National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The pure insanity of the holidays has never really been shown as brilliantly as in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” released in 1989. Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik and written by the late John Hughes, the family comedy has become one of the most quotable comedies of all time. Alan French said in his review, “Of course, it’s easy to sell your jokes when you have peak Chevy Chase in your back pocket. With a cast that has (mostly) aged well and some truly unhinged humor, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has earned its legendary status.”

The Griswolds get ready to welcome their grandparents (John Randolph, Laura Dern's mother, the late Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, and Doris Roberts) to their home for the winter holidays. However, they soon find others arriving with them, including the crazy Uncle Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family (Catherine Johnson, Cody Burger, and Ellen Hamilton Latzen). Even with the insanity, Clark, reprised by Chase, believes that he will be getting a big bonus, letting him finally get a pool for his family. As he tries to keep his hopes high, Ellen, reprised by Beverly D’Angelo, tries to keep his expectations on the right track.

French credited, “The power of the National Lampoon brand was still working overtime in 1989. In addition to Chase returning to the franchise, there are bit parts for future and current legends throughout the movie.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Diane Ladd, and Brian Doyle-Murray are the main highlights, but the Griswold children, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki, would become the real stardoms in film and TV in the following years.

French credited, “The real powerhouse performance that goes toe-to-toe with Chase is Quaid. While the actor has embraced some strange ideas in recent history, his comedic timing in this movie is off the charts. Not only are the line readings near perfect, but his reactions and mannerisms are wholly unique in every situation.” This is honestly one of the comedic performances that you would think the Oscars would pay attention to.

French ending his review by saying, “Then again, it’s Chase who uses every ounce of his slime and his charisma in the role to keep Christmas Vacation moving along. He’s very funny, and his eye-popping expressions are still marvelous today. Chase had plenty of jokes to tell, but his rubber face was always his greatest weapon. While the off-camera issues slowed his career, there are few performances in the Christmas-movie genre that can blend the saccharine with the humor quite like Chase.”

This is a Christmas classic for everyone to watch each year. One of the best comedies that has a very heartwarming ending. You can probably relate to everything that goes on when it comes to family coming over, hoping for a bonus, the preparations with the decorations and the meal, everything is just stressful on everyone, especially Clark. I know that a few years ago I did some “National Lampoon” movies and left this one out, but now I have reviewed it because I was waiting for the right time. Check this out on Disney+, Hulu, or HBO Max and have an enjoyable time laughing at the movie from start to finish.

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope that everyone has exciting plans for today. Spend the time with the family and let’s all finish out this year on a positive note, seeing how this has been a stressful and bad year for a lot of people. Tomorrow I will be looking at another surprising DCOM sequel in “Disney Month 2025.”

Vacation (2015)

Thirty-two years after the release of screenwriter John Hughes and director Harold Ramis’ “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” co-writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein make their directorial debuts with the 2015 “Vacation” reboot/remake. The comedy followed in a trend of recent releases like “Jurassic World” and “Terminator: Genisys,” where filmmakers and movie studios are trying to reintroduce older film franchises to a new audience. Rudie Obias said in his review, “It gets a little murky to consider Vacation a reboot because it practically follows the same story beats and premise as the original, following the same formula that made the original Vacation a hit film in 1983.” However, that doesn’t mean the new “Vacation” is going to have the same reactions and laughs in 2015.

“Vacation” follows Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms), Clark W. Griswold’s (Chevy Chase) now adult son, as he takes his family on a cross country vacation to bring them closer together, much like his father tried to do in the first film. They even pick the same destination as the first time, Walley World, a fictional amusement park. With his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and two sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) at his side, the Griswold family travels from Chicago to California following the same route as the original film. It feels very familiar, by look, but the huge difference is its cast.

