A Christmas Story 2
A Christmas Story 2 is a 2012 American Christmas comedy film directed by Brian Levant and starring Daniel Stern and Braeden Lemasters. The film is a direct sequel to the 1983 film "A Christmas Story", which ignores the events of the 1994 film "My Summer Story". It was released straight to DVD on October 30, 2012. Although billed as an "official sequel" in the trailer, the film is not directly based on Jean Shepherd's writings, instead relying on an original script by Nat Mauldin, who also narrates the movie in place of the late Shepherd  (the subplot of Ralphie and his friends finding jobs and then getting fired was originally by Shepherd and had previously been included in the telefilm "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss"). "A Christmas Story 2" was added to the Best Christmas Ever block on AMC in 2019. Plot. The film takes place in 1946, six years after the events of the original film. Ralphie is now fifteen years old, and all he wants is a used 1939 Mercury Eight convertible for Christmas. He tries testing the car out when he sees it on a display ramp, but he accidentally causes  the car to roll back out of the used car lot and gently tap a light pole, causing a plastic reindeer on the pole to loosen and fall through the convertible top. Ralphie bands together with Flick and Schwartz to raise enough money to pay the dealer back for fixing it before Christmas so that the car dealer won't have Ralph arrested and presumably thrown in jail. He and his friends get a job and after going through several departments at the Higbee's store and in the end getting into a fight with the store Santa and then  each other they all get fired. Ralphie does get his job back after some begging and pleading, but by Christmas Eve he finds he is still $1 short, so he and Flick rob Schwartz of his "lucky buck". While on the way to the dealer, Ralphie decides to donate a chunk for a less fortunate family. He winds up still off the hook with the owner of the dealership. In the end he does get the car he wants for Christmas and the girlfriend he wants to go with it. Reception. Pre-release. Prior to the film’s release  the initial reception to the film's trailer was predominantly negative. Post-release. FleshEatingZipper panned the movie, writing that the slapstick elements in the film detracted from the movie while praising the attempt to "replicate a 40s-era Midwest". Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com wrote, "Shamelessly derivative and plasticized, "A Christmas Story 2" will only have you wondering why you're not watching the original picture again."