SYoung1960

It's hard to find an audio production targeted toward the younger listeners, but here's a good one that does just that. Older listeners will also enjoy it, don't get me wrong. And it's good, too! The writers have put together a clever and exciting sci-fi story to throw this group of kids into and cause mayhem for the adults around them. The actors are excellent, especially the kids. They've obviously done shows like this before. Among the kids, the chemistry between Max and Ever is genuine, sweet, and well-played. Among the adults, the lady playing the principal is deliciously sinister, and the man playing Sylvester is someone I won't forget anytime soon. The audio engineering by Russell J Fellows is superb and augments each scene perfectly. None of the sounds get in the way of the action or the actors, so the listener has no unnecessary distractions. No spoilers here, you'll have to listen for yourself, but do go listen to this delightful adventure.

40-minutes into this film... and I'm bored. The filmmakers have spent nearly an hour just re-introducing us to the characters from the first film. And I have to ask, do we care? At this point, I don't care. What's particularly problematic is Ralphie's mother, now played adeptly by Julie Hagerty of Airplane fame, but not Melinda Dillon by any means. The producers went to a lot of trouble to bring back original actors, like Scott Schwartz (Flick), Zack Ward (Scut Farkus), Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) and Ian Petrella (Randy), why didn't they try harder to bring Ms. Dillon back as the family matriarch? There haven't been any recent reports that the actress is in ill health, so why wasn't she in this film? This film has none of the charm of the original, which is filled with memorable moments and characters, like Darrin McGavin as the family patriarch. There are no awesome scenes like Ralphie beating up Scut Farkus, or the father opening the crate with the iconic lamp in it, or the Chinese restaurant scene near the end of the original film. Everything that made the original dear for us is lost here in this lackluster sequel. It's a shame that one of the original actors -- Peter Billingsley -- is listed as one of the writers. You'd think someone that closely connected to the original would have done a better job of trying to re-capture the magic of A Christmas Story. I'll go re-watch Santa Claus Conquers the Martians now to get some much needed laughs after this snooze-fest.