Customer Review: Ultimate Collector’s Edition mainly for collectors and those who don’t have the movie on Blu-ray yet
This is the page for a newly announced Blu-ray Ultimate edition of A Christmas Story, which is due out November 4th, 2008. The movie is excellent, a Christmas classic (see below). Should you upgrade to the new Ultimate edition if you already have the 2006 Blu-ray edition? That depends on how much you like memorabilia. The new edition appears to be a repackaging of the 2006 edition, with a passel of new non-DVD extras. Those include:

– a collectible retro Christmas cookie tin (the container for the set)
– leg lamp stand (Blu-ray exclusive)
– 48-page cookbook with recipes inspired by the movie
– photos and quotes from the movie
– a red chef’s apron with an A Christmas Story logo on it
– 5 collectible cookie cutters “in iconic Christmas Story shapes” (looks like a star, a house, a leg lamp, Ralphie in his bunny suit, and what may be Peking Duck)

Those look like fun, if you’re into that kind of stuff. You can find photos at various sites (google “a christmas story” “ultimate collector’s edition” and, for one site I’ve used, “dvdactive”). Not sure what the leg lamp stand will be exactly, but it isn’t the size of the one in the movie if it fits in that tin.

There’s nothing in the studio’s announcement that indicates the Blu-ray DVD will be remastered. The video quality of the 2006 release was only fair for hi-def, soft with fairly good color, with fair mono sound.

There will also be a standard DVD Ultimate edition (here).

The DVD special features announced are the same as for 2006:

– audio commentary by director/co-writer Bob Clark and star Peter Billingsley (Ralphie)
– two readings by Jean Shepard, author and narrator for the movie (audio only)
– Another Christmas Story featurette, includes interviews with Clark and a few members of the cast
– Get a Leg Up featurette, about the making and ongoing sale of the (in)famous leg lamp
– A History of the Daisy Red Ryder featurette, on the object of great desire’s actual history
– Triple Dog Dare Interactive Trivia
– Decoder Match Challenge
– easter eggs (including an actual ad for the leg lamp)
– original theatrical trailer

Now, about the really good stuff, the movie. A Christmas Story is that odd film that appeals to a cross-section of viewers who often can’t agree on what to watch. Fans of sweet Christmas cheer are happily joined by people with a more jaundiced eye to the holiday. To be sure, the movie leans more to the sweet than the sour, but it has enough edge and good-natured twistedness to please some of our darker Christmas angels too. It conveys a genuinely warm nostalgia and some sharp, sometimes pretense-deflating observations about human nature.

The story is set at some indefinite time around 1940 in an Indiana town approaching the holidays. Young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) wants only one thing for Christmas, the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Lightning Loader Range Model Air Rifle with a compass in the stock. (That is, a BB gun, a very particular one.) He plans carefully well in advance how to lay the groundwork for this while avoiding the dreaded rebuff, but almost everyone says it anyway: “You’ll put your eye out!” The relentless struggle for the one true gift develops alongside several other small stories and amusing details, a tongue-on-frozen-pole triple-dog dare, facing the local bully, the notorious leg lamp, the Santa slide, Peking Duck for Christmas, and several others, each memorable in itself.

The actors aren’t very well known, but they’re all just right. There is narration throughout, representing an older Ralphie, done by the originator of the story, Jean Shepard, also just right.

This movie, made in 1983, has gradually become a favorite Christmas classic, now shown in an annual 24-hour Christmas marathon on cable, which attracts a huge number of viewers. If you’ve never seen it, give it a try, even if you have a little Scrooge in you, and you’ll probably enjoy it. “BUY NOW”