Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

From my favorite movies..

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I remember renting 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' from a video store back in the late eighties and again in the early nineties (until I figured it was simply more convenient and cost effective to buy a VHS copy and watch it whenever I want). I was young at the time and clearly loved its slightly dumb, cheesy humour (plus I was a fan of the two previous 'Vacation' films, but you don't actually have to have watched either of those to watch this one - you'll just not be one of us who get confused at the repeated new casting of the kids, Audrey and Rusty). However, for some reason, the film didn't survive my eventual binning of my tapes and buying everything again on DVD. Therefore, I was delighted when a popular online streaming service put it on their schedule in time for the festive season.It was only now did I realise how much I must have watched it back when I was young, as I knew the script practically word for word. So, in short, I still loved it and was in nostalgia heaven. And I could almost leave the review there if it wasn't for the fact that I was watching it now with my girlfriend who had never seen it before in her life. She hated it.Therefore, I was sort of forced to re-evaluate it and, although I maintain my love for it, try to see what some people may find wrong with it. Yes, the jokes are dumb. It's sort of like the 'American Pie' of its generation. It's definitely not high-brown entertainment and you have to accept that you're going to be watching a buffoon at work when it comes to the central character, played by Chevy Chase, Clark Griswold. I guess it could be said that some people may simply find him too annoying and stupid to root for.I suppose a few of the gags do fall a little flat and just as many are predictable, but then by now most adults will have seen so many comedy films by now that they can see 'old humour' coming a mile off. There was actually more profanity in this than I remember, including one 'F-bomb' which does mean that the film may be more unsuitable for 'all' the family than I remember.I suppose it's quite tame and, because of its age, has a feeling of being done before. However, I still maintain that, overall, it's stood the test of time reasonably well and should still pick up a few new fans here and there (especially in terms of good/funny Christmas movies). You'll definitely get more out of it if, like me, you have nostalgia on your side, but even my girlfriend had to admit that Randy Quaid was a joy to watch. Although, she still maintained that the (seldom-used) neighbours got all of the best gags!http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

At this stage in the Vacation series, you'd expect a drop in the overall quality, maybe the laughs have dried up and the series is being milked too much..., oh but no, absolutely and very much no, Christmas Vacation is probably the funniest in the series, despite being the third film in the series. It's old school laughs, stuff you probably wouldn't get away with in this overly-saturated politically correct society of today, and that alone has made the film grow even better with age, as society gets worse, the film gets better.The quintessential Christmas film, for me personally Christmas just wouldn't be the same if we didn't break out the old DVD and watch it at least once, on a personal level this actually is my favourite Christmas film, the reason being because of how realistic it is, compared to other Christmas films that rely on magic, Santa Claus and fictional fairy tales to drive the story, Christmas Vacation doesn't, it instead promotes the truth......The pure and simple truth, in a comical way.It shows that Christmas is stressful, it isn't all that great, it shows that the basis of Christmas is built on money, not on magic, that things go wrong e.g. the Christmas lights that blanket the outside of the house, they won't initially work so Clark Griswold throws a tantrum, that's Christmas, that's proper Christmas.Even for unrelated people things can go wrong e.g. the neighbours, the young fashionable couple that Clark torments something chronic with all the mishaps and accidents, e.g. the icicle that smashes straight through their window without warning.We all have family that comes out of the woodwork every Christmas, and despite being somewhat exaggerated in Christmas Vacation, it still hits the nail on the head and gets the point across..., these people will descend on you and you need the patience of a saint to get through it unscathed, but just as in this film, that very rarely happens, there's always an argument, a fuss, a disagreement, a falling out of some description. And alas somewhere out there, we all have a Cousin Eddie..., an embarrassment of a family that everyone's ashamed of, but still they come, unable to see their own flaws. It's realistic, it's a send up, it's satire at its most grotesque, and this is Christmas whether you like it or not.On another note, true to form, as with every Vacation film, there's a new actor playing the son, Rusty Griswold..., the lad portraying Rusty here is none other than Johnny Galecki, most famous for playing Leonard in the hit TV series "The Big Bang Theory"

This is a fun little holiday classic and maybe the best National Lampoons movie out of the lot. Anyway, it is about a father trying too hard to give his family the perfect Xmas experience but fails miserly at it and many full belly laughs are the result. The film is charming even if it doesn't seem as funny as it was when you were a kid. But whatever, usually Xmas comedies are a fail; Office Xmas Party, I'm looking at you. I hope Hollywood never remakes this.. but I would be surprised if they did remake it just out of spite and to grab people's goats and run them around the mud a bit. You know the score. But yeah, this is a solid family film.

I have always been a fan of the 'National Lampoon' movies ever since 1978's classic 'National Lampoon's - Animal House' with the legend that was 'John Belushi'.However, it has to be said that some of the movies are a lot better then others, but even though 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation' only ever gets a 1-Star rating in my TV magazine every year, I have to say that for me it's a guilty pleasure that I consider to be a Classic. Maybe not a classic in terms of the 'National Lampoon's' series, but certainly a classic in terms of classic Christmas movies, as for me, along with 'Home Alone ' ( which is my favourite Christmas movie), 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation' is a movie that is always part of my Christmas tradition.The movie itself has some classic comedy moments, most notably the ones involving a crazy squirrel and a makeshift sled, and you also get to see a very young 'Juliette Lewis' in a supporting role as one of the 'Griswold's' children. This is before she went on to find fame in 'Martin Scorsese' 1991 remake of 'Cape Fear', for which she was Oscar nominated for best actress in a supporting role, which in the end went to 'Jodie Foster' in 'The Silence of the Lambs', but I still feel that say miss Lewis was robbed that year.Anyway, if you want to watch a a Christmas Comedy Classic with plenty of belly laughs, then you can't go far wrong with 'National Lampoon's - Christmas Vacation'.