Director
Bob Clark
Cast
Kieran Culkin - Ralphie Parker
Charles Grodin - Mr. Parker
Mary Steenburgen - Mrs. Parker
Christian Culkin - Randy Parker
Whit Hertford - Lug Ditka
In 2012, the most unnecessary of sequels was released straight to DVD, as terrible sequels often are. A gusty sigh of disgust and revulsion spread over the realm of family home entertainmentland.
This sequel, A Christmas Story 2, was packaged along with the original A Christmas Story (I guess we have to call it "part one" now) because movie companies likely felt this would be the only way to get poor, unassuming movie watchers to buy this cash grab of a direct-to-DVD movie.
But there's a huge miscalculation. Calling part two a direct sequel to A Christmas Story isn't quite accurate. That rightful claim goes to the 1994 movie "It Runs in the Family." It's worth mentioning a couple other movies about Ralphie and his family, based on the writings of Jean Shepherd which "A Christmas Story" is based on, were released just after "A Christmas Story."
"The Star Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski" was released on PBS in 1985. And "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss," starring Jerry O'Connell as Ralphie, was released in 1988. Neither of them are labelled as sequels, though.
This sequel was released in theaters under the title It Runs in the Family back in 1994. And it literally starts off exactly where A Christmas Story ends.
I'm not using the term "literally" loosely. I mean it. The movie opens with the shot of the Parker house on Cleveland Street as quiet snow gently cascades down and the Parker's Christmas tree gleams in the front room window. It's the same shot the previous movie ended on as the credits rolled. Even the exact same opening credits song "Deck the Halls" plays as It Runs in the Family opens. It's the direct sequel before part two was the "direct sequel."
As the first film takes place during the Christmas of 1940, this takes place the following summer.
The story is pretty scattered with three different things going on at the same time.
To begin with, Ralphie Parker (Kieran Culkin) searches for the perfect spinning top that'll outmatch that of bully Lug Ditka (Whit Hertford - A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child). It's revealed in the movie that the bully from part one, Scut Farkus, has since been demoted to "bully: second class." We can only assume that's due to Ralphie beating the ever-loving snot out of him just before Christmas time.
All the tops Ralphie uses against Ditka end up as failures.
So, he looks to outside sources including an Asian market and a gypsy at a world's fair for rare crafted tops. The climactic battle of the tops ends with an unexpected finish.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Parker pursues a collection of celebrity dishware distributed one piece at a time from the local Orpheum Theater under the operation of Leopold Doppler (Glen Shaddix - Beetlejuice).
The first piece she acquires is a gravy boat bearing the image of Ronald Colman.
When she returns to the theater a few weeks later, the same gravy boats are distributed which Doppler explains as a "shipping error."
However, he assures all the women attending the theater for their free celebrity dishware, that should they return their boats at the next giveaway they'll be exchanged for the next piece in the collection.
Yet, when Mrs. Parker returns for her coveted next piece, all that Doppler has to give away for the third time is the same Ronald Colman gravy boat.
The frustration leads to an all out gravy boat rebellion from hundreds of royally irked housewives. As the movie so aptly points out, "never stand between an Indiana housewife and something free."
And while all this is going on, Mr. Parker is out to drive away his hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses with their incessant hillbilly music, numerous hound dogs, and constant mockery, all of which drive him to extreme measures to annoy them.
When he notices the Bumpuses build an outhouse on their property, he threatens to report them for creating such an unsanitary nuisance in the neighborhood. But they don't care.
Also, Mr. Parker builds upon his relationship with Ralphie through regular fishing trips.
Seeing as how the old man gave Ralphie his Red Ryder BB gun, and was the only character Ralphie didn't ask while pursuing that toy gun, there's something to be appreciated as the old man works to continue on building their father and son relationship.
