National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Simply A Masterpiece

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A Masterpiece!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

National Lampoon's Vacation is directed by Harold Ramis. It sees the Griswold family go on a family vacation to a water-park in California via a cross country road trip. Vacation is a fairly benign road movie. Whilst it doesn't offer anything fresh or original, what the film manages to do instead is maintain a good consistent level of humour throughout. Most of the comedy comes from Chevy Chase as the slightly naive father Clark, who gets all the best moments and punchlines.The best part of the film is the chemistry between the family. They all feel like they're genuinely part of a family. This is especially the case with Beverly D'Angelo who plays the mother Ellen, she brings a good amount of warmth and levity to the film as chaos is encompassing the family.The first half of the film is definitely the strongest part. As the film got further into it's run-time, it began to lose my attention. The film starts to drift midway through and becomes overly nonsensical. As the film entered into its final act, the slapstick humour became intolerable for me as it felt tonally inconsistent with the first half, which was somewhat over the top but still grounded in reality. In the end Vacation is a harmless comedy that has genuine moments of good humour, but gets bogged down in it's final act and becomes dull and slightly forgettable.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION is the first and undoubtedly the best of the NATIONAL LAMPOON series, a genuinely funny road movie with strong performances and first-rate direction from GHOSTBUSTERS star Harold Ramis. The plot adopts a simple journey narrative and one which would be repeated for the sequel European VACATION; the long-suffering Griswold family go from place to place, wreaking havoc all the while.There's a strong mixture of different types of humour here, from end-of-their-tether character laughs to slapstick gags and plenty of wisecracks and innuendo. Much of the humour is witty and it also has a fairly dark edge that makes it stand out from the usual John Hughes-scripted family fare, particularly the bits with Randy Quaid, the dog, and the aunt. The movie belongs to Chevy Chase, who is very entertaining in the lead role, but there are a handful of supporting performers who don't disappoint either. Beverly D'Angelo, in a MUCH racier role than she played in the sequels, sparks off Chase very well, and there's a late-stage cameo from John Candy which continues to delight. In fact, there's very little to dislike overall about this popular '80s comedy.

I recently watched this movie again after not having seen it for some twenty-odd years and I was somewhat disappointed. It wasn't as good as I had remembered it being. It wasn't bad, just not that great. Like many people, I first saw it back in the 80's when it first came out. I was in my early teens then and thought it was decent. Now in my forties, I have a much better appreciation for it when I watch it because I have two children of my own and I see much (perhaps a little too much) of myself in the Clark W. Griswold character. I laughed out loud several times at Chevy Chase's portrayal of Clark being "such a dad." I don't know whether or not he had children of his own prior to making this movie, but he really nailed the "typical dad" character. Also, Beverly D'Angelo is the perfect combination of sexy and motherly in her role, and Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron are also terrific in their roles. Randy Quaid, back in his more stable days, gives a rather sane performance as the inimitable Cousin Eddie. There are many outstanding supporting performances in this movie. Having written that, however, I must state that the movie plays out as episodic, like one childhood memory after another strung together. Also, the movie is often silly; it contains elements that would have better left as ideas. For instance, it doesn't really make sense that Clark's old car would be driven straight from him trading it in to being compacted within minutes. It makes for a fairly funny sight gag, but doesn't come across as something that would actually happen. When it comes to ratings, the movie really deserves no more than six out of ten; however, there are so many funny moments and Chevy Chase is so good as Clark, I bump up my rating to seven out of ten.

Cornball family man Clark Griswold (Chase) takes his family on a road-trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, and they run into plenty of bumps and detours along the way. Sets expectations for being a standard goofy comedy typical of its type, and then suddenly amps the crudeness at all the right spots. Cousin Eddie (Quaid) is underused, but we thankfully see much more of him in Christmas VACATION; however, here, we still get other fun supporting characters like Aunt Edna (Coca) who add just the right amount of zest to make this an outstanding full of great lines, fun locations and non-stop laughs. The Lindsey Buckingham soundtrack is both nostalgic and timeless. Followed by European VACATION.***½ (out of four)