I watched the HBO Max flick 8-Bit Christmas this past weekend. Based on the trailer it looked like an updated version of A Christmas Story and after watched that I do get the inspirational vibes that it got from the timeless classic.
In A Christmas Story Ralphie pines for a Red Ryder 200 shot range model air field with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells times. In 8-Bit Christmas Jake pines for a Nintendo.
Overall I really enjoyed the movie and I could, at times, relate to how desperately Jake wanted a Nintendo. I would give this recommend and say it's worth your time for a watch, but I'm not ready to say it's a new timeless classic like A Christmas Story became. I could see myself buying it when it comes out on home video because it has just the right amount of nostalgia for me to want to look back at it.
In Christmas 1988, when this movie takes place, I was 9 1/2 years old and my brother and desperately wanted this home entertainment system. Our parents agreed to pay half, but we had to work and earn the money for it. So we worked under the table for a farmer at his enormous chicken barn picking eggs.
This barn has rows and rows of chickens in cages, stacked on top of each other, looking back it's not that sanitary. I would push my cart down the row and collect the eggs in flats of 36, I believe we got 18 cents a flat. The downside was that some chickens would peck your hands as your took the eggs, and that hurt like crazy.
When we would get paid our mother made us put have of it in the back, then half of what was left, a quarter, we go towards the Nintendo and the remainder we got as spending money. It felt like it took years, in reality it was months, to save up the money for the Nintendo but we did.
Today I'm not a huge at home gamer. I love old arcade games and I'm a pinball fanatic, but at home my favorite games to play are the classic Nintendo and Super Nintendo games.
I just found out that this movie is based on a book that came out in 2013, I think I'll have to read that.
Until Next Time!
I, too, watched 8 Bit Christmas and started the book. Then I got sidetracked by Moxley's book.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, I was disappointed by the film. It had its moments and isn't a bad one time watch, but definitely not a Christmas classic. I think my biggest issue came in the scene with the Powrglove where clearly the game wasn't even 8 bit. It was lazy and really pissed me off.
And.... I love the NES Origin Story. I wrote up mine a few years ago here https://retro-daze.org/site/article/id/583
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