I’m not sure how this escaped my knowledge for so long, but the TBS holiday staple A Christmas Story — the holiday movie “for the rest of the us” — in fact spawned an off-season sequel, 1994’s My Summer Story.
Instead of BB guns and provocative lampshades, though, this tale of
humid nostalgia tackles top-spinning contests, foreclosure auctions,
fishing trips and family feuds, while also still retaining a bullying
overlord presence to torment our protagonist.

Yes, the famed
role of Ralphie Parker played by Peter Billingsley in the original
movie is here embodied by Kieran Culkin, and Charles Grodin and Mary Steenburgen play his parents. (As younger brother Randy, Christian
Culkin doesn’t really have much to do.) The film, of course, dates
itself with its references to candy (six Mary Janes for a penny?!), and
its scope is a bit less convincing, but fans of A Christmas Story
will recognize and enjoy writer-director Bob Clark and source-material
author Jean Shepherd’s characteristically wry narration. “When the old
man was in a good mood, he gave me nicknames like ‘Rubber Band’ and
‘Spare Tire,’” notes Ralphie at one point. Later, after Ralphie and his
pals Flick (Geoffrey Wigdor) and Schwartz (David Zahorsky) have to
purchase yucky red jawbreakers in order to obtain black ones, a moment
of reverie comes in the form of the following voiceover: “With the
proper cheek tension, the soul-satisfying taste of those ebony
masterpieces began to course through our veins, and it was almost worth
the years of impacted wisdom teeth that were to follow.”

The film’s set pieces are a bit less memorable and smoothly staged
than the original — Ralphie challenges sneering bully Lug Ditka (Whit
Hertford) to a duel involving spinning tops, and his dad blasts their
hillbilly neighbors with classical music, only to suffer a hoedown as
retaliation — but it’s humorous and on-point the way that Ralphie views
fishing with his dad as a grand entrée to the adult world. The only
other beef I really have is Grodin. No doubt hired because he exudes an
irascible nature — put nicely to use for kids in the Beethoven
films — here he just seems like an awkward fit, missing the subtleties
of Darren McGavin’s gruff, bluffing demeanor by playing things far too
broadly.

Housed in a regular Amray case, My Summer Story is presented
in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, enhanced for 16×9 televisions, with an
English 2.0 stereo track and optional English subtitles. Apart from
previews for other Sony releases (including the forthcoming bow of
Sony’s in-house animated branch, Open Season), there are
unfortunately no supplemental extras on this DVD, leaving an empty hole
for those seeking an additional nostalgic fix through some comments
from Clark, perhaps. Overall, My Summer Story is decently in step and of a piece with its family-friendly predecessor, though not quite on par. B- (Movie) C- (Disc)