What distinguishes the random events in the first film compared to those in this movie is that with A Christmas Story the central plot point is clear and doesn't stray - Ralphie's quest for his Red Ryder BB gun. The other events are simply surrounding elements in the holiday theme that work well to carry the movie forward. They're what Ralphie has to deal with in his quest. They make the story relatable for audiences. Situations such as the old man winning his major award only to see it shattered, or Ralphie eagerly awaiting his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin only to be taught a valuable lesson about marketing tactics, don't distract from the main plot point. They're merely minor stories that find a resolution and are played up for laughs. The audience can still take the plot of a young boy's quest for the perfect Christmas present to heart. Everything else is attractive garnish.
There are elements in this direct sequel that some audience members might relate to as normal summer routines and events they've experienced at some point in their lives. Others, like the Parker's random trip to the World's Fair, or dealing with obnoxious appraisers, seem out of place. But nothing really makes the movie carry forward well. They're just random events that happen in the summer.
Here, there's nothing to sink my teeth into as far as the storyline goes. It's here, and then it's there. It's all about what everyone in the family is focused on, including Ralphie.
It Runs in the Family could have worked much better as an anthology movie. That, at least, would have made more sense.
Some characters and elements brought over from part one are more defined for the audience to take in. In this regard, the movie does compliment the first film rather well.
We're introduced in depth to characters we only hear about in the first movie.
For instance, the audience is introduced to Pulaski and his candy story, which are briefly mentioned in A Christmas Story.
"Flick says he saw some grizzly bears near Pulaski's candy store," Ralphie tells his parents at the breakfast table in part one.
Pulaski (Dick O'Neill) runs a no nonsense candy store who's customers - mainly, children - just make it difficult for him to operate a candy store. He's a bit like John Cleese's Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers, but in small town America.
But the biggest reveal, so to say, are the Parker's hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses's and their smelly hound dogs, who are only spoken about in the first film.
"Our hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpeses' had at least 785 smelly hound dogs. And they ignored every other human being on earth except my old man." If anyone who watches this movie can remember that line from the first film, then you'll understand the Bumpuses as seen in this movie.
With these characters, fans of A Christmas Story can take away something new from this movie to enhance their imagination next time they watch the first movie.
A Christmas Story 2 relies so heavily on the first movie, you might as well skip it and just watch the first movie to begin with. I
t Runs in the Family makes an appreciable attempt to be its own story.
A Christmas Story is based on the writings of Jean Shepherd from his book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. I wrote about this when I wrote whether or not the first movie is really a stupid or not as part of my Don't Fast Forward This One postings.
Shepherd narrates My Summer Story just as he did for A Christmas Story. And Bob Clark returns from the first move to direct this sequel.
The interior and exterior of the Parker house is the same. But the only returning actor from the first movie is Tedde Moore who played Miss. Shields.
The casting choices are as good as they probably could have gotten. Mary Steenburgen plays Mrs. Parker, formerly played by Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).
Steenburgen does make the character of Mrs. Parker her own while appearing to emulate Dillon at certain times, especially when repeating some of the character's catch phrases from part one.
Charles Grodin plays "the old man" Mr. Parker, previously played by Darren McGavin.
Grodin certainly isn't terrible in this role, but isn't as natural at it as McGavin was.
Where McGavin seems natural as Mr. Parker, Grodin seems to play up the gruff, slow witted character a bit more over-the-top. At times, especially when "the old man" is in scenes where he doesn't have to bolster up Mr. Parker's mannerisms, I could see the character as I remembered from part one more clearly.
And Kieran Culkin as Ralphie (played originally by Peter Billingsly) does make an apparent effort to portray the often slackjawed Ralphie, who cares deeply about his endeavors and how those around him affect his situations.
Culkin took some getting used to playing Ralphie, especially having seen A Christmas Story every Christmas for the past 35 or so years.
I suppose it's unfair to say this continuation is completely unnecessary as it offers more stories based on Shepherd's works, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash as well as Wanda Hickeys Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters. The book has so much more, story-wise, than Ralphie's Christmas quest. It's a bit like the Wizard of Oz in that, like Dorothy and the Land of Oz itself, there's more to Ralphie's life experiences. So, why not turn those into a film as well.
