Warner Premiere, Hollywood Media Bridge, Telvan Productions,
Daniel Stern, Braeden Lemasters, Stacey Travis, Valin Shinyei, Gerard Plunkett, David Buehrle, David W. Thompson, Tiera Skovbye
Ralphie (Braeden Lemasters) is now 15, almost 16, and has grown up a lot. This year, his Christmas Wish has to do with a beautiful girl, a driver’s license, and a very special car. But Ralph wrecks the top on the car while it’s still on the lot, so along with his friends Flick and Schwartz, they have to try to earn the money to fix the car or else the dealer will call the cops, in this sequel to the original beloved Christmas story.
First of all, a lot of people absolutely HATE this movie. It’s a direct to DVD film, just released in 2012, and so it’s not very spectacular. But those that hate this, I think, went in with the wrong attitude. Obviously a direct to DVD film is not going to be another classic like the original. It features actors and actresses that somehow resemble the first film’s cast. But somehow I didn’t hate this movie. I expected it to be horrible, and it wasn’t. Granted, the story isn’t too hot, and there is no way in the world to live up to the original, but they didn’t simply copy it. They paid homage to the original story, and made reference to the original many times in an oddly reverential way, believe it or not. The leg lamp makes it’s appearance, as does the furnace monster. There are lots of other references as well, and they are carefully done without mocking. It’s seriously done, but keeps the comedy that was in the original, but isn’t just slapstick or mockery. Certainly it cannot hold a candle to the original film, but it was a kind revisit which was kind of sweet when you get to it. They went to great pains to find actors that resemble the originals, and they did pay a lot of respect to the film they were updating, so it was not overbearing at all. I was glad to see it.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
