A Christmas Story Christmas
★★
I think A Christmas Story Christmas marks the end of my need to consume nostalgic entertainment. I wasn't looking for a masterpiece. In no way did I think this would even touch the uniqueness of the original 1983 film, but I'm tired of watching new movies containing flashback clips of scenes from the original movie. If I wanted to see the original film, I would watch the original film!
I don't necessarily put the blame all on the creators with this one. They do the best they can. You can tell that everybody's heart is in the right place, but what made A Christmas Story so fun was seeing the story through the child's eye. It was playing with nostalgia before it became super trendy. With this installment, I didn't need a voiceover to tell Ralphie's story in his current state of life. It does its best to create original sight gags, but everything falls completely flat. For a movie that is supposed to feel like Christmas, I thought it was the complete opposite for me. This film ended up being a gripe fest from a middle-aged man who by the end, takes all the credit for his accomplishments when it was his wife who really did all the hard work behind the scenes. Hmm, maybe this movie is more true to life than I originally thought.
