Ralphie is now all grown up and must deal with Christmas and all that comes with it…as a dad.
Released: 2022-11-17
Runtime: 120 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Family
Stars: Peter Billingsley, Erinn Hayes, Zack Ward, Julie Hagerty, Mark Arnold, Scott Schwartz, R.D. Robb, Julianna Layne, Ian Petrella, River Drosche, J.R. Esposito, Chris Jarman, Sam Parks, Henry Miller, Ian Porter, Owen Davis, Derek Morse, Davis Murphy
Director: Clay Kaytis
Comments
gybfmmx - 25 December 2023 Unexpected Fun I was expecting an inadequate sequel with flat characters and bad jokes. I was pleasantly wrong! This is a funny, heartfelt, and worthy film to complete the Parkers' family journey. Well written and well acted, it pays homage to the camp of the original and adds depth to the characters we know as well as new ones. Peter Billingsley is a gentle gem, playing Ralphie as the imperfect but devoted father, much like The Old Man. For me, i enjoyed the balance between new story and nostalgia, and feel they didn't overdue the Easter eggs. I'm so glad I watched! If "A Christmas Story" holds a place in your heart, make room for this alongside.
letsgobrandonfjb - 9 December 2023 1973?! The years are completely off. The first one takes place in 1940 and released in 1983. This one takes place in 1973 but came out in 2022 which means it was 39 years later from the original. This one should have taken place in 1979 plus Ralphie and the other actors from the original look older than the age they're supposed to be in the movie. It would go perfectly if it was taken place in 1979. Even better if this would have came out in 2023 for a fortieth anniversary and the movie taken place in 1980. This may sound picky but this throws the movie off for me. I only saw this once and never want to see it again!!
MariaLBD - 8 January 2023 A Charming Sequel As a devotee of the original movie, I didn't know what to expect. Would it be a cheesy remake? Would I be sorely disappointed? I loved the first one so much that I had to check this one out. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. It has callbacks to many of the key scenes of the original movie but puts enough of a twist on each one so that they're not just pathetic repeats of the original movie. The casting is great -- both the new cast (mom, wife, and kids) and the old (Flick, Schwartz, Scut, Randy). The nostalgia of 1973 is just as touching as the nostalgia of the 1940s was in the original. I loved how Ralph, Flick, and Schwartz had all matured into adults but still retained some of their childhood personalities. (Other movies would have them outright behaving like children.) I'm not sure if the movie would be enjoyable for someone who hasn't watched the original -- and watched it enough times to remember every scene -- but for fans of the classic A Christmas Story, I highly recommend giving this a watch.
brooksidebro - 28 December 2022 Surprise sequel that hits the mark! I watched the movie expecting to see a train wreck. It started slowly but made progress towards making this a stand alone movie. The ability to use the original characters all grown up, used the same spirit as the original. Swartz and Flick did what normal childhood kids do, talk smack. Ralphie's character although true to the original didn't try to act like a kid. Julie Haggarty a replacement made a solid performance. We still will watch the original every Christmas and add this movie as well. I'm certainly glad all holiday movies aren't remade or sequeled. The writers and directors made a solid stand alone movie. You won't regret it.
kenheise - 26 December 2022 Wonderful sequel to a classic I really enjoyed this movie. I loved the fact that most of the original cast was brought together to make it. It shows how some of the people in Ralph's past have matured and made a better life for themselves and also some things don't change as time goes on. The move starts with a tragedy with the mentioning of his father's passing when he gets a call from his mom. So they decided to go and spend time with his mother for Christmas. Ralph's car breaks down in the way and this becomes a struggle to fix it just as his father fought the furnace in the original movie. When they arrive at his moms house she is determined to concentrate on Christmas and not dwell on the Old Man's passing. So Ralph decides to try to make this the best Christmas ever for his family. As he goes through this you see some of his father's traits come out especially with the family Christmas tree. At the end his father comes through for the family and everyone gets what they wanted for Christmas. Ralph's mom asks him to read what he wrote about his dad in the paper and he begins to tell the tail of the best Christmas ever, the original Christmas Story movie.
