A Christmas Story Christmas
Warner Bros Pictures (2022)
I'm usually pretty hesitant to watch a sequel to a movie that has come out many years after the original. This is especially true when it's a sequel of a beloved treasure like the 1983 holiday classic: A Christmas Story. However, I couldn't let the holiday season pass by without giving it a shot, so we made A Christmas Story Christmas our final Christmas movie of the holiday season last night.
We had the opportunity to meet one of the actor from this movie earlier this year. Zack Ward played the bully, Scut Farkus, in both the original film and this one. He was a hell of a nice guy, and he wasn't the only cast member from A Christmas Story to return for A Christmas Story Christmas. Peter Billingsley (Ralphie), Ian Petrella (Ralphie), Scott Schwartz (Flick), RD Robb (Schwartz), and Yano Anaya (Grover Dill) have all returned to reprise the roles that they played in the original film.
A Christmas Story was set in December 1940 when Ralphie was 9 years old. A Christmas Story Christmas is set in December 1973. Ralphie is 42 years old and living in Chicago with his wife and their two children. The story is about he and his family going home to Indiana for Christmas to his childhood home on Cleveland Street.
Anything more that I could say would spoil parts of the movie, and this is a movie that is worth watching without spoilers. A Christmas Story Christmas does everything right. It doesn't try to copy the first movie, with the son obsessing over a present or someone getting their tongue stuck to a flagpole. It also doesn't go over the top with a cheesy depiction of the early 70's. It's a heartfelt story with moments that will bring a tear to your eye, but it also has a lot of laughs and moments that are sure to remind you of your own friends and family. It's a wonderful movie and an absolutely worthy continuation of its source material. If you're burned out on the holiday season, set yourself a reminder to watch it next December, but if you can stand adding one more Christmas movie to 2022 before you call it quits, this movie is a perfect way to extend the holiday season for just a few more hours.