The sequel relies on the first movie - red cabbage for supper, Mrs. Parker's prompt to get Ralphie's little brother Randy to eat his oatmeal because "they are starving people in China", Ralphie's BB gun - but certainly not as much as A Christmas Story 2 did.
Still, the movie manages to capture some of the spirit and feel of the first. It's not completely lost despite casting changes in the role of the characters.
However, and it really pains me to say this, Jean Shepherd's narration was excessive and rather demeaning to the audience. If you've read my commentary on A Christmas Story posted earlier on this blog, you'll understand my appreciation for Shepherd's writings.
He narrates A Christmas Story beautifully. But his narrations in It Runs in the Family are painfully distracting.
In the first film, his voice over work adds enough humor without over doing it and taking away from what makes the characters interesting enough to maintain the audience's love and interest. It added just enough savor to the movie. It's the perfect finishing touch.
Here, pretty much every scene is narrated. It's so over done, I wish I had a direct line to the movie just to tell him to shut-up so I can watch this thing. His narration is the proverbial movie-going buddy who tells you at every scene, "oh, this is funny","Watch this...this part is hilarious", "You remember that from the first one","Oh, watch what this guy is gonna do."
But worst of all, It Runs in the Family isn't really funny. What passes for humor most of the time in this movie is over-the-top.
The first movie isn't quite like that. Rather, the humor there is in the details. Audiences can laugh at themselves through the characters as they're on the outside looking in on an era and its people many today consider "the good ol' days." Yeah, maybe they weren't so good?
It's typical American consumer behavior. The movie doesn't need to force its humor. The audience is smart enough to see it for themselves.
It Runs in the Family just plays up the "yuck yuck" laughs. It feels forced most of the time. Overall, it's just not that funny.
It captures the spirit and passion of A Christmas Story, thanks in part to Jean Shepherd's style and involvement, while not being something different from the first movie. It's a different road down memory lane this time. It's just lacking a plot solid and sturdy enough for the audience to grab onto and go forward.
Random tales may work in the book, but the movies are a different medium. My Summer Story didn't work in that regard.
I get it though. The title. That good ol' fashion "must have" consumerism seen in part one carries on in part two. Mrs. Parker wants her ridiculous dishware. Ralphie has set aside his once highly coveted BB gun for a spinning top so he can claim victory in the sidewalk competition of...tops...against the neighborhood bully. Mr. Parker wants the undesirables out of his neighborhood so he can breath a little easier without the annoyance of their public nuisances. Comfort and things. It runs in the family.
I'm sure fans of a A Christmas Story might still find something to take from this movie as a sort of extra bonus to add to their enjoyment of part one.
This sequel was released in theaters under the title It Runs in the Family back in 1994. And it literally starts off exactly where A Christmas Story ends.
I'm not using the term "literally" loosely. I mean it. The movie opens with the shot of the Parker house on Cleveland Street as quiet snow gently cascades down and the Parker's Christmas tree gleams in the front room window. It's the same shot the previous movie ended on as the credits rolled. Even the exact same opening credits song "Deck the Halls" plays as It Runs in the Family opens. It's the direct sequel before part two was the "direct sequel."
As the first film takes place during the Christmas of 1940, this takes place the following summer.
The story is pretty scattered with three different things going on at the same time.
To begin with, Ralphie Parker (Kieran Culkin) searches for the perfect spinning top that'll outmatch that of bully Lug Ditka (Whit Hertford - A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child). It's revealed in the movie that the bully from part one, Scut Farkus, has since been demoted to "bully: second class." We can only assume that's due to Ralphie beating the ever-loving snot out of him just before Christmas time.
All the tops Ralphie uses against Ditka end up as failures.
So, he looks to outside sources including an Asian market and a gypsy at a world's fair for rare crafted tops. The climactic battle of the tops ends with an unexpected finish.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Parker pursues a collection of celebrity dishware distributed one piece at a time from the local Orpheum Theater under the operation of Leopold Doppler (Glen Shaddix - Beetlejuice).
