Kyle Vansteelandt
A Christmas Story may needs some improvement, but this holiday movie brings enormous nostalgia. The narration by Jean Sheperd is top-notch, the delivery in his narration brings playful emotion and really makes the story very easy to be engaging and remains never to be ignored. And the script that Jean was reading has creative detail and has brilliant writing from the imagining standpoint of children on how they described what they experienced and imagined, which brings tons of nostalgia to us and reminds us of our childhood. Not to mention that this film has characters with personality traits that felt very realistic from our child-like perspective, like how our parents acted and how they treated us, how we imagined something that was going to happen, and the situations we have been through when we were kids. The film is unsure of what it's target audience because of the foul language that was briefly used, even if this film has been promoted as a family friendly film, the language was said by parents and even children which is even worse, because the writers should never write lines with swear words for children to say. The bloodhounds are the running gag of the film and they have been hated in this film by Old man who is Ralph's father. The bloodhounds have been abused once with the tail and the door and they have been called a B word at the end of the film. The moral of this film is "dreams don't always end up as true, and knowing what to expect in true reality" which is an important message for children to learn. The music score is whimsical and dynamic. The score can go from suspenseful and dramatic to playful and bouncy, the score may be unoriginal most of the time, but the score was written that way for a very understandable reason, the score does have some originality in places. To conclude: A Christmas Story is one of those movies that left me torn (if I have not sit through those flaws, I would never get to mildly enjoy the nostalgia, the charm, and such great storytelling). Parents, If your kids do see this film, you should definitely talk to them about what happens in reality that we need to expect and the foul language they should never use. Worth a rental and probably suitable for kids age 10 and up.
38 people found this review helpful
Jonly Wonly
How anyone could not like this story is beyond me. No, it's not perfect: it's goofy and cheesy at times, Ralphie blurts most of his lines so fast it's hard to understand what he's even saying (if you haven't already seen it forty or fifty times,) the mother's hair is so NOT genuine to the period, and Scut Farkus does not have yellow eyes (although it is hard to tell, Ralphie was talking about the WHITES of his eyes, not his irises.) Despite all this, the narration is just unbelievably impeccable, and could nearly carry the entire film by itself. Between that and Darren McGavin's hilariously spot-on portrayal of the father -- and so many other charming things -- they combine to supersede and far surpass all the film's flaws. If you've never seen this one, set your standards down one notch and give it a try, I sincerely doubt you'll be disappointed.
181 people found this review helpful
ANDREW STOUT
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A Christmas Story needs No improvement. The Best Christmas Story Ever Told. Why? Because the movie not just a time capsule, its also entirely relatable today. Ostensibly the story is about a boy and his holiday gift dream, but in reality the story is about *any family's trials and tribulations. When I saw it as a kid, I understood it through the kid's eyes. Now as a dad, I understand it through the dad's eyes. It manages to be profoundly true, while still being funny. Woke Politics need not apply. A little 'foul' language. Which is part of that truth. People's standards of what is acceptable has shifted in 40 years. None of these shows from the 80s made ME into a potty mouth. But we live in an increasingly sanitized world, and the slightest infractions are a horror. If you go back and watch an episode of Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, they call each other "Idiot" and hit eachother on the head. I think that's probably 'worse' than what you'll find here. In this movie, the limited use of foul language is rewarded by punishment, its actually a plot line. It might not even be a bad way to frame the concept of bad vs good language. See what happens? You'll be sucking Soap.