While dozens of Christmas films roll off the production line every year, very few manage to capture the festive season, and the audience's hearts, quite like 'A Christmas Story'. This 80s classic is a real crowd-pleaser, a film that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of age or film taste, which explains its continued popularity with TV networks.Ralphie is a character we can all relate to, because we were all that kid a Christmas once. The film gets his character spot on and the events that take place in the film will bring back a lot of memories for the average viewer. For such a shallow storyline the film provides so much enjoyment and, although there are other films I would rather watch over the festive season than this one, it remains a classic to this day and will always be up there as one of the Christmas greats.

Charming Christmas tale directed by Bob Clark of "Porkies" (1981) fame (!) about a young boy and his dream of finding a Red Ryder BB gun under the tree on Christmas morning. Shot as an autobiographical 'memory' film, with a voiceover by Jean Shepherd, the story recounts young Ralphie's (Peter Billingsley) 9th Christmas, sometime around 1940. The stories are fun, mostly nice with just a touch of naughty, and include vignettes about the last days of school before holidays, bullies, tongues and cold flagpoles, visiting the department store Santa, and of course, Christmas morning. Peter Billingsley is excellent as Ralphie and the rest of the cast, mostly portraying his family and friends, are fine although Melinda Dillon does not look much like a WWII-era mother. A fun movie, considered a seasonal classic by some, worth watching once, and maybe even once a year.

My God, how quickly time flies! "A Christmas Story" celebrates its 34th anniversary this year, which means that all the kids that fill the classroom or stuck their nose on the toy shop window, from Ralphie to his little brother Randy, are in their mid-forties, even that poor little Flick who stuck his ill-fated tongue on the pole (the film's defining image) will turn 50 the next year. And speaking for myself, it's been 24 years that I watched it (fittingly with my kid brother) on a Saturday afternoon and I remember we laughed, we laughed a lot. We weren't from the narrator's generation, but it didn't make it any less accessible or enjoyable. I guess this says a lot about the way the charm of "A Christmas Story" operates, it finds a voice that can speak to any child of any generation and any country, any adult too.Indeed, the age of the film doesn't matter actually, many movies are as old without being classics. Many movies dealt with Christmas with far richer and 'entertaining' plots without reaching that little sparkle of truth and wit. In fact, many movies featured kids that were far smarter than Ralphie, with more 'interesting' problems, but were instantly forgotten. There's just something about "A Christmas Story" that rings the right note, something that works. It didn't work immediately, in a year where "Return of the Jedi" was the phenomenon, and comedies like "Risky Business", "Vacation" or "Trading Places" attracted more crowds, critics welcomed Bob Clark's film with timid enthusiasm. Others, like Vincent Canby, criticized it while conceding a touching nostalgic value. But the attention got warmer with time, people realized they could watch this film and watch it again, that they could enjoy it as well as their parents or their kids, that the quest of Ralphie could resonate more strongly in the parents' hearts. They also saw that unlike indisputable classics like "It's a Wonderful Life", the film didn't rely on its ending, it was interesting from beginning to end. Slowly, the film became the consummate feel-good family Christmas movie, with the charm of nostalgic classics filled with colorful characters like Fellini's "Amarcord" or Woody Allen's "Radio Daus", with a similar wit coming from the voice-over narration of Jean Shepherd. It's set in the 40's, the kids aren't even baby-boomers, but there's a classic tropism established by Ebert that the more specific a story is, the more universal it is, even more universal since the film is about childhood.And what better time than Christmas to amplify the most basic aspects of that magical yet volatile time? We all know the story: "Little Ralphie wants the new Red Ryder B.B. Gun" only to bump into the same frustrating answer: "You'll shoot your eye out". You have everything in that premise: the powerlessness of children, the fetishism surrounding toys and the obstruction of overprotective mothers, it's the eternal struggle between kids and parents, culminating in Christmas time and forcing a child to seek escapism in dreams or find stratagems to convince his parents, same as parents who use tricks to talk them into finishing their plates.. It's Childhood becomes a time where communication is never a straight line. And some attempts are so pathetically deemed to fail that it elevates Ralphie as one of the most adorable Christmas protagonists.There's something so irresistible in the face of little Ralphie (played by Peter Bilingsley), he's not your smart ass cute-looking kid, not a Kevin McAllister, he's just an average little boy whose dreams are all focused on the holy grail of all toys and trying to find the proper language to communicate it to his father, his mother or eventually his teacher. The father played by Darren McGavin Is a no nonsense man who spends his time swearing but is oblivious to the fact that his kid would have grew an awareness of a few dirty words. The mother played by Melinda Dillon is more diplomatic and sweet (love the scene where she tries to convince Randy to eat) but God forbid she ever hears swearing, she then becomes the 'bad cop' who knows how to wipe dirty words off a child's mouth, with the perfect brand of soap. The film contains all the elements of childhood, friends, parents, toys, bullies, toadies, daring and double-daring (not to mention triple-daring), snow games, toys, joys and deceptions. Indeed, one of the most interesting scene involves the discovery of an ad message behind a secret code (proof that even at those times, publicity was frustratingly omnipresent). The closest to sensual awakening comes from the comical introduction of a sexy lamp made of a leg, causing a great deal of jealousy between the couple. The film looks likes a series of vignettes but to avoid the episodic feeling, there's that common thread, that constant goal that never deserts Ralphie's mind: the B.B. Gun and the inevitable "Eye-shooting" line, inspiring a hilarious comment coming, of all persons, from Santa Claus himself.But "A Christmas Story" is not about the gun, but about these wishes that obsessed us as kids. And there's just a gentleness about this film, an innocence that rhymes with intelligence, a desire to talk to the inner child inside us without losing the adult touch, that the narration comes from an adult voice creates the perfect bridge between the two worlds, and makes the film such a unique experience. That and the fact that every scene is original and there's a sense of detail that makes each viewing richer than the first. It's a film that grows on you and gets more special every time you watch it.Not to mention that it's hilarious, you won't shoot your eye out, but you'll laugh your ass off.

A Christmas Story has gained quite a cult following over the years. Released back in 1983, it failed miserably at the box office. Years later, it has become one of the most beloved Christmas films of all time.The story revolves around a boy named Ralph who wants nothing more than a Red Ryder BB Gun for a Christmas gift. Over the course of the film he receives opposition from his mother claiming, "You'll shoot your eye out"! Poor Ralph. He also meets resistance from his teacher, Ms. Shields and a very nasty store department Santa Claus.I enjoy watching Christmas Story every year. The film never gets old and even though you can catch it being played for 24 hours on TNT, it never fails. This is one Christmas film that lives on forever in our hearts.