Debbie Griswold goes in a different and newer direction than Ellen Griswold, reprised by Beverly D’Angelo. Obias noted, “While D’Angelo played a milquetoast and timid wife, Applegate gives her character Debbie some life. Instead of being the voice of reason, she’s more willing to get dirty in the film’s hijinks and schemes.” However, the problem of “Vacation” is from Ed Helms’ Rusty Griswold, who is good hearted, but lacks the same charm and comedic timing Chevy Chase had with Clark Griswold. It gets worse with the kids. James is a sensitive and awkward teenager, while his younger brother Kevin is just harsh and aggravating. Obias admitted, “Every moment that Kevin is on screen is so excruciating and ill-conceived that it makes me wonder if the filmmakers had any clue how this character was going register with an audience. Aside from Christina Applegate, who has some real comedic chops, a majority of Vacation is really hard to swallow and watch. And awkwardly shifting in a movie theater seat is not an ideal way to watch a “laugh-a-minute” comedy that Vacation would like to be.”

Most of the comedy just doesn’t work, which is strange because the premise sets up its characters to go from crazy moment to crazy moment. It’s one of those movies that starts to tank after the opening credits, which has real-life strange Family Portrait-style vacation photos with the song of Lindsey Buckingham’s Holiday Road, which makes you feel nostalgic. There were some real laughs and surprises in that opening credits scene and it’s a shame that the rest of “Vacation” doesn’t follow that.

“Vacation” never really hits a pace of story or laughs, but a very short set piece with Rusty’s sister Audrey (Leslie Mann) and her husband Stone Crandall (Chris Hemsworth) giving some laughs off and on. Obias noted, “But it really seems that they’re the standouts in Vacation for a possible spin-off one day.” “Vacation” also has some smart moments where it sees that it’s a reboot of an older film franchise, but that self-referential humor goes away as soon as it’s brought up. Notably, Rusty looks at old family photos at the beginning of the film and we see all the different actors who played Audrey and Rusty through the years. Obias ended his review by noting, “Despite that clever streak, it’s no surprise that John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein were also the writers of Horrible Bosses and Horrible Bosses 2, two comedies that are mean-spirited, laughless, and just plain tedious to watch, much like the new Vacation — which is also painful, and ugly.”

As you might have expected, this film is the worst in the franchise. After how bad the last one was, did they really need to make another? This one was just a pain to sit through. Just do yourself a favor and never see this. Especially if you loved the original. This will just hurt you from first minute to last. You will regret ever putting this on after watching this tragedy.

Well, now we have come to the end of “National Lampoon Month.” Sorry to end this off on such a bad note, but that’s what happens. Stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.

Vegas Vacation

Probably few have noticed that it had been six years since the last Griswald family trip. Now, they go to Vegas.

The franchise began with “National Lampoon’s Vacation” in 1983 when Clark Griswald got lost driving the family to Wally World, a fictional visit to a sanitized theme park.

The “plot” of “Vegas Vacation,” released in 1997, is so predictable that it could have been written by the writer’s children. MalVincent said in his review, “Dad gets a bonus for developing food preservatives (milk that lasts eight years) and announces, in game show terms, a fab vacation to the land of dice.”

There, the predictable happens. They get lost (again) driving to the hotel. Clark (Chevy Chase) meets an evil blackjack dealer (Wallace Shawn) and loses the family savings. Ellen, reprised by Beverly D’Angelo, is serenaded by showroom star Wayne Newton. Audrey, played by Marisol Nichols, is put into a tight dress and given a job dancing in a cage. Cousin Eddie, reprised by Randy Quaid, now living in a snake-filled desert trailer park that was once a testing ground for hydrogen bombs, shows up to eat $1.49 buffets.

However, stealing the film is newcomer Ethan Embry as Rusty. Vincent said, “Although under-age and with a false ID, Rusty becomes a high-roller, is befriended by gangster-like hanger-ons and learns the joys of bikini-clad companions in hot tubs.” Embry seems to love it so much that he brings the movie its only real energy.

Vincent admitted, “I remember getting mucho calls after reviewing one of the films because I commented that it was a ``family film'' but some family attendees thought it was too racy.” This time, you’re warned. Yes, it is about a family, but there are innuendos (even a look of incest involving Eddie’s shiftless family).

Vincent compared, “One might question the PG rating, but it seems pretty harmless - as if someone had made a faintly mischievous flick about Ozzie and Harriet.”

Newton, who often describes himself on stage as “a Cherokee Indian from Norfolk Virginia,” is either a good person or doesn’t realize that he’s destroying his own image.

Vincent ended his review by saying, “If you liked the other Griswald outings, or if you liked the movie editions of ``The Brady Bunch,'' there's no reason you won't like this repeat.” However, it is most definitely a repeat.

