Tag: HBO Max

A Worthy Sequel

I finally had the chance to watch the sequel to A Christmas Story. It was really a heartwarming movie. I enjoyed it very much.

There have been a couple “sequels” that have been made, but none of them came close to the original. They lacked something. They were very hard to watch. And don’t get me started on that “A Christmas Story Live” that was on TV a year or so ago…..urgh!

Peter Billingsley helped write the script, and many of the original cast all show up in this film. That, in itself, makes it worth the watch. Replacing Melinda Dillon as Ralphie’s mom is Airplane’s Julie Haggerty.

I won’t give away too much, because true fans of the movie will want to just watch and enjoy. The movie follows the now-adult Ralphie as he returns to the house on Cleveland Street to give his kids a magical Christmas like the one he had as a child, reconnecting with childhood friends and reconciling the passing of his Old Man.

I read one of the articles about the film before it was released. Peter Billingsley stated in it that the film was the perfect way to honor “the Old Man.” It truly is.

I worried that the movie would simply be a copy of the original. While there are plenty of nods to the original, they do not take away from the film itself. As you watch the end credits of the sequel there are side by side pictures of the original and the “nod” in the film.

This film has so much of what made the original a classic. These are established characters, who you connect with immediately. As you see each of the now adult characters, it’s fun to see what became of them.

What I really enjoyed was seeing how Ralphie now takes on the role of “the Old Man,” so to speak. It’s now his turn to make the holiday special for his family. At the same time, it is interesting to see a very complex side of Ralphie as he sorts through the feelings and responsibility now places on him because of the passing of his father.

What a joy it is to revisit the home on Cleveland Street! At times I felt like I could cry, and in the end I genuinely felt holiday happiness. It is a must see for any Christmas Story Fan!

I’m off to Higbee’s to visit Santa….

Too Many Streams

Money hungry. That’s what they are. Money hungry.

I remember a time when we had Netflix and Hulu and that gave us pretty much every thing we needed to watch movies and TV shows. That’s not the case today. So many “parent companies” are pulling stuff off Netflix to add to their own streaming platform and quite frankly, it ticks me off.

All the NBC shows are now on Peacock, all Star Wars, Pixar and Disney is on Disney +, and so on and so forth. We’ll guess what? I’m not paying for all of them! We’re barely getting by with all of the inflation, gas prices, and life in general! I cannot afford $20 a month here and $15 a month there. The cable bill alone is high enough! To add more streaming services would put us in one big financial hole!

What really angers me is that there are things that I would LOVE to watch, but can’t because there is no way to justify paying for another streaming service. Paramount + has The Offer, a series about the making of the Godfather. I would love to see it. HBO Max has the new Christmas Story movie, which I hear is great! My list goes on and on. I just cannot in good conscience pay for something that I will only use to watch one or two shows.

The TV shows I would binge watch, well, many of them I have on DVD. I can pop them in whenever I want to. It seems to be more worth buying them outright at $40 and watching them for years that to pay $20 a month and maybe not even get the chance to watch them. And when you have them on DVD, you get the bonus features that don’t show up on streaming.

Actor Jack Palance once said, “The only two things you can really depend upon are gravity and greed.” The fact that there are almost as many streaming services as there are cable channels makes me sick. I’m sorry greedy streaming company – you aren’t getting my money every month.

I suppose I will hope that the one or two things I want to watch on their platform will end up on DVD soon …

Rant over.