Grade A-

“A Christmas Story 2” stars Braeden Lemasters as Ralphie. In the straight-to-DVD release, we fast-forward nearly seven years from the original “A Christmas Story” movie and we are catching up with Ralphie at age 15, and not much seems to have changed.

Still living in the house on Cleveland Street, his father (Daniel Stern) is still battling the heater, and his mother (Stacey Travis) still has to bribe Randy (Valin Shinyei) to eat.

Ralphie finds his dream car at a local dealer, and when he revisits the local dealership with Flick (David W. Thompson) and Schwartz (David Buehrle), Ralphie accidently wrecks the car.

The dealership owner Hank (Gerard Plunkett) threatens to call the police if Ralphie does not give him the money by Christmas Eve.

Ralphie, Flick and Schwartz take jobs at Higbee’s to earn the 85 dollars they need to replace the hood of the car.

The trio finds themselves getting into a lot of trouble throughout the store, making it more difficult for Ralphie to earn the money.

For the fanatics of the original “A Christmas Story” movie, accepting the sequel has not been an easy thing.

However, “A Christmas Story 2” is a great sequel, especially due to the fact that the movie had to be totally re-cast because of the 29 year gap between movies.

When they re-cast they did a great job at finding someone who closely resembled the original Ralphie.

Outside of the casting of Ralphie, the other actors do not resemble the originals at all.

Ralphie’s father looks seven years younger, versus older, and the same goes for Ralphie’s mother.

The one actor that I could not bring myself to believe was Valin Shinyei, the actor who played Randy.

He had no resemblance to the original actor, and could have passed for the same age despite the supposed seven year difference.

It may be harsh to say because of how young he is, but he cannot act.

The house that they filmed “A Christmas Story 2” at is not the same house that the original movie was filmed.

It would have been much more realistic for the idea that “nothing has changed” if it was the same house.

The movie had plenty of laughs; despite some people considering it a children’s movie, it is hilarious.

It may just be that I am being a sucker for a decent sequel to my favorite Christmas movie, but I love this movie.

I spent more than half of it laughing, simply for the fact that Ralphie’s father reminds me of my own dad.

Overall, it’s a great movie. I definitely recommend checking it out.