WSo8M: (3) A Christmas Story v. (14) Back to School

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ricky Smith Division, Grand Lakes University regional:

(3) A Christmas Story


(14) Back to School

[Fman99]

I love Rodney but it's X-Mas Story. Too many memorable scenes and characters, specifically the fantastic Darren McGavin as the dad.

Rodney's best lines are in Caddyshack anyway.

[Willets Point]

The choices are much easier today than yesterday. A Christmas Story wins a Major Award.

[HahnSolo]

Even thought I am so tired of The Xmas Story, I can't dispute it's better than Back to School.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Tough one for me. I think BtS is in many ways better than caddyshack. Don't overlook a young Robert Downey Jr. absolutely nailing it as the delightfully pissed-off Lutz.

[soupcan]

I missed the Christmas story generation by a couple of years. Doesn't do much for me.

Rodney however makes me laugh. Back To School for me.

[Guest AG/DC]

Nobody saw Christmas Story on release. Nobody. It caught steam on cable and broadcast.

And that allows you to sit down at any point, which is good, because the first half hour is pretty hard to get through, with a patronizing cartoon style aimed at an idea of "family entertainment" right out of seventies Disney. It's only in the middle part of the film --- when Darrin McGavin takes over --- that it really gets the tone of Jean Shepherd.

Rodney has his flaws, but try and watch BtS and start a semester with anything less than complete optimism.

Holding my vote for now.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Christmas Story is a dud, but I voted for it because it's up against a bigger dud.

I was over 30 the first time I saw A Christmas Story and had already heard all the hype. Maybe I'd have a different opinion of it if I had seen it when I was younger.

[Willets Point]

I wanted to see A Christmas Story in the theaters but my mother wouldn't take me, so that should count for something. Watched it for the first time at school in 5th grade. And as often as you post your dislike for the first half-hour of the film, I think it's just fine.

[Guest AG/DC]

AG/DC wrote: Nobody saw Christmas Story on release. Nobody. It caught steam on cable and broadcast.

Willets Point wrote: I wanted to see A Christmas Story in the theaters but my mother wouldn't take me, so that should count for something.

I'm just sayin'. Maybe everybody's mother felt the same.

Willets Point wrote: And as often as you post your dislike for the first half-hour of the film, I think it's just fine.

Do I do that? Jeez', I have nothign left to say.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Guest

[Guest themetfairy]

AG/DC wrote: Nobody saw Christmas Story on release. Nobody.

You hear that! Edgy called me a nobody!

A friend clued me into A Christmas Story when it was in the theaters, and I loved it.

Back to School is a very good film. But A Christmas Story is one of my absolute favorites. The distorted memories of the narrator's distant youth are hysterical.

[Guest themetfairy]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Tough one for me. I think BtS is in many ways better than caddyshack. Don't overlook a young Robert Downey Jr. absolutely nailing it as the delightfully pissed-off Lutz.

Agreed about Downey - he always turns in magnificent performances, no matter what the vehicle.

[Willets Point]

AG/DC wrote: I wanted to see A Christmas Story in the theaters but my mother wouldn't take me, so that should count for something. I'm just sayin'. Maybe everybody's mother felt the same.

My mother's objections were fiscally based, pretty much the reason I didn't do anything as a kid.

AG/DC wrote: And as often as you post your dislike for the first half-hour of the film, I think it's just fine. Do I do that? Jeez', I have nothign left to say.

I think at least three times previously you've gone through why you don't like the beginning of A Christmas Story. Seriously.

[Guest AG/DC]

Well, you didn't have to count.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

F it. I'm voting for Back to School.

Come on. It had:

That creepy kid from Chrsitine.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as himself.

William Zabka (aka the Karate Kid bully) playing the bully.

Burt Young as the napkin-dispenser-crushing limo driver who's still clever enough to bait students away by flashing a SPRINGSTEEN sign.

Good performances from the Coach and Ned Beatty as Dean Martin.

Professor Turgeson -- sure it was just Kinison doing his act but it was a pretty original act.

The only thing I didn't like was the economics professor being too overplayed and the obvious lack of gratuitous full-frontal naked shots of the babe, but you know. Chrsitmas Story is lacking in the jugs department too.

[Centerfield]

I voted for Back to School. I liked it.

I've never seen Christmas Story.

[Guest AG/DC]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The only thing I didn't like was the economics professor being too overplayed...

Paxton Whitehead --- born to do Noel Coward, I think.

Jeffrey Jones should have been perpetually cast as Rodney Dangerfield's sap the way Gayle Gordon was perpetually Lucille Ball's. I got the idea that Whitehead got the job because Jeffrey Jones was otherwise engaged.

Engaged in what, I don't want to speculate.

[Guest AG/DC]

themetfairy wrote: Nobody saw Christmas Story on release. Nobody. You hear that! Edgy called me a nobody! A friend clued me into A Christmas Story when it was in the theaters, and I loved it.

I stand corrected. I beg your pardon.

There seemed to be some kind of rider in Rodney Dangerfield's standard contract that he had to get on the soundtrack with one forced performance of an oldie in every film. Always a good time for this reviewer to hit the men's room.

Back to School: "Twist and Shout"

Easy Money: "Funiculi Funicula"

Ladybugs: "Great Balls of Fire"

That's right, I saw Ladybugs. Anyhow, who was it who thought America was clamouring for more Rodney Dangerfield vocals? I'm guessing he just swung this to get a chunk of the change from the soundtrack, whatever that's worth.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Guest

[Theoldmole]

No contest. Rodney.

[dgwphotography]

A Christmas Story by a wide margin. This movie is pretty much a classic. there's no way you can say that about BTS.

[MFS62]

Even though I voted for his movie (as anyone who used to listen to Jean Shepard should), Peter Billingsley annoyed the shit out of me. I couldn't understand half of his lines. Luckily, I remembered them from the book.

Later

[Guest AG/DC]

I don't think appreciation of a writer should necessarily mean automatic fealty to any movie adapted from his work.

Another flm was adapted from Shepherd's writing (My Summer Story, aka It Runs in the Family). It was ignored by the public, as the handful of telefilms mostly were.

What's freaky about that story is how much his depiction of a thirties (mostly depression marred) childhood hist home for my seventies-reared colleagues --- as if they had more in common with a pre-war childhood than they do with children of today.

[Willets Point]

I saw the movie Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, another movie based on Jean Shepard's Ralphie stories, and it was actually pretty good.

[HahnSolo]

With a title like that, are you sure it's not an, oh, adult film?

[Willets Point]

HahnSolo wrote: With a title like that, are you sure it's not an, oh, adult film?

You wouldn't believe what Mr. Parker does with the Bumpus dogs.

[Guest AG/DC]

Willets Point wrote: I saw the movie Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, another movie based on Jean Shepard's Ralphie stories, and it was actually pretty good.

Is that also the same as It Runs in the Family? Well, given half a recommendation, I'll see it. Well done!

[Willets Point]

AG/DC wrote: Willets Point wrote: I saw the movie Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, another movie based on Jean Shepard's Ralphie stories, and it was actually pretty good. Is that also the same as It Runs in the Family? Well, given half a recommendation, I'll see it. Well done!

No, I never saw It Runs in the Family.

[Guest AG/DC]

Who was in Ollie?

[Willets Point]

Jean Shepherd was in it along with all these other people.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Christmas Story advances in a spirited contest, 16-9