My Summer Story
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Movie Reviews of My Summer Story
Movie Review: Great Memories of Childhood
Summary: 4 Stars
Excellent sequel to "The Christmas Story". Well done and very light and entertaining.Movie Review: Best viewed as a stand-alone film
Summary: 3 Stars
As others have mentioned, it's best not to see this as a sequel to "A Christmas Story". The casting isn't as good in most cases and the story isn't as compelling. If you hold this film to its predecessor's high standard, it will pale in comparison. When viewed in its own right, it makes for decent family entertainment.
This isn't quite as family-friendly as "A Christmas Story" due to its language. Both Mr. Parker and Ralphie use "son of a bitch" a few times in the film, so it's not quite appropriate for smaller children. Ah, but didn't Ralphie use the same word in "A Christmas Story"? Yes, but because it was used once in an otherwise sanitary film (unless one thinks of "Oh fuuuuudge" or his garbled pseudo-profanities blurted out as he beat up Scut Farkas as dirty words), Ralphie's sigh of disappointment "Son of a bitch!" was powerful and funny. When used repeatedly by Mr. Parker it was just trite profanity.
Mary Steenburgen makes an excellent Mrs. Parker with a fine balance of sweetness and intimidation. Usually it's the former, but as she returns to the theater for the eighth time to exchange her Deluxe Pearleen gravy boat for a matching platter her threat to Ralphie ("If you mention fishing to Randy again I will kill you") carries weight. Charles Grodin is the weakest major character in the film. Darren McGavin played a curmudgeonly father with occasional streaks of good humor, but Grodin plays a humorous father trying hard to act curmudgeonly. This is an enormous difference. If you haven't seen "A Christmas Story" it probably won't bother you. Kieran Culkin plays a passable Ralphie.
Others have criticized some of the other characters as "too cartoonish", but it's good to keep in mind the film is a reminiscence of an adult about his childhood. Memories become exaggerated after time, and this can easily account for the ultra-hillbilly nature of the Bumpass family next door. Over the top? Yes. Does it work in this film? Also, yes.
History fans will also have to suspend their objections at anachronisms. The story is ostensibly set in the late 1930s (judging by the cars and other props used), but one act in the film shows the family going to the World's Fair in Chicago (the 1933 Century of Progress Expo). This also can be attributed to a faulty childhood memory as this is not a documentary.
My 9-year old laughed at a number of the slapstick scenes and generally enjoyed the film, so I will give it 3 out of 5 stars. It's worth a rental or maybe a purchase if on blow-out sale (I picked up my copy for $3), but it probably won't take its place next to "A Christmas Story" in your DVD/Blu-ray collection of perennial favorites.
Movie Review: NOT AS GOOD AS THE PREVIOUS CLASSIC.
Summary: 3 Stars
I THINK THAT THIS MOVIE IS JUST "OK". TO ME, IT DOESN'T COMPARE AT ALL TO THE QUALITY OF "A CHRISTMAS STORY". I WOULD PROBABLY BUY THE MOVIE TO ADD TO MY DVD COLLECTION, BUT HAD ALL OF THE ORIGINAL ACTORS/ACTRESSES, WITH THEIR TALENTS BEEN IN THIS "SEQUEL", THEN IT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN DYNAMITE .Movie Review: If You Love "A Christmas Story," You're Probably Not Going To Love This...
Summary: 2 Stars
"A Christmas Story" is one of my favorite movies. I've seen it countless times and could probably sit down and write out the script from memory. I was excited when I found that another Parker family adventure was out on DVD; and best of all, it featured voice-over by Jean Shepherd, and was directed, once again, by Bob Clark! It might sound good on paper, but as hard as it tries, "My Summer Story" doesn't recapture the charm of the original due to poor casting and a weak story.
My first complaint is that the film relies too heavily on references to the original film. The film begins with a clip from "A Christmas Story," and lines of dialogue are lifted from that film continuously. This is especially prevalent during the first half hour, when all of these references just go to show how weak this sequel is in comparison.
Gripe #2: The casting for this movie is terrible. Ralphie acts nothing like he did in the first movie; Kieran Culkin does a fine job acting, but didn't quite nail the character. The same can be said for Charles Grodin as the Old Man. Randy is almost an afterthought here (he has relatively few lines, and when he does talk, he's always whining or repeating himself). Flick and Schwarts are in the film, but they're almost identical and I couldn't figure out which one was supposed to be which. Scut Farkus is also here, but portrayed by a much younger actor who looks incapable of bullying anyone. Scut has been demoted to the lackey of a new head bully, Lug Ditka, who doesn't really seem to bully anyone aside from verbally abusing them. On the bright side, Ms. Shields is played by the original actress, who provides one of the film's best performances in a scene where she deals with Ralph after he turns in a book report based on a dirty book he found under the Old Man's mattress.
Gripe #3: Jean Shepherd's voice-over is a huge letdown. I figured that even if the rest of the movie was terrible, I could enjoy listening to Jean's unique take on the events. While his narration in the first film was clever and full of sophisticated word-play, the lines he delivers in "My Summer Story" are dumbed down and won't be much of a mystery to anyone over the age of six. Wherein the narration of "A Christmas Story" served as an accompaniment to the film's visuals, the narration here generally doesn't add much to the scenes.
Finally, the plot is passable, but far less entertaining than "A Christmas Story." "My Summer Story" is a collection of short stories, involving an illusive killer toy top, fishing expeditions, a visit to the World's Fair, and a war with the hillbilly Bumpus neighbors. The correlation of these subplots isn't very clear until the end of the film, when the narration provides a heavy-handed moral lesson that draws everything together. Some of these stories are better than others, ranging from the entertaining toy top saga to the embarrassingly bad feud with the Bumpus family.
So there you have it. "My Summer Story" isn't a horrible movie, but fans of "A Christmas Story" will most likely be disappointed. People who haven't watched "A Christmas Story" might find this movie mildly entertaining, but 90 minutes would better be spent watching the original. Definitely not worth the MSRP of $20, I would only recommend this DVD as a rental, or a purchase if you can pick it up for under $10.
Movie Review: Weak, poorly cast sequel to "A Christmas Story"
Summary: 2 Stars
I waited for this turkey to drop to the price of $1.99 before picking it up from a secondary seller. Sadly, this was the last adaptation of Jean Shepherd's stories. For starters, the movie was badly cast. Charles Grodin is just horrible as "The Old Man". The script is generally weak, with the Scut Farkus/Mariah/Battling Tops thread being too weak to hold this mess of a movie together.
Shepherd would have been better advised the progress Ralphie to the age of 16 and re-tell the Junior Prom/Wanda Hickey story (brilliantly told in a 1976 TV movie).
This movie was advertised in preview trailer under the original title of "It Runs In The Family". The title was renamed at the last minute, and I never remember seeing it show up at any theater near me. Even bad Shep is better than nothing, but this flick died a quick death at the box office (for good reason).
Bottom line, worth $1.99 plus shipping but not much more.