WHO ASKED FOR THIS?
By Jerry Saravia
Allegedly based on Jean Shepherd's fanciful childhood tales, "A Christmas Story 2" heads direct-to-DVD on October 30th, 2012. That is right, a sequel to the perennial favorite that plays on a 24 hour loop on TBS every Christmas with the kid who might shoot his eye out is coming packaged and ready for delivery. Obviously I have not seen this sequel but it strikes me as missing a crucial ingredient from the original film - the plight of adolescence and the yearning for the toy you must have. Daniel Stern plays the Old Man (so vividly played by the late Darren McGavin in the 1983 original) and a young fresh actor named Braeden Lemasters plays the teenage Ralphie (replacing Peter Billingsley and Kieran Culkin from "It Runs in the Family") who yearns for a 1938 Hupmobile Skyline Convertible. Stacey Travis takes over as the mother, an actress who seems like a far cry from Melinda Dillon in the original and Mary Steenburgen from the forgotten "It Runs in the Family" (and I do mean the 1994 film sequel, also known as "My Summer Story," not the 2003 Michael Douglas picture). David W. Thompson and David Buehrle play Flick and Schwartz. The director is Brian Levant, the same one who helmed the unfunny "Jingle All the Way," a disastrous Schwarzenegger kiddie flick.
Studying the poster carefully tells me that the filmmakers are riding high on some of the specific gags of the original film that have become as common to our popular culture as apple pie. Will the Old Man still be salivating over that dreaded leg lamp? Will Ralphie be forced to wear a teddy bear costume as opposed to a bunny costume? Will Flick and Schwartz play sword fighting with two candy canes? I think a more appropriate question for a coming-of-age story would be: will the teenage Ralphie be having sex and who is that girl sitting next to him? Oh, no, some of you might say. This is a Christmas tale and teens didn't have sex in the 40's. Hogwash.
Warner Bros. is actually shutting down its direct-to-DVD slate division, Warner Premiere, and their reason is: "a decline in direct-to-video-film market." Sounds more like a decline in quality - let us not forget that maybe they could have churned out more original films than sequels to "The Lost Boys." There has been a prejudice to direct-to-DVD or direct-to-video films for several decades now, but occasionally there is a diamond in the rough. I am talking about "Slumdog Millionaire," a film that was going straight to DVD thanks to Warner Bros. (ouch!) and was rescued from oblivion and ushered into theaters instead thanks to distributor Fox Searchlight Pictures, and it went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Danny Boyle is a talented director whereas Brian Levant, not so much. Warner Premiere had nothing to do with "Slumdog Millionaire" either. Since their inception in 2006, they established a formula of making sequels to movies or as they put it, and I quote, "follow-ups to films that had done well at the box office theatrically, but wouldn't be expected to do well if a sequel were to be made."
Without Jean Shepherd's reliable narration that anchored "A Christmas Story" and "It Runs in the Family" (Shepherd passed away in 1999), I am sensing this is a movie that I have one too many reservations about. I may eventually see it on cable out of curiosity but, for the time being, I will check out "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Part 2." Or just watch the original "A Christmas Story."