Like you might have noticed, this is showing the Griswold family really sinking deep with the franchise. This movie was a huge disappointment that it lost all credibility. They should have left well enough alone with how great “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” was. A great comeback followed up by another failure. What do you expect from people that just are after money? Do yourself a favor and never see this because you will regret ever playing this tragedy.

Next week we will finish off “National Lampoon Month” with the sad last effort with the Griswold family. Once again, I apologize for posting this late as I took a nap and didn’t realize it was for so long.

National Lampoon's European Vacation

The Griswolds are back in “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” released in 1985, but they forgot to bring the comedy. (And, strangely, the letter “o,” making this the only film in the franchise to misspell “Griswold” as “Griswald.”) Anthony Michael Hall decided to make “Weird Science” instead, making producers to not bring back Dana Barron and decided to recast both kids – and thereby making a tradition for the sequels. Director Harold Ramis also decided to not return, but Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo returned as Clark and Ellen…Griswald.

The film starts with a bright idea: what if Clark, Ellen, and their teenage children Audrey (Dana Hill) and Rusty (Jason Lively) won a European vacation on a game show called “Pig in a Poke?” Peter Canavese said in his review, “Director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless) and screenwriters John Hughes (National Lampoon's Vacation) and Robert Klane don't make much of the sequence, which clownishly puts the family in pig costumes (to chants of "Be a pig! Be a pig!"), but it does contain one of the film's precious few funny gags: in an edgy parody of Richard Dawson's signature kiss, John Astin's Kent Winkdale takes liberties with teen contestant Audrey. The pig motif is the first salvo of many that target the Griswalds as boorish and destructive "ugly Americans." The first film was content with gentle mockery of American suburbanites—and, by extension, the audience—topped with a single surgical strike but in addition to lazily reprising that gag, the sequel piles on scene after scene of Griswald idiocy and ignorance.” In the first film, they were more often unlucky victims. In the sequel, they’re more often victimizers.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea, other than fixing what wasn’t broking. However, the satire doesn’t work: for one thing, by spoiling boring stereotypes, the screenwriters become worse than the Griswalds, who at least have the defense of ignorance, while Hughes and Klane should know better. Canavese said, “The family has never been more dysfunctional: Rusty gets caught drunk with a hooker, and Audrey is the butt of a running gag about her eating disorder—not exactly hi-lar-i-ous material, at least not without a more convincing unity of satirical action.” The waste of the film’s list of “guest stars” gives a quick survey of “European’s Vacation” entirely disorganized and seldom amusing procedure: Hecklerling gives nothing memorable to Paul Bartel, Ballard Berkeley, Mel Smith, Robbie Coltrane, or Moon Zappa. What’s really embarrassing is Eric Idle appears and actually says the line “It’s just a flesh wound” during a sadly limp cameo. For Monty Python fans, that hurts.

The family travels through London, Paris, a Bavarian village, and Rome, as we eventually start to hate the family more and more which hurts because we empathized with them in the first film. Canavese said, “The family gets stuck in a Sisyphean roundabout, Clark dons lederhosen and does full-contact polka dancing, and Ellen inadvertantly becomes a Euro-porn star. Though it's no more than a music-video pastiche, a creatively edited Louvre sequence sticks out like a sore thumb by actually attempting something. Okay, there's also a Sound of Music parody in which Chase warbles a bit, and Heckerling stages a skillful chase climax during the closing Roman segment.” However, the latter is the fulfillment of the film’s extremely late, halfhearted attempt to make up a plot (involving a couple of poorly motivated kidnappers). It basically all brings it down to seeing Chevy Chase doing an embarrassing dance.

What happened here? The first one was so hilarious, but this one was half of what made the first movie so funny. If you loved the first one, don’t see this sequel. You will not be able to make any sense of the decisions they made.

I will not be reviewing the next film in the franchise next week, because I think I will save that for a certain holiday. However, I will be looking at the following disappointment in “National Lampoon Month.” Sorry for posting this late. I was going to get started, but I fell asleep.

