National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
by Robbo
Posted on 15 December 2021
Rating -
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film, the third instalment in National Lampoon magazine’s Vacation film series.
The screenplay was written by John Hughes based on a short story he had written for National Lampoon magazine. The film was initially offered to Chris Columbus to direct but he pulled out due to creative differences with Chevy Chase, so Jeremiah S. Chechik was brought in and Chris Columbus moved onto Home Alone.
Clark Griswold (Chase) wants to have the perfect Christmas with his entire family. When both his parents and in-laws arrive their bickering annoys everyone. Despite this Clark tries to maintain a positive attitude, determined to have a ‘fun old-fashioned family’ Christmas.
When Ellen’s (D’Angelo) cousin Catherine (Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Quaid) unexpectedly turn up in an RV along with their children, Clark offers to buy present for the kids as Eddie admits he is broke and they are now living in the RV as they had to sell their house.
Clark is worried about his company bonus as he needs it to cover a down payment he has made to build a swimming pool. When his bonus is delivered late Christmas Eve by the company courier, instead of the presumed bonus, the envelope contains a free year’s membership for the “Jelly of the Month Club”.
This prompts Clark to have a met down and out of anger wishes that he had his boss, Frank Shirley (Doyle-Murray) delivered to the house, wrapped in a bow. Eddie takes this literally and kidnaps Frank and delivers him to the Griswold house, closely followed by the Police.
Frank admits that he has cut Christmas bonuses as a cost cutting measure but now he has seen how it effects the ‘little people’ he relents and agrees to pay Clark 20% more than he got last year.
All this is along with Clark’s battle to install 25,000 Christmas lights, a supersonic saucer sled and several run-ins with his yuppie neighbours.
The film contains end-to-end slapstick and sight gags, some of which make you laugh out loud with many of the funniest moments involving Cousin Eddie. It does occasionally descend into over-sentimentality, which is common with John Hughes films, but this doesn’t detract too much from the comedy.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a little bit hit and miss but is overall a pretty good film and has become a firm Christmas classic.
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