Tell Us A Story

I recently watched A Christmas Story for the first time since it opened.  It was pretty much as I remembered, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

The movie has become a classic, I suppose, but it has some pretty glaring weaknesses.  First, far too much of the comedy is carried by Jean Shepherd's mannered narration, where he explains what's going on rather than the movie showing it.  Second, there's an annoying score, way too busy and not that well done.  Third, the various fantasy sequences don't add much.  Fourth, as might be expected from the director of Porky's, much of the humor is fairly crude slapstick.

I could go on, but it's the holiday season, so let's be charitable.  The movie does capture a feeling of what it's like to be a kid.  And it does have some decent gags--the decoder pin, the F-word.  Then there's the desire for a BB gun, which could have been just a gag, but amounts to the main plot, and has a great payoff.

So my feeling is the same as when I first saw it--I could do without many of the parts, but I like the sum.