the wonder years Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm sure it's a tradition in your family to watch A Christmas Story at least once during the holiday season. As the film has grown in popularity over the years, folks have gone out of their way to cherish it -- like that dude who bought the original house in Cleveland and turned it into a museum. There was an actual Christmas Story fan convention this year, too, and I'm sure more than a few kids will try to stick their tongues to something cold this winter ... just to see if it really sticks. (Warning: Yes, kids, it will really stick.)

Over at Mental Floss, they put together a list of 10 things you might not know about A Christmas Story. And as someone who thought he knew everything there was to know about this flick, I was pleasantly surprised to find some very cool tidbits in there. Like, for example, I did not know Jack Nicholson was originally up to play the part of the father. Yup. And, while I knew about one cruddy sequel, there were actually two! And one starred Jerry O'Connell as Ralphie! What about this: Did you know The Wonder Years was inspired by A Christmas Story? Not only that, but in one of the episodes, Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) plays one of Kevin Arnold's roommates. Very cool.

Check out the entire list over here. What's your favorite part of A Christmas Story? (Ahem, I like the Tin Man ...)

There's this station here in New York that airs Wonder Years episodes back-to-back late at night. (And I just got a few smiles from the folks who've discovered this gem tucked somewhere between channels 30 and 40.) Anyway, I had totally forgotten that Giovanni Ribisi played one of Kevin's friends during those later seasons. It was Ribisi, that dude Chuck who blinked a lot (whatever happened to him?), Paul and Kevin. Am I taking you back? I've always been a fan of Ribisi's work, and kind of like the fact that he's never really blown up to big-time Hollywood movie star. He's either the bigger guy in a smaller film (Boiler Room), or the smaller guy in a bigger film (Saving Private Ryan). Sure, he always sounds like he's five minutes away from a sinus attack, but I've loved him in so many films that his constant sniffling and blood-shot eyes draw me in even closer.

Why the love-fest for Ribisi? Well, according to The Hollywood Reporter, my man just landed a heckuva role in James Cameron's highly-anticipated -- film-that-will-change-the-world-as-we-know-it -- Avatar. He'll be playing a character named Selfridge "in the Fox film about a band of humans pitted against a distant planet's indigenous inhabitants." Ribisi joins a cast that already includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana (Avatar and Star Trek XI? When did this girl become so hot?), Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. Apart from the human actors, Avatar will also feature six computer-generated actors known as "synthesipians." And in the case of a Hollywood strike, I imagine those "synthespians" will take over for awhile -- ya know, kind of like replacement baseball players. Avatar hits theaters on May 22, 2009.