National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Christmas Vacation is one of the movies I try to watch every holiday season. It has a lot of fun memories associated with it. It's cheesy and ridiculous, but it's familiar and traditional. This is one of the few National Lampoon movies that I enjoy.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is the third instalment into the Vacation series. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo return to reprise their roles of Clark and Ellen Griswold. As-well the children have been recast again, this time Juliette Lewis and Jonny Galecki star as Audrey and rusty. And they're the most memorable of the young actors in these roles.Christmas Vacation sees the Griswold's host Christmas with their dysfunctional extended family that have a knack of causing all sorts of mischief and chaos. Whilst Clark and Ellen act as the glue that holds both families together. This film is definitely a vast improvement over European Vacation. The story and over-all zaniness has been toned down making the film more palatable.One of the biggest issues I had with the film is it recycles many of the jokes that were done in the first two films. There were some jokes that made think seriously they're doing this again, in-particular Clark's dream sequence. A-lot of the jokes didn't hit the mark for me. However all the performances felt earnest and all the characters were likeable especially Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo who were once again the best thing about the film.Over-all Christmas Vacation is a safe film that tones down some of the more raunchier humour of the previous films. However due to the sheer likeability of the Griswolds, Christmas Vacation makes for a charming if at times slightly dull Christmas film.

Watch the Clark Griswald family as they figure it out. The land of the free and the home of the brave. After 30 years this movie still is very funny. Take all of your experiences and multiply it up ...double 'em add some peter principles and glass ceilings and oh I don't know ...some sordid stories...that is involving ignoble actions and motives, arousing moral distate ...distate and contempt...national lampoon ... A-Z!Come One Come All.

Admittedly, I haven't seen very many Chevy Chase or even National Lampoon movies for that matter. His particular brand of comedy appeals to a certain generation, and this movie is chock full of it. Relying on mainly slapstick humor and good comedic timing, this movie parodies the textbook family Christmas get-together. In fact, I was not surprised to learn that this movie birthed the term Griswold House--"a house or display that has been decorated with way too many holiday lights, so as to be almost blinding."I will have to watch the other Griswold family movies before having a definite opinion, but from the sound of the other reviewers, this is the best one. I even recognized some familiar faces--Raymond's mother from Everybody Loves Raymond, and one of the nerds from The Big Bang Theory.The movie does have its laugh out loud moments, and has some memorable quotes to boot... but not enough substance to be recommended for anything other than a Christmas Eve family movie option.