Simply Perfect

Please don't spend money on this.

one of my absolute favorites!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Fox 's live version of "A Christmas Story" is the latest in a line of live shows on TV. Those who have seen the others are familiar with the pitfalls and problems that can plague a live television production, though most of these shows have been very entertaining. The electricity (and risk) of a live show is palpable, adding to the enjoyment of the viewing. I am happy to say that this production is a tremendous success. It starts with a frozen tableau that dissolves into the live action, a clever convention that is used throughout, showing a dedication to detail and a willingness to go the extra mile. This musical, based upon the stage production, is narrated by Matthew Broderick, the adult version of the central character, Ralphie.We realize that Broderick is not the usual narrator when he holds the car door for Ralphie's mother. Like the stage manager in "Our Town", he is an all-seeing guide, who talks of Ralphie's inner dreams and fears, and lends universality to the messages of the story. Several times I felt a lump in my throat during the show and a few of them were caused by Broderick's role,If you have never seen the movie or the play, it will not prohibit enjoyment of this Christmas tale, a classic that many enjoy every year. If you happen to be an older person, this is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that recalls simpler times and simpler tastes. The commercial overload that Christmas has become makes it a pleasure to revisit the analog days before Walmart and Amazon.Like Frank Morgan in "The Wizard of Oz", Broderick portrays a number of characters within the story, most of them fleeting. The cast is excellent, including fourteen youngsters who, like the rest of the cast, are triple threats. Maya Rudolph plays the mother with touching simplicity. Chris Diamantopoulos, who plays the father, reminds me of Jack Lemmon-a perfect combination of musicality and comic talent. There are too many talented players to mention, but Jane Krakowski gives her usually stellar performance, and the boys who play Ralphie (Andy Walken) and his brother Randy (Tyler Wladis) handle the load of their performances like champs.There are few slip-ups in this production and most I saw were quickly dealt with or ignored quite professionally. The sets are wonderful. The orchestration is terrific. The production numbers, including the staging, is masterful. The sound, which can be a problem in live productions, is consistently clear. The camera movement is so good that it deserves special mention. Weaving in and out of the scenery and keeping pace with the action, it drew my attention some, but never felt annoying. The story includes Walter Mittyesque flights of fancy that were handled with moving walls, special lighting, camera effects and choral craftwork. The transitions are perfectly executed and sometimes breathtaking.This is a classic that deserves rewatching, if only to admire the details that one might miss the first time around. Kudos to the director for the vision and for the artistic choices that were made. A documentary about the backstage activities that created this live illusion, including the quick changes, would be fun to watch.

I am a huge Broadway and musical fan to begin with and this did not disappoint! I truly enjoyed every minute, the kids in the cast were incredibly talented. I highly recommend seeing it with your whole family!

Cash grab for Fox views, plague with commercial spam. It was a book not a sing long. I bet no one can watch the musical for 24hrs straight, get worse.

Having been thoroughly disappointed by Peter Pan Live, The Sound of Music Live and Grease Live, I'm not sure why I expected A Christmas Story Live, based on one of my favorite movies of all time, to be any better. (ed. It was worse. Far worse than I could have possibly imagined.)The good: The kid playing Ralphie did look kinda like Peter Billingsley. That's it for the good. Everything else, from the awful pre-intro by some atrociously auto-tuned and over-mixed pop thing, to the horrible finale, was just wave after wave of telecinematic diarrhea. It was like the producers, director and Matthew Broderick went out on a weeklong bender of Pabst Blue Ribbon, dubious quality burritos, chili-cheese fries and buckets of MSG, then proceeded to explosively defecate this show on the consciousness of the North American people. Broderick, your career was pretty much dead. You should have let it die completely, rather than sign on to this. Every character, completely mis-cast, and without getting into specifics, the liberal-agenda political correctness B.S. sprinkled throughout was glaringly obvious and contrived.Everybody associated with this production, from the executive producers, all the way down to the youngest performer, even the poor kid from the catering company who put out the napkins, needs to be blackballed/blacklisted from the entertainment industry, and be forced to eke out their existence flipping burgers. And not the good $15/hr burger-flipping jobs in Washington state. The crappy $10/hr burger-flipping gigs where the employees still get treated like scum.Sadly, IMDB does not allow me to give this piece of excrement a zero-star rating. I'm looking at the other reviews, and anything that is not a 1star, I'm thinking "What the hell did you watch? Because you clearly saw something different than what I was watching."