Drucilla to work at the store and be more than an object of the story? Wouldn't the used car lot be the perfect place to get a tire? It just wraps up in a bad cheesy way which definitively makes this a bad sequel.

Just why

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Haha

"When I was 9 I pulled the wrapping off the present of my dreams and knew right then that no Christmas would ever be the same and none were, until today." Ralphie (Lemasters) is a few years older and it's Christmas time again. This year instead of a gun he wants a car. When he is testing out how it feels behind the wheel an accident happens and he owes the dealer $85. When his dad (Stern) refuses to help him and his friends get jobs, which turns out to be a huge adventure. I have to admit I was very skeptical going in to this movie. I loved the first one but after seeing "Christmas Vacation 2 : Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure" I am a little leery about sequels to classic movies. This was better then that one but this is still nothing to rush out and see. Stern is a little over the top and every other scene is him yelling at the furnace. They try to just re-hash the funny gags from the original but they aren't funny in this one. Pretty much the movie is what you would expect and most people will watch it out of curiosity, like I did. Overall, I was expecting worse but this is still forgettable and not really worth seeing. I give it a C.

When I saw the Blu-ray for this movie at my local video rental store, my first reaction was, "Whaaaa?!?!?" I mean, they had years earlier tried another sequel to the classic "A Christmas Story", which was titled "It Runs In The Family" (a.k.a. "My Summer Story") And that movie was pretty bad despite bringing back the original director and writers. And looking at the credit list for "A Christmas Story 2", it was clear NO ONE from the original movie was returning! My hopes weren't that high, but my curiosity won out and I rented the movie and brought it home.

To be fair, this sequel does try to a degree to be different, moving up several years and having the main character of Ralphie to now being a teenager - which does bring up some new situations for him that couldn't have been done in the original movie. And there are some comic and/or tender moments here and there that did make me smile a little, moments that at times do come close to capturing the warm and hilarious feeling that came from the original movie.

However, for the most part the movie is a disappointment. Most of the gags aren't that funny, not just for the fact that many of them are simply recycled from the original movie. The main problem is that despite everyone involved in this sequel (in front of and behind the camera) is working VERY hard, the movie always seems to feel like a low rent imitation instead of the real thing.

Still, as I indicated in my summary line above, the movie could have been worse than it presently is. But I do hope they won't make "A Christmas Story 3".