''A Christmas Story 2'' is a 2012 American Christmas comedy film directed by

Brian Levant Brian Michael Levant (born August 6, 1952) is an American filmmaker. Early life and career Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Levant started his career in 1976 as a writer for the TV series ''Happy Days''. He also wrote for, among other TV show ...

and starring Daniel Stern and

Braeden Lemasters Braeden Matthew Lemasters (born January 27, 1996) is an American actor, musician, and singer. He is best known for his role as Albert Tranelli in the TNT comedy-drama series ''Men of a Certain Age''. He has made guest appearances in several telev ...

. The film is a direct sequel to the 1983 film ''

A Christmas Story ''A Christmas Story'' is a 1983 Christmas comedy film directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd's semi-fictional anecdotes in his 1966 book '' In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash'', with some elements from his 1971 book ''Wanda Hickey's ...

'' and ignores the events of the 1994 film ''

My Summer Story ''My Summer Story'' (originally released in theaters as ''It Runs in the Family'') is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Bob Clark that serves as a sequel to his 1983 film ''A Christmas Story''. Like the previous film, it is based on semi-au ...

''. The film, set six years after the original, follows fifteen-year-old Ralphie as he wishes for a 1939 Mercury Eight convertible for Christmas, but crashes the car before he even owns it. Now, Ralphie and his friends (Flick and Schwartz) must find a way to raise enough money to fix the car before Christmas before his dad (The Old Man) finds out. Although billed as an "official sequel" in the trailer, the film is not directly based on

Jean Shepherd Jean Parker 'Shep' Shepherd Jr. (~July 21, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known for the film '' A Christmas Story'' ...

's writings, instead relying on an original script by

Nat Mauldin Nat Mauldin is an American screenwriter and film producer. Writing Credits *''Barney Miller'' (1981-1982) (TV) *''Newhart'' (1983) (TV) *'' Night Court'' (1984-1987) (TV) *''Have Faith'' (1989) (TV) *''Downtown'' (1990) *'' Howie and Rose'' (1 ...

, who also narrates the movie in place of the late Shepherd (the subplot of Ralphie and his friends finding jobs and then getting fired was originally by Shepherd and had previously been included in the telefilm ''

Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss ''Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss'' is a 1988 American made-for-television comedy film written by Jean Shepherd and directed by Dick Bartlett, based on the 1968 short story by Shepherd. A satire of childhood recollections of annual family vacati ...

''). The film was released

straight to DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

on October 30, 2012 to mostly negative reviews. Another sequel, which takes place 33 years after the events of the original film with most of its cast returning, entitled ''

A Christmas Story Christmas ''A Christmas Story Christmas'' is a 2022 American Christmas film, Christmas comedy film directed by Clay Kaytis with a script he co-wrote with Nick Schenk, from an original story co-written by Schenk and Peter Billingsley. It is a legacy seque ...

'', was released on November 17, 2022 on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

and received generally better critical reception.

Plot

The film takes place in 1946, six years after the events of the

original film Original Film is an American film and television production company founded by Neal H. Moritz. Notable films the company has produced include the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. History Original Film was started out in the early 1990s by Neal H ...

. Ralphie is now fifteen years old, and all he wants is a used 1939

Mercury Eight The Mercury Eight is an automobile that was marketed by the Mercury division of Ford between 1939 and 1951. The debut model line of the Mercury division, Ford slotted the full-size Mercury Eight between the Ford Deluxe (later Custom) model line ...

convertible for Christmas. He tries testing the car out when he sees it on a display ramp, but he accidentally causes the car to roll back out of the used car lot and gently tap a light pole, causing a plastic reindeer to loosen and fall through the convertible top. Ralphie bands together with Flick and Schwartz to raise enough money to pay the dealer back for fixing it before Christmas so that the car dealer won't have Ralph arrested and presumably thrown in jail. He and his friends get a job and after going through several departments at the

Higbee's Higbee's was a department store founded in 1860 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1987, Higbee's was sold to the joint partnership of Dillard's department stores and Youngstown-based developer, Edward J. DeBartolo. The stores continued to operate unde ...

store and in the end getting into a fight with the store Santa and then each other they all get fired. Ralphie does get his job back after some begging and pleading, but by Christmas Eve he finds he is still $1 short, so he and Flick rob Schwartz of his "lucky buck". While on the way to the dealer, Ralphie decides to donate a chunk for a less fortunate family. He winds up still off the hook with the owner of the dealership. In the end, he does get the car he wants for Christmas and the girlfriend he wants to go with it.

Cast

as Ralph "Ralphie" Parker **

as Ralph Parker/the Narrator * Daniel Stern as Mr. Parker / The Old Man * Stacey Travis as Mrs. Parker * Valin Shinyei as Randy Parker *

David W. Thompson David William Thompson (born July 21, 1994) is an American actor known for ''Win Win (film), Win Win'' (2011), ''Blue Ruin'' (2013) and ''Green Room (film), Green Room'' (2015). He plays Scarecrow (DC Comics), Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow in the Fo ...

as Flick * David Buehrle as Schwartz *

Tiera Skovbye Tiera Skovbye (; born May 6, 1995) is a Canadian actress. She began her career as a child actress. She is known for starring in television films such as her role playing Elizabeth Berkley in Lifetime's '' The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Stor ...

as Drucilla Gootrad * Gerard Plunkett as Hank Catenhauser *

Garry Chalk Garry Chalk is a British-born Canadian actor. He has provided the voices for Optimus Primal of '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' and '' Beast Machines'', as well as Optimus Prime in the anime English dubs of '' Transformers: Armada'', '' Transform ...

as Higbee's Store Santa * Shawn Macdonald as Higbee's Assistant Manager

Production

The movie was filmed in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

Release

The film was released

on October 30, 2012. In 2019, the film aired as part of the Best Christmas Ever block on

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative reviews. While being praised for attempts to portray 1940s-era America, much of the criticism was directed at the reliance of slapstick humor and its inferior derivation of the 1983 film. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has only three reviews from critics, all of them negative. FleshEatingZipper panned the film, writing that the slapstick elements in the film detracted from the movie while praising the attempt to "replicate a 40s-era Midwest". Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com wrote: "Shamelessly derivative and plasticized, ''A Christmas Story 2'' will only have you wondering why you're not watching the original picture again".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Story 2, A 2012 films 2010s Christmas films 2010s Christmas comedy films American Christmas comedy films American sequel films Direct-to-video sequel films Alternative sequel films Films directed by Brian Levant Films set in 1946 Films set in Indiana Films shot in British Columbia Warner Bros. direct-to-video films Films scored by David Newman 2012 comedy films American children's comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films