The first piece she acquires is a gravy boat bearing the image of Ronald Colman.
 |
| Kieran Culkin as Ralphie Parker. |
However, he assures all the women attending the theater for their free celebrity dishware, that should they return their boats at the next giveaway they'll be exchanged for the next piece in the collection.
Yet, when Mrs. Parker returns for her coveted next piece, all that Doppler has to give away for the third time is the same Ronald Colman gravy boat.
The frustration leads to an all out gravy boat rebellion from hundreds of royally irked housewives. As the movie so aptly points out, "never stand between an Indiana housewife and something free."
And while all this is going on, Mr. Parker is out to drive away his hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses with their incessant hillbilly music, numerous hound dogs, and constant mockery, all of which drive him to extreme measures to annoy them.
When he notices the Bumpuses build an outhouse on their property, he threatens to report them for creating such an unsanitary nuisance in the neighborhood. But they don't care.
Also, Mr. Parker builds upon his relationship with Ralphie through regular fishing trips.
Seeing as how the old man gave Ralphie his Red Ryder BB gun, and was the only character Ralphie didn't ask while pursuing that toy gun, there's something to be appreciated as the old man works to continue on building their father and son relationship.
What distinguishes the random events in the first film compared to those in this movie is that with A Christmas Story the central plot point is clear and doesn't stray - Ralphie's quest for his Red Ryder BB gun. The other events are simply surrounding elements in the holiday theme that work well to carry the movie forward. They're what Ralphie has to deal with in his quest. They make the story relatable for audiences. Situations such as the old man winning his major award only to see it shattered, or Ralphie eagerly awaiting his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin only to be taught a valuable lesson about marketing tactics, don't distract from the main plot point. They're merely minor stories that find a resolution and are played up for laughs. The audience can still take the plot of a young boy's quest for the perfect Christmas present to heart. Everything else is attractive garnish.
There are elements in this direct sequel that some audience members might relate to as normal summer routines and events they've experienced at some point in their lives. Others, like the Parker's random trip to the World's Fair, or dealing with obnoxious appraisers, seem out of place. But nothing really makes the movie carry forward well. They're just random events that happen in the summer.
Here, there's nothing to sink my teeth into as far as the storyline goes. It's here, and then it's there. It's all about what everyone in the family is focused on, including Ralphie.
It Runs in the Family could have worked much better as an anthology movie. That, at least, would have made more sense.
Some characters and elements brought over from part one are more defined for the audience to take in. In this regard, the movie does compliment the first film rather well.
We're introduced in depth to characters we only hear about in the first movie.
For instance, the audience is introduced to Pulaski and his candy story, which are briefly mentioned in A Christmas Story.
"Flick says he saw some grizzly bears near Pulaski's candy store," Ralphie tells his parents at the breakfast table in part one.
Pulaski (Dick O'Neill) runs a no nonsense candy store who's customers - mainly, children - just make it difficult for him to operate a candy store. He's a bit like John Cleese's Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers, but in small town America.
But the biggest reveal, so to say, are the Parker's hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses's and their smelly hound dogs, who are only spoken about in the first film.
"Our hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpeses' had at least 785 smelly hound dogs. And they ignored every other human being on earth except my old man." If anyone who watches this movie can remember that line from the first film, then you'll understand the Bumpuses as seen in this movie.
With these characters, fans of A Christmas Story can take away something new from this movie to enhance their imagination next time they watch the first movie.
A Christmas Story 2 relies so heavily on the first movie, you might as well skip it and just watch the first movie to begin with. I
t Runs in the Family makes an appreciable attempt to be its own story.
A Christmas Story is based on the writings of Jean Shepherd from his book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. I wrote about this when I wrote whether or not the first movie is really a stupid or not as part of my Don't Fast Forward This One postings.
Shepherd narrates My Summer Story just as he did for A Christmas Story. And Bob Clark returns from the first move to direct this sequel.
