"You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!" - Page 2

As the saying goes, 'You can't go back home,' but happily, you'll see quite a few familiar faces in the old neighborhood. Even the hounds make a welcome comeback, barking and kicking up a ruckus just like their ancestors did when they gobbled up all the turkey in the first flick.

A new generation of bullies gives Ralph a chance to teach Mark and Julie how to handle these kinds of situations, leading to lots of snowmobiling and amusing results.

Some of the highlights of the film take place at Flick's, the local bar, where Ralphie runs into some of his old pals, including Flick himself (reprised by Scott Schwartz), who runs the place; and Schwartz (R.D. Robb returning in the role), who regularly runs up quite a tab. One scene leads to a 'triple-dog dare' with adults who've had too much to drink, but the scene is original and fun, and picks up on a genuine sense of camaraderie.

Another is when Mom, Dad, and Grandma take the kids to see Santa, returning to Higbee's Department Store, where we run into an equally crazy-eyed Santa and those kooky elves with wacky caps standing by to shove kids down the slide.

In an ending with unexpected twists, Ralph saves the day, though confronted by his old nemesis, Scut Farkus (Zack Ward), who is now a police officer.

All in all, this is a welcome sequel. In a world where sequels rarely live up to the originals (and frankly, can they really be expected to?), 'A Christmas Story Christmas' connects us with the original in a believable way, without trying to compete or copy it.

A point of interest tied to the 'A Christmas Story' original. In 2001, Time magazine did a write-up about writer Jean Shepherd, indicating that "despite the infectious exuberance and sharply honed sense of absurdity that always symbolized Shepherd's narration, there is a subtle undercurrent of sadness in some of his best work, a sense of mourning for an innocent past that can never be recaptured."

In this new sequel, though much of the nostalgia of the original is lost, the story has heart of its own, and weaves humor with real-life bittersweet, making for a sentimental Christmas story that many will reflect upon long after the movie ends.