Very well executed

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I was eleven years old when "My Summer Story" (originally released as "It Runs In The Family") came out, and I remember reading about it in a kids magazine but never seeing it get released in my local theater. When I looked up on BoxOfficeMojo.com that the film only grossed $71,000 at the time of its release, it didn't surprise me. It turns out a lot of other kids my age didn't see this film released at their local theaters either."My Summer Story" was advertised at the time as a sequel to "A Christmas Story". I'm not sure if "sequel" is the right word for such a movie, even though the same characters from the previous movie were reprized here. The fact is, people tend to forget that both movies were based on the memoirs of Jean Shepherd, who provided narration for both movies. Without most of the cast of the original movie (save Shepherd himself and Tedde Moore as Ralphie's teacher, Mrs. Shields), a lot of the charm that made "A Christmas Story" both a perennial favorite and a cult classic was lost in this movie. Although director Bob Clark, who directed both movies, is now deceased, he probably became aware 15 years ago that this movie could not even come close to the long-term success of "A Christmas Story".Kieran Culkin is a very good child actor who grew up to do some really good movies ("Igby Goes Down", "The Cider House Rules"). As a child, he displayed a lot of charm in understated movie roles (both "Home Alone" movies, both "Father of the Bride" movies). Here, he has to fill Peter Billingsley's shoes, and he seems unaware of the previous movie. He doesn't look like a child from the 1940's, nor does he really act like one. He just kind of seems to go through the motions here. For instance, there's no excitement in his eyes when he goes searching for a top, and his level of embarrassment is not evident in the scene where the Chinese top with flowers is mocked by his peers. As good an actor as the younger Culkin became, his acting did not match with Jean Shepherd's enthusiastic narration.My guess is that both Kieran and Christian Culkin (who plays younger brother Randy) got cast in this movie the same way their older brother Macaulay got cast in "The Good Son": their father pulled strings and went against the studios wishes through threatening and bribery. "The Good Son" was not a good role for Macaulay, and these roles in this movie weren't the right fit for these Culkin boys.Charles Grodin probably got typecast as Mr. Parker based on his previously successful performances in the "Beethoven" movies as the grumpy Dad. In this movie, he plays grumpy well, but that's really all he plays. It's a one-dimensional performance that doesn't contain the warmth of Darren McGavin's more developed character from the original movie. Mary Steenbergen doesn't give a lot to her performance as Mrs. Parker either, and the subplot of her gravy boat surplus may have been funny on paper, but is awkward on film. The part near the end where she throws a gravy boat at movie theater owner Leopold Doppler (a miscast Glenn Shadix of "Beetlejuice" fame) made me wonder how that didn't occur to her in the middle of the film.The gravy boat fiasco is just one of many subplots that, unlike in "A Christmas Story", coexist, but don't interlope and connect to form one great story. They all just seem very sitcom-like and unoriginal. There's a subplot about a tax collector that goes nowhere, some hillbilly neighbors who aren't as aggravating as Grodin desperately wants the audience to think they are, a fishing story which accounts (surprise!) no fish being caught over a majority of the summer, and a brief mention of the famous BB gun from "A Christmas Story" involving Ralphie being shot somewhere else other than the eye. When he gets shot in this place, it feels like a cheap laugh that insults the intelligence of the film's intended audience.On top of all those inconsistencies, the movie never gives a time and place. By that I mean that the movie takes place sometime in the 1940's before television, but you never know exactly when because the film never tells you in subtitles. It's clear that the people who made this movie made too many assumptions of whom would see this film. This movie is no "Christmas Story", that's for sure. However, if it weren't for Jean Shepherd's narration, this film would be completely forgettable. Shepherd is a great storyteller, both on paper and on film. His voice has a grandfather-like charm to it, and his sense of humor goes without saying. He lived these tales he tells, and no one can tell them better than him. Without his voice in the movie, the film would have been completely lost. So yes, "My Summer Story" was deeply flawed in many areas, but I marginally recommend this film because of Shepherd's great storytelling skills.

Really bad. Why anyone thinks this is a good film let alone funny is a true mystery. I like comedies as much as the next man and I LOVED "A Christmas Story." The fact that it has the same director and was based on the same writer's memoirs has me completely puzzled as to why this film is such a complete failure on every level. Charles Grodin is woefully miscast as the father for starters. For another it does not seem to have the same pacing -- it just doesn't flow well. Everything seems tired and forced. The joy of life that permeated the first film is completely absent here -- you just want the movie to end. I wouldn't even recommend this movie for curiosity-seekers who enjoyed "A Christmas Story." It's that bad. 1/10.

I remember watching this movie when it premiered on the movie channels as a kid. I hadn't even seen A Christmas Story yet and with that in mind I didn't demean this movie just because it didn't compare. I found it quite humorous and I love how it goes beyond the first movie and more into the craziness of their family once I finally watched ACS. It is an excellent movie for kids and adults, especially those that are still kids at heart. I was actually trying to track this title down so I can purchase it on DVD. Seeing the only comment left on this movie was disheartening and I wanted to express my opinion for this wonderful movie.

"A Christmas Story" is one of many people's all-time most beloved films. ACS was able to take the viewer to a time and a place in such a way that very few films ever have. It had a sweetness and goodwill to it that is rare.So I awaited (and awaited) its sequel, "It Runs In The Family" . The film was almost released a couple of times, only to be pulled at the last minute. When it finally came out, IRITF was (and is, I guess) a total failure.The sets and cinematography were just fine, but the directing totally, completely missed the mark. The film was nothing more than a cash-flow formula of lazy casting, lazy writing, and disconnected acting.The narrator, Jean Shepard, who was one of America's great humorists and story-tellers, forced upon us a false reprise of the warm wit he used in ACS. He over-emoted, and why he did that I'll never know. He somehow managed to become an annoying, overwrought parody of himself.The writing and acting in IRITF is inauthentic and forced. The actors may have seen ACS, but whatever wit and nuance that was in ACS mustn't have registered at all on any of them. The acting was embarrassingly slapstick and bereft of any of Shepard's dry humor.ACS will always be a real treasure, but to call IRITF a sequel is to insult all of the fans of Jean Shepard and ACS.