I absolutely loved this movie and thought it was a great sequel to the original. And yes, my eyes water up at the end. This is truly a future Christmas classic. 👍👍
PyreworksShow - 25 December 2022 Charming with a surprising emotional punch The original film underwent a fascinating journey just to exist as we know it today. It started life as a series of stories told on a radio show by Jean Shepherd. A friend of his thought that the stories were so good that they should be put into a book and spread to a wider audience. Shepherd wasn't sure how well this would work but did it nevertheless. The books were successful, so much so that a producer reached out to Shepherd in the interest of making a Christmas movie based off of some these stories. Shepherd ran with the idea and, after encountering a few hurdles, he released the film we know as A Christmas Story. It flopped, which is hard to imagine now but, like It's a Wonderful Life, it gained a second wind thanks to television replays over the next few decades. It has its issues (most notably the scene at the end in the Chinese restaurant) but it's still a rightfully beloved classic to this day. It stays with people because of how it portrays middle class family life and childhood at Christmas in the Rust Belt. It hits the right notes not only with the trials of living such an existence but also the warmth that comes from having the rare gift of a close family.
A few attempts have been made over the years to piggyback off of the success of the film, including by Shepherd himself, but they're all either virtually unknown or disliked across the board by those who do know them. With all that said, I was worried for this movie. It means a lot to me since my childhood was a lot like Ralphie's, albeit some four or five decades later. My family didn't have much but each other and was founded in the end of the Rust Belt that reaches into Western New York. I also schemed to get the gift I wanted every year, though without the kind of success that Ralphie had in the film. I went into it with no small amount of trepidation but I'm really pleased with the end result. Peter Billingsly reprises his iconic role as Ralphie, now middle aged and muddling through the '70s with his wife and two kids. Ralphie is frustrated as he's trying to break into the writing game, but nobody is going for his lengthy sci-fi treatises. He's running out of time on a self-imposed deadline but has to put that aside when he hears the news that the Old Man has passed away. He and his family expedite their yearly trip to visit Ralphie's parents to that same day and as Ralphie tries to comfort his mother, she gently rebuffs this and instead insists that Ralphie help her come up with a Christmas worthy of the Old Man. This sends Ralphie into a series of hijinks that help him reconnect with his past through both old friends and enemies. It's absolutely charming and the writers did a great job handling the heavier subject matter featured in this script. There are a few flaws, though.
The biggest one is that it relies just a little too much on the original film. The heart and vision of the writers and director is clear here and I feel that could have played it a little less safe, especially as the portions that didn't based themselves off the previous film feel like they came right from the pen of Jean Shepherd himself. Actually now that I think about it that was really my only complaint. Now on to the stand-out positives. First, full credit to the actress who they got for Ralphie's mom. It's sad that the original Mr. And Mrs. Parker have passed away in real life, but Julie Hagerty did an admirable job taking on the role. It was wise to not try and recast the Old Man because, as those forgotten sequels have proven, only one guy has ever gotten it right. The next big one was the sense of continuity. As I mentioned, they set the film almost 40 years after the original and the designers really nailed the little touches of middle class living in the '70s. My last big one was the kids. The actor and actress really seemed to understand what film they were in and brought the right energy and an excellent sense of comedic timing. The cast was great in general, but the kids and Peter Billingsly really ran away with the thing.
