A Christmas Story [Blu-ray]

"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.

Obviously one of the best Christmas movies ever. Always plays a few times every Christmas season, as it always did growing up. If you haven’t seen it, you may not like it, as it’s not some new flashy movie. Just pure Christmas magic from a better time.

I watched with my family and was a good movie that brings me back to the best childhood memories

Watching this movie every Christmas always leaves my family laughing and discussing all the funny iconic scenes, This is one of my favorite Christmas movies and our family's Christmas tradition,

My old-time old favorite. I watched this every year and I’m out of how many times I have been watching it since I was a child and I love it and I love the remake. It’s awesome.

I know many hate this movie, but I love it. I never saw it until I was an adult and never caught the channels that played it for 24-hours over and over and I think that helped (haha). It's a great story of simpler times as a kid at Christmastime.

I watch it every Christmas.

I used to watch this a few times growing up and I watched it again this last Christmas and once again I was kind of surprised of the swear words in it for something that had to do with Christmas. Maybe not so much the actual swear words but how they indicate the swear words. I think it is a pretty well put together movie though and I like the older movies more than I do the ones today that they make which are far worse.

this movie has withstood the test of time and will continue to do so; because it is an older movie, there is nothing anyone at any age would find inappropriate; i highly recommend it

Amo esta película navideña, y cuando supe que saldría restaurada en formato 4K UHD la compré de inmediato. Se ve increíble, con todos sus colores llenos de vida por el HDR, y traía un Slipcover de colección.

Die Lieferung hat ein wenig gedauert - am 7. November bestellt, einen Tag vor Weihnachten erhalten. Na ja, kam halt aus den USA, da der Film hier in Deutschland gar nicht erhältlich ist (auch nicht auf den bekannten Streaming Diensten). Die Sprache ist natürlich Englisch und man braucht auch einen DVD Player, der mit der US Region umgehen kann. Alles kein Problem bei uns und am Weihnachtstag hat dann die Familie diesen Klassiker einträchtig vor dem TV genossen und sich prächtig dabei amüsiert. Und danach, weil das ist ja auch ein Weihnachtsklassiker, noch Die Hard geguckt ...

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.

Love this movie...happy to add it in Blu ray to my collection