A Christmas Story

I love the movie A Christmas Story so it was really fun to see it on the big screen last night to commemorate its 40th Anniversary (this makes me feel old because I remember seeing it in the theater when it was first released).  During the week before Christmas in 1940, nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) desperately wants an official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time but his Mother (Melinda Dillon), the Old Man (Darren McGavin), his teacher Miss Shields (Tedde Moore), and even Santa Claus (Jeff Gillen) all tell him that he'll shoot his eye out!  There was a really big and boisterous crowd at my screening (one large family took up all of the other seats in my row so they adopted me as a member) and I loved hearing everyone laugh out loud at all the funny moments, especially when Ralphie and his friends are chased to and from school by Scut Farkus (Zach Ward) and Grover Dill (Yano Anaya), when Schwartz (R. D. Robb) triple dog dares Flick (Scott Schwartz) to stick his tongue to the flag pole, when Randy (Ian Petrella) eats like a piggy, when the Old Man wins a Major Award, when Ralphie says the F-dash-dash-dash word while helping the Old Man change a tire, when Santa Claus pushes Ralphie down the slide, when Ralphie is forced to wear the bunny costume given to him by Aunt Clara, and when the Bumpus hounds eat the turkey forcing the Parkers to eat Christmas dinner at the Chop Suey Palace.  I had to stop myself from saying all of my favorite lines aloud ("Randy lay there like a slug.  It was his only defense.")  I look forward to watching this every Christmas Eve (several times because it is on for 24 hours) but I'm so glad that it was part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics this year (I love this series) because it put a huge smile on my face!

Note:  The movies in the Fathom's Big Screen Classics series for next year are The Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, Labyrinth, Gone With the Wind, Steel Magnolias, South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut Sing-A-Long, The Never Ending Story, Rear Window, Blazing Saddles, Mean Girls, The Fifth Element, and White Christmas.  Are you excited for any of these titles?