It's not perfect. Neither was the original, though it's a lot closer than this film is, but that's not to say that it's bad by any means. It really brings the heart and charm of the original film and Shepherd's works. If you're on the fence, please give it a try. It's worth it.
deloudelouvain - 24 December 2022 I guess I'm a Scrooge. I can't say I'm a big fan of Christmas movies as those are most of the time too cheesy. The only good Christmas movies I can think of are Le Père Noël Est Une Ordure, probably the best one ever, and Bad Santa. Those two movies I really enjoyed watching. But my wife insists on watching a Christmas movie at Christmas so I obliged. Apparently there was a first movie in 1983, that I didn't watch as I didn't meet my wife yet. If it was of the same quality as this one I don't regret skipping that one. Peter Billingsley is this time the adult and he's really annoying to watch, or better said to listen to as he's the narrator. What an unpleasant voice he has. The story is vomit material so keep your bucket close by. I'm not surprised the movie gets such a high rating, the vast majority feels for this kind of nonsense, the holidays madness as I call it, the big business of people feeling the urge of buying presents nobody cares of. I was bored from the first minute till the last, had to fight to stay awake. I'm glad it's over, until next year when I will have to endure another crap Christmas movie.
smilingkevin - 22 December 2022 Very disappointing. So many missed opportunities. The movie should have been the easiest thing ever. Just play to the nostalgia and take the rest of the day off. Instead we get a bizarre collection of unnecessary and unrelated nonsense that just goes nowhere.
It's not BAD, exactly, in the way that The Santa Clause 3 is bad, but the gulf between what it could have been and what we got is so wide it's just depressing.
My guess is that all the extra irrelevant (and, sometimes, quickly abandoned) subplots are taken from the original source material and just shoehorned in. But why? The charm of the original movie wasn't from Shepherd's banal material but transcended it.
kjproulx - 17 December 2022 A Very Solid Follow-Up to a Classic I'll admit up front that I never grew up watching A Christmas Story from 1983. I didn't have the pleasure of watching it until about ten years ago and I've now seen it a few times. I think it's a fantastic Christmas film. Not being on the bandwagon for that film for many years probably made me less worried than hardcore fans about this being a disaster, so I went into this film optimistically. I'm glad I did because I think this sequel is just as delightful as the original. Obviously, it's not as great, but I think it says something that this one made me cry and the first didn't. While not the Christmas classic that A Christmas Story is, here's why I believe this one absolutely deserves a watch.
Since the first film took place in the 40s but was narrated by Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) in real-time back in the 80s, A Christmas Story Christmas pretty much leads off from there. Taking place in what seems like the 80s, Ralphie is trying to make a great Christmas happen for his family, but he soon learns about the passing of his father. This leads them to spend Christmas with his mother back in his hometown. Yes, this film is filled with nostalgia and references to the first film, but I thought it was all handled incredibly well. I rarely rolled my eyes and really just felt like smiling. This film warmed my heart and I thought Peter Billingsley actually delivered a very solid performance. I would gladly watch the first film and this sequel back to back again.
Yes, the downfall of this film is that the whole point of it is really to fill the hearts of those who loved the original. For me though, even though I admit that's a big problem, the problem doesn't feel present when you watch it. Other than that, I hardly have any complaints here. It strives to bring Christmas spirit and be emotional, funny, and heartwarming, and it accomplishes all of that as far as I'm concerned. It was the kind of movie I was looking for at the time maybe, but it all just really worked for me.
In the end, A Christmas Story Christmas just simply hit all the right notes for me, especially as a Christmas film. It doesn't lean into the greediness of the holiday, but rather dials that back for a nice message. I also enjoyed everyone that was a new addition as Ralphie's wife and kids. It's hard for me to really come up with any gripes here because it felt like it was all in the same style as the first, which I loved already. This may just be a cop-out review without bringing up any true negatives, but I just had a great time watching it. It's not the greatest Christmas movie ever nor will it win any awards, but I can see myself resisting this one around Christmas time in the future.
RougueJ - 12 December 2022 Great Disappointment Honestly I didn't expect much from this film. This is actually worse than I expected. What really ruined it was Julie Hargerty's performance was the mom. The filmmakers would have been better off just saying she died years ago than replacing her with this limited skill actress. They also tried desperately to recreate much of Ralphie's childhood bringing in a new generation of bullies - the spawn of his old nemeses, complete lack of creativity with that. And of course making a cliche of his childhood friends. Forget about Randy...ugh. I wish I never saw this, the original should have been the only film.