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Streaming A Christmas Story Online.
Movie Title: A Christmas Story A Christmas Story is available for streaming or downloading. |
Amazon has combined the reviews for the Blu-ray and standard DVD versions of this set, which aren’t exactly the same in their features. This review is for the Blu-ray version. My review of the standard DVD version is here too, so be sure you’re reading the one you’re interested in.
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The movie is excellent, a Christmas classic (see below). Should you upgrade to the new Ultimate edition if you already have the 2006 Blu-ray edition? That depends on how much you like memorabilia. The new edition is a repackaging of the 2006 edition, with a couple new non-DVD extras:
– a collectible retro Christmas cookie tin (the container for the set)
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– a strand of leg-lamp Christmas lights (Blu-ray exclusive)
Those look like fun, if you’re into that kind of stuff. Amazon has a photo of the tin and a second photo that shows the tin and the leg-lamp lights. (The announcement for this set said that the items from the standard DVD set (here) would be included in this one, but that isn’t correct.)
The Blu-ray DVD won’t be remastered from the previous one. The video quality of the 2006 release was only fair for hi-def, soft with fairly good color, with fair mono sound.
The 2006 Blu-ray didn’t include everything that was on the HD or the 2-disc SD set. Here’s what’s actually included:
– audio commentary by director/co-writer Bob Clark and star Peter Billingsley (Ralphie)
– Another Christmas Story featurette, includes interviews with Clark and a few members of the cast
– Get a Leg Up featurette, about the making and ongoing sale of the (in)famous leg lamp
– A History of the Daisy Red Ryder featurette, on the object of great desire’s actual history
– original theatrical trailer
The features from earlier editions that aren’t included are trivia and decoder games, readings (audio only) from Jean Shepherd, and an ad for the real leg lamp.
Now, about the really good stuff, the movie. A Christmas Story is that odd film that appeals to a cross-section of viewers who often can’t agree on what to watch. Fans of sweet Christmas cheer are happily joined by people with a more jaundiced eye to the holiday. To be sure, the movie leans more to the sweet than the sour, but it has enough edge and good-natured twistedness to please some of our darker Christmas angels too. It conveys a genuinely warm nostalgia and some sharp, sometimes pretense-deflating observations about human nature.
The story is set at some indefinite time around 1940 in an Indiana town approaching the holidays. Young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) wants only one thing for Christmas, the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Lightning Loader Range Model Air Rifle with a compass in the stock. (That is, a BB gun, a very particular one.) He plans carefully well in advance how to lay the groundwork for this while avoiding the dreaded rebuff, but almost everyone says it anyway: “You’ll put your eye out!” The relentless struggle for the one true gift develops alongside several other small stories and amusing details, a tongue-on-frozen-pole triple-dog dare, facing the local bully, the notorious leg lamp, the Santa slide, Peking Duck for Christmas, and several others, each memorable in itself.
The actors aren’t very well known, but they’re all just right. There is narration throughout, representing an older Ralphie, done by the originator of the story, Jean Shepard, also just right.
This movie, made in 1983, has gradually become a favorite Christmas classic, now shown in an annual 24-hour Christmas marathon on cable, which attracts a huge number of viewers. If you’ve never seen it, give it a try, even if you have a little Scrooge in you, and you’ll probably enjoy it.
Don’t get me wrong – I love “A Christmas Story,” and I would give the film a 5-star review. The issue here is that the 2008 DVD release is EXACTLY the same as the 2003 version (aside from some slightly different artwork on the slipcover and case). There are no new special features, and the print quality is the same as before. There is absolutely no need for the studio to release this needless double dip DVD. If you don’t already own the 2003 version, then this is a must have DVD; if you do, there’s no need to buy the new version, unless you go for the Ultimate Collector’s Edition, which has some neat extras (which admittedly aren’t worth the price if you already own the film on DVD). Check out the Blue-ray version if you’re looking for slightly improved picture quality.
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