Christmas Vacation

During it's fourteen year run, the National Lampoon Vacation series was pretty top notch. It produced a different concept of following a family and all their crazy adventures. It was a series that besides "Vegas Vacation" showed Chevy Chase in his prime as a comedic actor and also many series can't say they used every rating from R, PG-13 and PG for the various films which shows it's a series that works for everyone.

That said, every one especially knows about the third film in the series, Christmas Vacation. It is said to be a classic Christmas film, and is well known by non-fans of film industry. The film is something you can just find on about every station during Christmas time even though it is now more than twenty years old and I don't see this dying anytime soon. Call me crazy me though, because for me Christmas Vacation is just a merely an above average film.

In the heart of Chicago, the Griswold family craziness begins during Christmas time. The Griswold extended family is here with Clark (Chevy Chase), his trashy brother Eddie (Randy Quaid) and the rest of the family. Clark deals a lot of stuff including Christmas lights, presents, a Christmas bonus issue and really everything that comes with Christmas.

I could just be nitpicking and maybe the Christmas scrooge has come out from inside of me but Christmas Vacation suffers from a lack of plot. Most of film is wandering around in an 80's style house watching a family who don't know the ways of life. With the setting being just a house, it shows off the low $27 million budget, and I don't know why the movie is called "Christmas Vacation" because the family doesn't go anywhere. Christmas Vacation is full of sex, bathroom humor, old people and dysfunctional family jokes that are typical in comedy films.

I think if a film is going to use just one setting, then it really needs to rely on the characters. The main star of the film and the father of the family, Clark Griswold (Chase) can't seem to do anything right and has numerous problems. He is an annoyance and by the end of the movie it just becomes too much. The mother of the Griswolds is Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) who is innocent in all of this and really doesn't seem to fit into this craziness. The kids are Audrey Griswold (Juliette Lewis) who is a bitchy teen who has problems with just about about everything and the younger brother is Russ Griswold (Johnny Galecki) who does nothing noteworthy. From Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) to Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel), the old people in this story are what some old people are. They are off in there own world and have no purpose or able to relate at all to the present time. The only character that really earns his keep and is worth watching is Eddie (Quaid) who's pretty funny and who has some heart. Still, none of these family members has an inch of character development.

This movie has the Christmas spirit and is original to the series so I see a reason why some people call it a classic. To me though, it just has too little on substance, has big flaws on the important parts and really all I got out of it was some smiles. Christmas Vacation is an easily watchable movie but it is a film I would rather choose to forget than to remember.

3/5

Favorite Christmas movies

As with any holiday, Christmas has it's share of problems. It is a holiday that I liked a lot more when I was younger but is now just another holiday on the calendar. It's the same thing every year for me, which is a lot of busyness and living in Michigan we get a thing called snow which can be a pain. As with every holiday and any time of year, films help with the tough times. Here are my top Christmas films!

Everybody has totally forgotten about this foreign one called Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. Fun, flashy, original, very sappy and not made for the little ones.

 

Not officially credited as a Christmas film but it definitively works as one. Edward Scissorhands is a very dark film from Tim Burton that really got me into him more.

 

Another film from Tim Burton. He again utilizes an original concept using Halloween this time around and mixing it with Christmas. It is another dark film that has a cult following for a very good reason.

 

 

Also a good horror film, Gremlins still holds up no matter what time of year it is. It has a very fun concept and a good film to introduce horror movies to young ones if the right age.

Really along with some other critics' lists, this list would not be complete without this film. This film is a fun ride that made us look at our own families and one of last good films from Chevy Case before they all went downhill.

This one barely made the list but it is not all that bad. A good buddy/cop film from the late 80's that was fun and has some good Christmas vibes to it.

 

This one made the list easily. A very memorable film from the 80's that at times is absolutely hilarious. A very strange film from Bob Clark.

 

 

I've become really tired of this one lately due how much it's on television but this was fun in in the mid 2000's. This really got Will Ferrell to where he is now and it works with a really good cast. I have nice childhood memories of seeing in the theater.

From a reviewing standpoint, it is not a great point to make because it is so obvious but Home Alone is truly a special film. A fun family that is memorable for about a dozen reasons and a film that made people love young Macaulay Culkin.

This one also barely made the list and I didn't love it like some people did but this film still has a lot to it. Tim Burton again brings justice to the world with this and this is the last good Batman movie before Christopher Nolan came along like fifteen years later with Batman Begins.


Well that is my list. I know I missed some classic Christmas movies and some I didn't put on the list as I just have not seen them in a while. These stood out for me anyway.