National Lampoon's Vacation

Groucho Reviews started their review by saying, “For those of us who aren't jet-setters, the road-trip family vacation is a part of our collective consciousness: piling in a car or van or station wagon and hitting the road to see dubious attractions whilst siblings bicker and parents try to hold it together. John Hughes' short story "Vacation '58," published in the National Lampoon, tapped into this archetypal vein, looking back not in anger but in wry fondness for family foibles. It proved to be lucrative fodder for the big screen (and later small screens), and though lacking in narrative and comic sophistication, National Lampoon's Vacation has something arguably more important: built-in, instant audience identification.”

The first film in what became a franchise has the benefit of the late Harold Ramis behind the camera, and “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” released in 1983, has some of the same hairy appeal as his “Caddyshack” and “Stripes:” for better or worse, they’re not careful films (they’re certainly not over-thought), and however, they’re permanent for their confident, zany approach to a comic story. Groucho admits, “Chevy Chase has never been my cup of tea, but it's hard to argue that he's at the top of his form here as goofy patriarch Clark Griswold, a workaholic food-additive developer who sees the family trip to Walley World (home of—ahem—Marty Moose) as a kind of penance for lost time. He's determined to make the trip perfect or—when that hope is dashed—at least to reach their detstination, consarnit!” Things begin badly when Eugene Levy’s dishonest car dealer pawns off on Clark the bright Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a fake-wood-paneled station wagon that is meant to break down in pieces. Even as he’s being scammed, Clark insists, “I’m not your ordinary everyday fool.” He may be right: in the rising Murphy’s Law scenes that follow, he proves to be a skillful fool.

Chase gets helpful support from Beverly D’Angelo as patient wife Ellen, Anthony Michael Hall as the impish Rusty, and Dana Barron as the neglected Audrey. Clark really walks al over his daughter to bond with his son (foreshadowing Homer Simpson, Clark forgets Audrey’s name). Groucho notes, “Clark and Rusty's "good talk"s—including "sharing" a beer in Monument Valley—prove to be some of the film's best scenes, though they also reflect the phallo-centrism of the R-rated '80s comedy, with its gratuitous nudity (now, I'm not complaining, mind you) and casual sidelining of the female point-of-view.” The film’s most famous running joke conserves the hot Christie Brinkley, in her prime, as the object of male attraction, as her character’s red Ferrari keeps appearing to tempt Clark to adultery. (The musical theme indirectly excusing these scenes is Little Boy Sweet, while the constant repeating of Lindsay Buckingham’s Holiday Road also helps to give the movie some artificial help.)

What’s riskier than the adultery is the scene – meant for laughs – of the white, square, Chicago residents accidentally driving through “the ghetto” and meeting scary black people. Groucho mentions, “The idea of the Griswolds as tourists who get suckered, squeezed and plain ripped off at every turn could have done without this jive-talking passage. The satire of suburban attitudes remains mostly implicit, though it bubbles to the surface with another race-themed gag: when a Native American (Michael Talbott) sizes up Clark with three little words: "What an @$$hole."”

Groucho continues, “Lots of the gags in Vacation seem obvious now, though partly because they've been repeated ad nauseam over the years (a random Psycho spoof, defective "magic fingers"...).” The best moments are on a realistic look (an implosive family singalong). The stereotyping of the Griswolds’ Kansas cousins as rednecks is more uncomfortably mean than it is funny, but it’s there that the travelers pick up cruel old Aunt Edna, played by the comedy legend Imogene Coca, cast against type, a type of comedic predicaments. Also among the Kansas cousins: Jane Krakowski’s Vicki and Randy Quaid’s Eddie, who would become a primary in the ongoing franchise. James Keach, Brian Doyle Murray, John Candy and Eddie Bracken (Groucho describes, “as conspicuously Disney-esque Roy Walley”) make funny cameos, but Chase does most of the comic delivery, most effectively in the subject of physical stuff. By the time his desperate protagonist does what can only be described as a sandwich dance, you might as well give in.

This is another classic in the franchise. I had known about the one Christie Brinkley scene at the hotel from a website I visited where they listed scenes of females scantily clad, and there was a scene of that at the end of “Animal House.” If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out. This is a classic in the franchise. Check it out if you haven’t because I think everyone will have a great time watching this. It is funny, and you will never forget this after you have seen it. I would definitely give this a recommendation and would love to see this film again.

