So like many people, I watch A Christmas Story on TBS every year since they show it for 24 hours. With that marathon, some other stations like to do their own "movie for 24 hours" marathon. Last year it was FXX with Harold and Kumar Christmas, and this year it was CMT with A Christmas Story 2. Yeah, there's a sequel to this holiday classic, and Nostalgia Critic reviewed it. This isn't going to be a Critic Critic blog, just my review with some mention at the end.

So this story takes place 7 years after the events of A Christmas Story. Well, I'm pretty sure it's 7 years since Ralphie is 9 in A Christmas Story and he's almost 16 in A Christmas Story 2, but I think it says that it's 5 years after the first movie. However, they reference 16 more often then 5 years, so I'll go with 7 years later. Anyways, it's still about Ralph, Flick, Schwarts, the old man, mother, and his kid brother. Everyone is older now, so the brother is now like Ralph's age in the first movie. This time instead of wanting a BB Gun, Ralph wants a car, because 16. Another plot is trying to pay back the damage he did to a car. And another plot is the old man trying to not pay 40 cents a pound for turkey, instead trying to catch a Christmas fish. And another plot is trying to buy a new furnace because the old one is finally dead. Like the first Christmas Story, it has a lot of small plots around the main plot, and it does a pretty good job of trying to tell all of them. Really funny.

Next I'll talk about the characters. Everyone has been recast. Naturally the kids had to be because this was filmed in 2012 and the original was filmed in 1983. I will say that the casting was really good since all of the characters are very reminiscent of the first movie, especially Ralph. They look like their original movie counterparts but 7 years older. However, they also recast the parents. I guess they kind of had to for the same reasons, but I feel like they could have done a better job of casting actors that looked more like the originals. As for their writing, the kids feel very similar to their original movie counterparts. Ralph and his friends are awkward teens and have to go through a bunch of different teen situations like wanting a car and doing crazy jobs. They feel very close to what I would imagine these kids would be like as teens. Also, they got the original narrator to do all the Ralph thoughts, and most of the movie is narrated through Ralph's thoughts, just like the old movie. Well, they either got the original, or someone who is REALLY close. The dad though feels a little off, like they took the notion of "he liked to negotiate and do things himself" to the "cheapskate" level. Like watching him and Ralph negotiate with the car salesman was definitely true to his original character, but choosing free fish over 40 cents a pound turkey felt wrong. Like, he's a turkey junkie, he wants turkey. Also, he didn't want to get a brand new furnace because he can get a good used one. With "the string of swearing that still lingers over lake Michigan," I suspect he would rather have the new furnace. Oh well, he's more of a minor character. Ralph still feels right. Then there are the other characters, and they don't really hold any weight, so I just won't talk about them.

Now for the humor. They draw a lot from the original movie. Most of the jokes are taken from the original, or are callbacks to the original. They seem to do a good job at making it "hey, that's just like the first one, and still pretty funny," over "oh come on, this is just like the first one, and not as good." There are some other, original, jokes, but expect almost all of it to be based on the first movie. It's not bad, just familiar.

Now I mentioned that I watched this on CMT, and that Nostalgia Critic reviewed this (and naturally he said it was bad). Now I do disagree with him from time to time, but I think this is more based on the fact that this was a network edit. There were a lot of scenes referenced in his review that just weren't in this version. Similarly, the pacing and characters were drastically different than what he talked about in his review. Like, I get that he exaggerates with many of his critiques, but this was WAY different. I think CMT made their own "fan edit" to fix some issues this movie has, making it better than it really is. I can't speak for the actual movie, but if you can watch it on CMT, I recommend it for some harmless fun; It's nothing amazing, but it's also nothing harmful. Definitely try to watch this version.

Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.