A Christmas Story 2

Here's proof that you can not go home again . This film is totally heartless and soulless....so pale in comparison to the original which has evolved into a modern day classic. There is good reason this film went straight to video. Please do not waste your money on it. I had a cheap rent from amazon.com. I thought it might cheer me up ...having the flu and all.

Back is our Ralphie now at 15 and he wants a car for Christmas. The old man will not spend 40 cents per pound for a turkey so he is involved in some subplot to catch a fish for Christmas dinner. Part of the problem with this video is the incredible number of subplots...each more uninteresting as the others; including a candy cane fight at Higbee's, a Santa who walks out on the job, poor Randy getting dressed up in tons of layers to go outside, and a love interest for Ralphie. Even the "leg lamp" shows up for an encore.

A Christmas Story 2 looks like one of those made for TV films on SYFY or Lifetime. The sets are cardboard...but then again so is the acting. It makes "The Santa Clause 3 and 4 look like art films. Costumes are barely period. I dare you...I double dog dare you...to watch the preview. You will see exactly what I mean.

Someone was out to make a buck. But then, that is what Christmas is all about.

Nothing about this movie is The Christmas story. The story line is horrible and the acting seems forced and strained. The father looks like he got younger rather than older. Why? Much like other sequels, it did a disservice to the original movie.

It's a direct to video sequel of a famous well established film that was released 29 years after the original. If any of that sounds like a good idea I have a bridge to sell you.

This should be warning enough that this movie will suck big time.

The only reason this film was made is because you can get the first film for under $10 and newer DVD/Blu-Rays cost more. They are trying to cash in on the first film by giving you similar scenes in this "new" film. Personally I would like to see more stories from the book it was based on.

This movie deserves to have a bar of Life Buoy taped in it's mouth and forced to wear pink bunny footie pajamas for the rest of it's life.

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.

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.