Christmas Story, A (BD)

Best movie ever

Fun to watch this movie. Family favorite.

Classic Christmas movie.

Good product, quick delivery!

"A Christmas Story" is one of those classics that you feel, needs to be watched every Holiday season. I can remember watching this film a jillion times as a child and now having the opportunity to share the film with my kids. Despite being a low-budget film at that time, what made this film become a classic is that, it's a Christmas story of an American family in the 1940's. Ralphie is a child who listens to Orphan Annie on the radio, reads comic books and wants a Red Ryder Air Gun for Christmas. But of course, how can he convince his parents to buy him one when his mother thinks he'll shoot his eye out. So, you get to see how Ralphie tries to get the gun by trying to get a good grade on his school report, to planting an ad in his mother's favorite magazine and even going to the mall and talking to Santa. But the magical part of this film are its characters. Every character from Ralphie's family to his friends, everything comes together quite well. From his father who wins an award which is a leg (in fishnet stockings) lamp, his friends being bullied by Scotty Farkus, his brother who is overly dressed in his snowsuit, his friend sticking his tongue on a pole to see if it would get stuck and much more. So, back in 2003, this film received a 20th Anniversary DVD treatment and in 2006, was followed up by its first Blu-ray release. Then sure enough, with the 25th Anniversary Ultimate Edition which had a special bundled edition in which people could own a miniature version of the leg lamp (ala string leg lamp lights for the Christmas tree) and the film on Blu-ray or get a version without the lamps. There is no difference with the 2008 Blu-ray version versus the 2006 version. VIDEO: The video is featured in 1080p High Definition/16×9, 1:85:1. The Blu-ray is marginally better than the DVD version. But you can notice the quality of it's clearness via Blu-ray. You'll have parts on the film which look soft and nicks and scratches from the film. But I compared my old VHS version to the Blu-ray and oh my, the Blu-ray is light years ahead of it in quality. For an older film, having been remastered already, I don't really think we are going to get anything better than what we have on Blu-ray. But it still looks good. AUDIO: The audio is Dolby Digital 1.0 in English and French. I doubt we will see a TrueHD for this and since it's mostly dialogue and because of its time setting and how old this film is, I suppose I'm not too bothered by this. It's one of those films that I'm not begging for surround sound. So, I'm actually OK with it being 1.0. SPECIAL FEATURES: I've owned the first DVD version which had nothing in terms of special features, I didn't own the 20th Anniversary but as for this Blu-ray it includes: * Commentary by Peter Billingsley and Director/Co-Writer Bob Clark - This commentary was actually quite fun to listen to. You get a lot of Billingsley asking questions to Bob Clark about certain scenes, working with different individuals and also talking about the film and its reception from viewers in the last 20 years. His relationship with working with Jean Shepard and much more. There are some times where they are watching the film and don't say anything but I think both were pretty much rewatching the film for its entirety probably in a long time. One scene I wondered about was the parade which featured Mickey Mouse. I always wondered how Mickey could show up on an MGM film and sure enough Clark explains how Disney allowed it. * 20th Anniversary Documentary "Another Christmas Story" - This documentary features Bob Clark, Peter Billingsley and the guys who play his two buddies and the guy who plays Farkus. Each talking about their experiences, the pole and tongue scene and how people react to them to this day and how people have memorized the lines. And learning how a lot of detergent was used to re-create some of those snow scenes. * Daisy Red Ryder - This was an interesting featurette on the actual Daisy Red Ryder Air Rifle. How it was created for the film and the actual company who produces air guns. * Get a Leg Up - This one is a infomercial like featurette of the leg lamp. Nothing major. * Script Pages - This features the script of actual scenes that were cut. Clark talks about several scenes that they didn't use in the film. I wish they still had that and offered the videos as a deleted scene (especially the Ralphie/Flash Gordon scenes) but you can read the script of what was cut. * Trailer - And looking at the trailer, it looks so old in terms of picture quality after watching it on Blu-ray. For me, "A CHRISTMAS STORY" is like "It's a Wonderful Life" and even "Home Alone". Films that are Christmas classics that you just want to watch with the family during the holidays. "A CHRISTMAS STORY" has been a part of so many families holiday's within the last 20 years and remains one of the classics next to "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Charlie Brown Christmas" (and other classics) shown every year and watched by many. It's a true-to-heart tale and the way it's written, it's not fluffy, it's the life of a young boy who wants a Christmas present but his parents are not exactly "Brady Bunch", magical parents. Blue collar father with a temper, mother who does her best to take care of the kids and a time in the 1940's of decoder rings and Ovaltine. If you own the 20th Anniversary DVD, really...you don't need to buy this. But if you are like me and you own the first DVD version with no special features or the VHS version, then yeah, moving up to Blu-ray is a great decision. It's marginally better in picture quality than the DVD and you get all the special features as well. Overall, it's a Christmas classic worth owning.

Classic Christmas movie !

An excellent classic Christmas movie to watch every year. Funny and very entertaining!

Almost everything works. I have to point first to the prescient direction by Bob Clark. That’s something of a surprise. Clark made his bones in horror and the Porky’s movies. But it’s a welcome surprise. Clark and co-writer/narrator Jean Shepherd, working from Shepherd’s books In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, offer a careful blend of children and adults on the one hand and reality, fantasy and neighborhood myth on the other and the blend is exhilarating. This is well before my time — I was born in 1955 — but no matter: I connected instantly to this vivid depiction of a young boy’s life. It wouldn’t work as well as it does without these performers. They’re perfect or so close to perfect that the difference doesn’t matter. Young Peter Billingsley is at the top of the heap and it would be a mistake to minimize the impact of his guileless charm, spectacles and blue eyes. He’s the movie’s face and his moods quickly become our own moods. But I did notice this time around that Billingsley doesn’t have to act much here — though he’s splendid when he does, as in his iconic scene with an impatient department-store Santa — and tends to be used in shorter, sometimes static scenes that maximize his impact. And I can’t go on without mentioning Melinda Dillon, who fairly exudes gentleness, Darren McGavin, who seems to feel his every scene as though he’s living it, and Tedde Moore, who brings a solemn yet vaguely mirthful edge to her performance as Ralphie’s teacher. I won’t linger over other iconic moments. You’ll find them yourself and love them better for the finding. Suffice to say there are many and that there’s very little about A Christmas Story that doesn’t serve it well. Even the most minor of characters. The house. The school. The scenes downtown (which were filmed in Cleveland). In a broader tableau, the film even captures the relative innocence of middle-class life in post-Great Depression America and that is no small achievement by itself. Alas, there’s one notable lapse: A portion of the last sequence relies on stereotyping. It’s a cheap laugh and its position at the end gives it an unfortunate power to influence what viewers take away from the film. And the real shame of it is that the creators might have skipped right over the offending lines — the next bit works perfectly — and still succeeded. But in the bigger picture, it’s an errant moment in what is otherwise a supremely careful and well-made movie. And so, while the scene sticks in my craw every time I see it, I can’t hold it against the movie for long. This is a keeper.

Easily one of the top 5 Christmas movies of all time in my books anyway, I can watch it once a day during Christmas holidays

What I like about the movie it's all the family togetherness great movie to watch

This film is amazing. Love it

We all love this movie, but we couldn't use it in Japan. The Japanese DVD system is different from that used in the USA. We will take it back to the US the next time we visit.

impossible de visionner le DVD en Belgique et sûrement en Europe car ne fonctionne que en Amérique, Canada ,ce qui n'est pas précisé sur Amazon, résultats de l'argent gaspiller, heureusement que je l'ai acheté d'occasion,je suis très déçue