The interior and exterior of the Parker house is the same. But the only returning actor from the first movie is Tedde Moore who played Miss. Shields.
The casting choices are as good as they probably could have gotten. Mary Steenburgen plays Mrs. Parker, formerly played by Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).
Steenburgen does make the character of Mrs. Parker her own while appearing to emulate Dillon at certain times, especially when repeating some of the character's catch phrases from part one.
Charles Grodin plays "the old man" Mr. Parker, previously played by Darren McGavin.
Grodin certainly isn't terrible in this role, but isn't as natural at it as McGavin was.
Where McGavin seems natural as Mr. Parker, Grodin seems to play up the gruff, slow witted character a bit more over-the-top. At times, especially when "the old man" is in scenes where he doesn't have to bolster up Mr. Parker's mannerisms, I could see the character as I remembered from part one more clearly.
And Kieran Culkin as Ralphie (played originally by Peter Billingsly) does make an apparent effort to portray the often slackjawed Ralphie, who cares deeply about his endeavors and how those around him affect his situations.
Culkin took some getting used to playing Ralphie, especially having seen A Christmas Story every Christmas for the past 35 or so years.
I suppose it's unfair to say this continuation is completely unnecessary as it offers more stories based on Shepherd's works, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash as well as Wanda Hickeys Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters. The book has so much more, story-wise, than Ralphie's Christmas quest. It's a bit like the Wizard of Oz in that, like Dorothy and the Land of Oz itself, there's more to Ralphie's life experiences. So, why not turn those into a film as well.
 |
| Kieran Culkin and Charles Grodin. |
Still, the movie manages to capture some of the spirit and feel of the first. It's not completely lost despite casting changes in the role of the characters.
However, and it really pains me to say this, Jean Shepherd's narration was excessive and rather demeaning to the audience. If you've read my commentary on A Christmas Story posted earlier on this blog, you'll understand my appreciation for Shepherd's writings.
He narrates A Christmas Story beautifully. But his narrations in It Runs in the Family are painfully distracting.
In the first film, his voice over work adds enough humor without over doing it and taking away from what makes the characters interesting enough to maintain the audience's love and interest. It added just enough savor to the movie. It's the perfect finishing touch.
Here, pretty much every scene is narrated. It's so over done, I wish I had a direct line to the movie just to tell him to shut-up so I can watch this thing. His narration is the proverbial movie-going buddy who tells you at every scene, "oh, this is funny","Watch this...this part is hilarious", "You remember that from the first one","Oh, watch what this guy is gonna do."
But worst of all, It Runs in the Family isn't really funny. What passes for humor most of the time in this movie is over-the-top.
The first movie isn't quite like that. Rather, the humor there is in the details. Audiences can laugh at themselves through the characters as they're on the outside looking in on an era and its people many today consider "the good ol' days." Yeah, maybe they weren't so good?
It's typical American consumer behavior. The movie doesn't need to force its humor. The audience is smart enough to see it for themselves.
It Runs in the Family just plays up the "yuck yuck" laughs. It feels forced most of the time. Overall, it's just not that funny.
It captures the spirit and passion of A Christmas Story, thanks in part to Jean Shepherd's style and involvement, while not being something different from the first movie. It's a different road down memory lane this time. It's just lacking a plot solid and sturdy enough for the audience to grab onto and go forward.
Random tales may work in the book, but the movies are a different medium. My Summer Story didn't work in that regard.
I get it though. The title. That good ol' fashion "must have" consumerism seen in part one carries on in part two. Mrs. Parker wants her ridiculous dishware. Ralphie has set aside his once highly coveted BB gun for a spinning top so he can claim victory in the sidewalk competition of...tops...against the neighborhood bully. Mr. Parker wants the undesirables out of his neighborhood so he can breath a little easier without the annoyance of their public nuisances. Comfort and things. It runs in the family.
I'm sure fans of a A Christmas Story might still find something to take from this movie as a sort of extra bonus to add to their enjoyment of part one.
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