Controversially, I feel like I enjoy 2012's surprise sequel A Christmas Story 2 a lot more than the original. Yes, I understand that it's basically a blatant retread of part one with various blatant callbacks to that film's best bits, but I find this one much funnier, sweeter and generally more fun to watch. This is largely in part due to a delightful turn from Daniel Stern as Ralphie's dad. Much like the risible Home Alone 4 this one recasts the entire ensemble from part one, but to much more winning effect, perhaps quantifiable proof that Stern adds festive stardust to every project he's involved in. I feel an odd kinship with him here as the hard-working father who seems like a penny-pinching skinflint but who is actually doing his best to try and keep cash aside for the important things, like getting his kids the Christmas gifts they so sorely crave. I definitely feel like that sometimes, whenever I receive scorn in our house for veto-ing my girls' plans to spend all the money.
This film catches up with Ralphie (Braeden LeMasters) as a teenager in the '50s, this time pining for a dream car that he somehow calamitously manages to wreck before he evn drives it off the lot. This leads to him and his dumb buddies coming up with various entertaining schemes to raise cash to get the automobile fixed before his dad finds out.
This one was, surprisingly, pretty much universally derided at the time. From all the horrified online reviews I come across, it seems like most Americans consider the original Christmas Story so sacred that even the idea of a sequel was complete blasphemy. A lot of detractors don't even seem to have watched the film, basing their vitriolic diatribes solely on the trailer. This one is from Jingle All the Way's Brian LeVant and I find this to be a much more amusing, enjoyable wee film.
Anyway, from a humble Scotsman's outsider point of view, for a made-for-TV sequel I find it to be perfectly decent and it helps take my mind off what has been a really hard day. Not to go into too much detail, but we had a family tragedy today and I'm feeling blue. I toy with the idea of just quitting the Christmas movies for the day but I'm glad I decide to just watch this one as it cheers me up a bit and takes my mind off everything for ninety minutes.
So, about six years after the events of part one, things aren't too different for Ralphie's family. His old man is still stubborn, the furnace is still giving them bother, Ralphie is still a daydreamer and his doting mother still likes to secretly bail him out when dad's not looking. Ralphie's now a horny teen and obsessed with scoring a cool car with which to impress the dreamy, gorgeously unattainable Drucilla (Tiera Skovbye).
Ralphie's quest to raise the 85 bucks needed to fix the car does its best to shoehorn in dozens of callbacks to part one but also honestly offers something fresh. Apparently audiences didn't want that. We revisit the garish 'leg lamp', Ralphie drops an unfortunate 'F' bomb, has to wear another embarassing festive outfit, Chinese Christmas dinner is consumed and his mate gets his tongue stuck in something again. A bit like The Force Awakens, this tries real hard to give fans of the original what it thinks they want but just ends up pissing them off.
Still, today I enjoy it regardless. I have fun watching loveable teenage Ralphie bumble his way through the season and, though the dream sequences feel very forced and it seems completely implausible he could ever pull this girl, the film is cute and jolly and has charm in spades. It's just a pleasant film that celebrates the quirks, stubborness, in-fighting and genuine love that exists in all families just struggling to make things work and hopefully just give their kids a few happy memories. I need a film like this today.
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