![]() There’s nothing connecting these anecdotes to a larger vision and so it feels more like a series of funny stories.Īt the end of the day, it’s still Jean Shepherd waxing poetic about his halcyon days, preserving an idyllic vision of Americana that we all want to believe in. The quest for the perfect top isn’t really about the kids game, of course, any more than A Christmas Story was about BB guns, but the absence of a major uniting theme such as the holidays in his previous stories prevents My Summer Story from really landing that solid punch. The biggest issue with the picture, though, is probably that these adventures, while amusing, are terribly specific and non-universal. Oh, there are other problems – Charles Grodin, while very good, simply can’t live up to the standard set by Darren McGavin as The Old Man the Bumpus thing falls victim to the Louis Tully rule and is completely over the top – but mainly the gags just aren’t as entertaining. Why? Is it too simplistic to suggest that it just isn’t as funny? Because it really isn’t. Parker strives to complete her collection of celebrity-branded dishes from the local theatre and The Old Man’s troubles with neighbors the Bumpeses escalate out of control.īut while the formula is the same, the result falls quite short. In this one, Ralphie does battle with the neighborhood bully over the top game “Kill”, Mrs. The stories are classic Shepherd, coming mostly from “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”, Bob Clark repeats his directorial duties and nothing has been done to radically change the tone. The story of the film once again follows the exploits of the Parker family and is similarly structured to other Jean Shepherd stories intertwining plot lines of quaint absurdities, narrated with Shepherd’s captivating delivery. *Interesting tidbit about the title this picture features 2 of the Culkin brothers as the Parker boys a 3rd Culkin (Rory) was in the 2003 Kirk Douglas movie that re-used the name “It Runs in the Family”. Who wants to watch a movie about all the exciting things that can happen in the great time of year that you just missed? In a case of supremely bad timing, this movie about summer was released in late September.I get that you don’t want to raise expectations too much, but you only discourage that relationship in peoples minds if you think you have a dog on your hands. That’s your biggest selling point! Without the connection to that classic film you just have a retro coming of age story that the 1990’s were littered with. The original title of My Summer Story was changed to It Runs In The Family* because the studio didn’t want to invite comparisons to A Christmas Story. Presuming of course that it had been marketed well, which leads me to my next point Were this movie to have come out merely a year or two later when the first film was being shown around the clock and may well have been a hit. By that time anyone who had seen the original picture had likely forgotten it because it really hadn’t taken off yet as a cable mainstay.
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