Unfortunately, not all the films in this franchise was good. Case in point: stay tuned next week for when I talk about the next film in the “Griswold Family franchise” in “National Lampoon’s Month.”

National Lampoon's Animal House

For the month of May, I thought I would look at some of the classics from the “National Lampoon” franchise. Let’s start off with the 1978 classic, “National Lampoon’s Animal House.”

“What we need right now,” Otter tells his fraternity brothers,” is a stupid, futile gesture on someone’s part.” And no fraternity on campus – on any campus – is better qualified to give such a gesture than the Deltas. Roger Ebert noted in his review, “They have the title role in "National Lampoon's Animal House," which remembers all the way back to 1962, when college was simpler, beer was cheaper, and girls were harder to seduce.”

The movie is vulgar, raunchy, rude, and occasionally scatological. Ebert said, “It is also the funniest comedy since Mel Brooks made "The Producers" (1968). "Animal House" is funny for some of the same reasons the National Lampoon is funny (and Second City and "Saturday Night Live" are funny): Because it finds some kind of precarious balance between insanity and accuracy, between cheerfully wretched excess and an ability to reproduce the most revealing nuances of human behavior.” On one hand there has never been a campus like this movie’s Faber University, which was apparently founded by the lead pencil tycoon and has as its motto “Knowledge is Good.” Ebert said, “In another sense, Faber University is a microcosm of ... I was going to say our society, but why get serious?” Let someone else discuss the symbolism of Bluto’s ability to flatten a better can against his forehead.

Obviously, Bluto is the savage of the Deltas. He’s played by the late John Belushi, and the performance is all the more remarkable because Bluto has barely any dialogue. He isn’t a talker, he’s a show. His best scenes are played in silence (for instance, when he profanely climbs a ladder to peep at a sorority pillow fight).

Ebert said, “Bluto and his brothers are engaged in a holding action against civilization.” They are in favor of beer, women, song, motorcycles, Playboy babes, and making inappropriate sounds. They are against studying, serious thought, the Dean, the regulations governing fraternities, and, at the top of the list, the disgusting behavior of the Omegas – a house so respectable it has even given an ROTC commander to the world.

The movie was written by National Lampoon contributors (including Harold Ramis, who was in Second City at the same time Belushi was), and was directed by John Landis. It’s like an ending around Hollywood’s traditional look of comedy. It’s radical, messy, and filled with energy. It offends us. Part of the movie’s impact comes from its simple level of insane energy: When beer kegs and Hell’s Angels break through the windows of the Delta House, the anarchy is contagious. However, the movie’s better made (and better acted) than we might at first see. It takes skill to make this sort of comic idea, and the movie’s filled with characters that are designed a little more grippingly than they had to be, and acted with awareness.

For example: Tim Matheson, as Otter, the ladies’ man, wins a kind of grace in his obsession. Ebert noted, “John Vernon, as the Dean of Students, has a blue-eyed, rulebook hatefulness that's inspired. Verna Bloom, as his dipsomaniacal wife, has just the right balance of cynicism and desperation. Donald Sutherland, a paranoic early sixties pothead, nods solemnly at sophomoric truisms and admits he's as bored by Milton as everyone else.”

Moving through everything is Bluto, almost a natural force: He desires, he thirsts, he eats cafeterias full of food, and he pours an entire fifth of Jack Daniel’s into his mouth, belches, and observes, “Thanks. I needed that.” Ebert reiterates, “He has, as I suggested, little dialogue.” However, it is telling. When the Delta House is kicked off campus and the Deltas are expelled, he makes, in a moment of silence, a philosophical thought: “Seven years down the drain.” Obviously, the problem requires a stupid, useless gesture on someone’s part.

I recently saw this on Netflix while exercising, and I cannot believe what I have been missing out on. If you haven’t seen this, you should definitely check this one out. This is one of the funniest movies ever made. I wouldn’t be surprised if “Monsters University” took a lot of inspiration from this movie. Because there are a lot of similarities between the two films. Either way, check it out because you will have a great time laughing at this classic comedy.

Stay tuned next week when I look at another classic in “National Lampoon’s Month.” I apologize for posting this really late as I was really tired from not sleeping much last night and from work today.